Richard Stallman

Richard M. Stallman , otherwise known as RMS, St. IGNUcius,Saint IGNUcius Richard Stallman's personal site. 15 August 2000 and the Chief GNUisance,GNU's Webmasters GNU Project - Free Software Foundation 6 July 2021 is the founder of the free software movement, founder of the Free Software Foundation ('FSF'), co-creator of the Emacs text editor, and creator of the GNU operating system, including the 'copyleft' GNU licenses and the GNU C compiler. The first Linux distributions, including most of today's most used distributions, are partially GNU operating systems. Some Linux distributions today forgo most or all GNU software, and use alternative core utilities written by Rob Landley, among others.
Stallman is most known for his 'free software' activism and dogmatism. Stallman advocates the total removal of all proprietary software 'blobs' from consumer computing devices, for the purpose of user privacy, security, and freedom. He's also engineered software licenses which attempts to force software developers to keep their software open-source, ie auditable by the public. This philosophy successfully inspired a growth in programmers and large software projects who release their source code to the public. Stallman has a very devoted fanbase, which often clashes with the more watered down 'open-source software movement'. This watered down movement is more friendly to corporate interests for personal financial reasonshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT__Nrr3PNI and more friendly to small amounts of closed-source software for the purpose of user convenience.
Stallman's GNU software has been criticized as bloated. As of 2022, simple GNU core utilities are hundreds of lines longer than popular alternatives contained in, for example, many Android OSs. Stallman has in the past put forth a number of crank opinions. For example, that what he called "voluntary pedophilia" is not harmful to children.http://techrights.org/2021/04/24/rms-false-accusations/ Stallman also has claimed that a 17 year old having sex with a 73 year old does not always constitute sexual assault, because Stallman thought 17 year olds could consent to sex with adults. His latter comments were in reference to AI professor Marvin Minsky's alleged participation in Jeffrey Epstein's sex ring.https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/09/18/mit-richard-stallman-resigns-epstein/ Stallman is an outspoken individual, his views often shifting from the rational territory into the Moonbat territory.
==Current activities==
Stallman has scaled back his coding activitiesStallman on handing over GNU Emacs, its future and the importance of nomenclature Network World 25 February 2008 and concentrated more on his career as a prophet, traveling into all the world to preach the Gospel of Free Software to every creature. He that believeth and says "GNU/Linux" shall be saved;What's in a Name? GNU Project - Free Software Foundation but he that believeth not shall be shunned.Stallman wants to meet us, if we are TC*G*LUG Twin Cities Linux Users Group 3 October 2008 He's also a saint in the Church of Emacs, which requires that one say this confession of faith thrice: "There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
==Stallman and the politics of free software==
Stallman started the free ("As In Speech, Not Beer") software movement as part of a broader political movement of freedom for computer users. He emphasizes the moral superiority of free software rather than the technical superiority; while the parallel open source movement started by Eric S. Raymond stresses that free software has low cost, better quality, and high flexibility, Stallman emphasizes that free software allows the user of a computer to be in complete control of that computer and know what is going on "under the hood."Can You Trust Your Computer? GNU Project - Free Software Foundation However, although freedom is the main focus of the free software movement, the Free Software Foundation has published an article pointing out how free software can be more reliable.Free Software is More Reliable! GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
Stallman believes that any software that does not offer this freedom is morally inferior. Furthermore, he does not believe that any proprietary software offers this freedom, since governments and large corporations have designs on this freedom of users: "Proprietary software such as MS Windows and the Macintosh system is distributed in a scheme to keep the users divided and helpless."Richard Stallman: Free Software and Sustainable Development iNSnet 19 March 2005 (archived from the original on 13 January 2014) Examples of this that Stallman cites are:
*DRM (Digital Rights Management, or as he calls it, Digital Restrictions Management), the process of restricting digital media so it can only be viewed or played in certain ways. Stallman wrote a short story on this subject, The Right to Read.The Right to Read GNU Project - Free Software Foundation When it was first published it was widely ridiculed as insane, but today we have digital books that are locked away by the publisher; if the latter goes bankrupt, chances are you won't be able to access "your" books
*The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and its provisions against tools for violating copyright, such as the one that led to the arrest of the programmer Dmitry Sklyarov.
*Making software and drivers available only for certain platforms and refusing documentation to writers of free and open source drivers.
*Updates to Windows Vista that the user cannot deactivate.
*Storing files in proprietary formats that only proprietary software can read.
==Four Freedoms==
Stallman believes that there are four things that a user needs to be free to do with a computer program before it can be called "free." These are called the "Four Freedoms"What is Free Software? GNU Project - Free Software Foundation:
*The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
*The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
*The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
*The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
You'll notice that the four freedoms only come up to three. This is because Stallman subscribes to the Programmer's Pedantry: insisting on using integer numbers as ordinals instead of natural numbers, such that counting begins at 0. So first becomes zeroth, second becomes first, and so on.
Free software can be sold for profit, but it must respect the Four Freedoms once bought.
Selling Free Software GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
==Stallman and (GNU/)Linux==
In 1983, Stallman started the GNU project, which aimed to write a free software operating system to be called "GNU," short for "GNU's Not Unix."
Over the next eight years, most of GNU was finished; it was generally programmed on the traditional "cathedral" model, meaning that while everyone was free to view and modify the system's code, only a small group of programmers were permitted to work on the "official" version.
The kernel of the GNU system, HURD,Also a mutually recursive acronym: HURD is short for "HIRD of Unix-Replacing Daemons," while HIRD is short for "HURD of Interfaces Representing Depth." was also being developed this way, but its development was going along very slowly.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds wrote the first draft of the Linux kernel and offered it and its source code for study, at first under a license prohibiting commercial use, but then eventually as free software under version 2 of the GNU GPL (as of 2024, it is still under that version, though some GNU software that is still in reasonably common use, and some other GPLed pieces of software now use version 3, released in 2007). Programmers who had previously been diverted towards the HURD project pitched in to help adapt the GNU software to work with the new functional kernel, and some GNU software became part of the 'Linux' free software operating system.
The whole operating system has become known as Linux. Stallman was sore about this: not only did that deprive the GNU project of any credit for those parts of it which are used in a working operating system,FAQ - Why do you call the system we use GNU/Linux and not Linux? GNU Project - Free Software Foundation but people were promoting Linux without promoting the ideals of free software, oh noes.FAQ - Why is the name important? GNU Project - Free Software FoundationWhat's in a Name? GNU Project - Free Software Foundation He advocates for the use of the term "GNU/Linux," pronounced "GNU slash Linux,""GNU+Linux," pronounced "GNU plus Linux" is also acceptable, if you feel saying "slash" makes you sound like an idiot. in cases where the Linux kernel is used as the core of the 'GNU operating system', which Stallman considers to be any operating system which may use a kernel with no link to GNU, system utilities that are in part derived from GNU projects but which could easily be replaced with more liberally licensed software, regardless of whether the software which runs on top of or in conjunction with any GNU software has any connection with GNU at all.
==Appearance rider==
Stallman is in very high demand as a speaker and doesn't charge a lot. And is, in his own words, "borderline autistic." So his riderRichard Stallman speaker visit mySociety 20 October 2011 is a remarkable document. (Though Eric S. Raymond fully empathises with it.On not being destroyed by travel Armed and Dangerous 27 October 2011) One wonders at the oddly specific paragraph about gifts of parrots.Extreme Pornography Law in the UK Richard Stallman's personal site. 19 February 2010parrot-love.jpg Richard Stallman's personal site..
==Security==
Stallman has spent a great deal of thought on how not to expose his personal data to others. For example, he uses wget with his e-mail to read off the web instead of actively browsing it.
He also uses a Thinkpad T400s as his PC that runs with completely free software, as well as flashing How I do my computing Richard Stallman's personal site. 
Stallman sleeps with a under his pillow.Open Source xkcd Well, sort of.Life Imitates xkcd, Part II: Richard Stallman xkcd - The blag of the webcomic 19 April 2007
==Crank==
Stallman proves that even though one may have some good ideas on software, it doesn't automatically make one right about everything else.
===9/11 conspiracy theories===
For a time, Stallman neither rejected nor accepted 9/11 conspiracy theories.Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2009: January - April Richard Stallman's personal site. 7 April 2009New 911 Investigation Richard Stallman's personal site. September 2012
Along these lines, he expressed the view that one way US civilians can get even for 9/11 is to legalize gay marriage, since both the Muslim fanatics in Al-Qaeda and the Christian fanatics in the Bush administration hate gays.Richard Stallman's Personal Home Page Richard Stallman's personal site. (archived from the original on 29 November 2005) This bit is less crankery and more applying engineering skills.
===Views on bestiality===
Stallman believes that Bestiality is acceptable, as long as the animal 'consents'.Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2015: November - February Richard Stallman's personal site. 14 February 2016
Stallan once had sex with a parrot. But it was not PIV sexual intercourse, because it was a parrot. The context was he was not expecting the parrot to have sex with him, but the parrot did so anyway by rubbing its belly against him. Stallman reported he found this so pleasurable, he would like this to happen again to him.https://stallman.org/articles/extreme.html Stallman has in the past stated he does not support the rights of animals,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG4HrOpzQXY so we can assume his view of zoophilia does not involve morality, but likely rather his own personal pleasure.
===Views on pedophilia===
Stallman has stated on several occasions that he does not believe pedophilia harms childrenRichard Stallman's personal political notes from 2006: March - June Richard Stallman's personal site. 5 June 2006Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2012: November - February Richard Stallman's personal site. 4 January 2013 and he does not believe that child pornography should be illegal.Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2003: May - August Richard Stallman's personal site. 28 June 2003
However, he has since walked back these views,Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2019: July - October Richard Stallman's personal site. 14 September 2019 although notably only after they were republished on various social media websites. Due to criticism for his views, he resigned from his position at the FSF, but was later reinstated.
==Criticism==
===Alleged misogyny===
In 2009, when at the Gran Canaria Desktop summit, Stallman made (what some view as) a casually sexist joke about the text editor EMACS,Stallman created this text editor insinuating that if a woman had never used EMACS, it was his duty to "relieve them of their EMACS virginity".A Good GCDS Beginning (with a significant disappointment) Open Source to Go! 4 July 2009 When criticism arose over this joke, Stallman eventually wrote a non-apologyFor avoidance of misunderstandings GNOME Mailing List 14 November 2009 to the GNOME mailing list, where he called it a harmless joke and that he had been doing the joke and associated routine for years.
===Alleged sexualization of workplace activities===
Stallman faced criticism for referring to his business cards as "pleasure cards", and they notably include a list of Stallman's personal interests. While he hands them out to people of any gender, his critics argue there is a certain amount of unintentional and/or unwanted sexual advances in listing your personal interests on a business card. Supporters claim that this is yet another example of his unorthodox sense of language and a play on the phrase "it's a pleasure doing business", but it seems to be an error on Stallman's account for not recognizing the implications of that word in the mainstream context. A scan of one of these cards can be found in the book "Free as in Freedom".Free as in Freedom: Chapter 14 O'Reilly Open Books Project March 2002
Allegedly (although mostly from anecdotal reference), Stallman's behavior eventually got so severe at MIT that every female CSAIL professor bought plants to keep him out of their office (referencing an inside joke that Stallman hates plants).I remember being walked around campus by an upperclassman getting advice during my freshman year at MIT. "Look at all the plants in her office," referring to a professor. "All the women CSAIL professors keep massive amounts of foliage" s/he said. "Stallman really hates plants." by Star Simpson (10:26 AM - 9 May 2018) Twitter (archived from April 19, 2022).
===Resignation from the FSF===
====The leadup====
For the longest time, Stallman was the leader of both the GNU Foundation and the Free Software Foundation. The story Stallman typically tells (and the one repeated by his fans) is that he resigned from Computer Science AI Lab (CSAIL) at MIT to start the Free Software Foundation, after hacker culture at MIT started to fragment due to proprietary software interfering with their ability to do research. There is truth to this story, but what is often left out is that while Stallman did on paper leave MIT, the truth of the matter is that after he left, Marvin Minsky, the co-founder of the MIT CSAIL lab and a friend of Stallman offered him an office at CSAIL very quickly afterwards.
As a part of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile ring, in September 2016 Marvin Minsky's name popped up in the investigations as one of the men that Epstein instructed Virginia Giuffre to have sex with. As Minsky had passed away earlier that year, no charges were brought against him over this. Later during these investigations, it also became apparent that MIT had been receiving donations from Epstein and as a part of this, the director of MIT, Joi Ito, resigned.
====Shit hits the fan====
As this information became apparent, a protest was eventually organized against the dubious funding practices of MIT and an announcement was sent to the internal mailing list of CSAIL, to which Stallman subscribed. Stallman however has a habit of defining language in very specific ways that often don't match up with the way most people define language. One of these cases became apparent on the mailing list, where Stallman ended up taking issue with the fact that the announcement used the word assault to describe the actions alleged against Minsky. The problem is that Stallman defines assault as exclusively being physically violent, which resulted in a back and forth between Stallman and CSAIL members, which started with the following section:
Eventually, discussions between Stallman and the rest of the CSAIL mailing list would end up getting forwarded to another student at MIT, who published the story on Medium. The story started getting minor traction, until VICE ran an article on it.Famed Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Described Epstein Victims As 'Entirely Willing' VICE 13 September 2019 The article, whilst mostly accurate would remove the second sentence from the emphasized paragraph, which ended up making Stallman look like he was defending Epstein. This resulted in the story blowing up and most news outlets, rather than verifying the original emails (which VICE had attached to their articleProtest against MIT involvement with Epstein (The original emails, hosted on DocumentCloud) 12 September 2019) simply ended up copying VICEs shortening of the headline.
While there are plenty of issues with Stallman's behavior, including later down the mailing list where he makes some appalling comments about how it is morally absurd to use age of consent and the country where something took place to define whether something is rape or not, Stallman never defends Epstein's actions. What is concerning however is the fact that Stallman did defend Minsky's actions and the overall exchange was a reiteration of Stallman's earlier established views on pedophilia.
Due to the VICE article, several members of the Free Software Foundation removed their memberships, eventually causing Stallman to willingly resign from the FSF,Richard M. Stallman resigns Free Software Foundation 16 September 2019 but not from the GNU FoundationGNU Project GNU Mail Archives 26 September 2019. In response to this, several project maintainers at the GNU Foundation signed a joint statementJoint statement on the GNU Project Blog - GNU Guix 7 October 2019 asking for him to step down.
====Reappointment====
At the LibrePlanet 2021 event in March 2021, Stallman announced that he would be returning to the FSF board, having been voted back in as a member by the existing board.Richard Stallman returns to FSF 18 months after controversial rape comments Ars Technica 22 March 2021 This reappointment was met with large amounts of protests from some free software advocates.Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF board Ars Technica 23 March 2021
This resulted in the creation of an open letter accusing Stallman of being "misogynistic, ableist and transphobic" and calling for not only his resignation but also the resignation of the entire FSF board, which amassed a total of 3,000 signatures,An open letter to remove Richard M. Stallman from all leadership positions rms-open-letter.github.io 27 March 2021 and contributed by both individuals and major free software organizations, including the GNOME Foundation,The organization in charge of the GNOME desktop environment Mozilla,The developers of Firefox OBS Project,The developers of a popular livestreaming tool The Tor Project,The developers of the Tor browser and the onion router the Linux distro SUSE, and the X.org foundation.The developers of the most commonly used display server on Linux Other organizations didn't sign the letter but released statements of their own include the diversity free software internship program Outreachy, which barred the FSF from participating in its programs,Outreachy bars FSF from participation in its program Outreachy 23 March 2021 the IBM subsidiary Red Hat (responsible for creating the enterprise distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) which pulled its funding from the FSF.Red Hat statement about Richard Stallman’s return to the Free Software Foundation board Red Hat blog 25 March 2021
In response, a letter in support of Stallman was created. Although it was signed only by individuals and not by any free software organizations, it quickly surpassed the original letter with more than 6,700 signatures.An open letter in support of Richard M. Stallman rms-support-letter.github.io 23 March 2021 Supporters of Stallman argued that the criticisms of the open letter were misinterpreted and out of context, and that it was backed by opponents of the free software movement.Defend Richard Stallman! Libreboot 31 March 2021
The FSF responded with the statement that nobody involved with LibrePlanet was made aware of Stallman's return to the organization until he announced it on stream.No LibrePlanet organizers (staff or volunteer), speakers, award winners, exhibitors, or sponsors were made aware of Richard Stallman's announcement until it was public. by Free Software Foundation (9:37 AM - 23 Mar 2021) Twitter (archived from March 16, 2022). This statement drew criticism from several major free software community members, who noted that the likely reason it didn't inform anyone was because of the expectations of backlash.
Furthermore, similarly to the events that led to Stallman's initial resignation, a large wave of FSF members resigned in protest after his reappointment, including several board members. In response, the FSF claimed that it would be revising its appointment process for new board membersPreliminary board statement on FSF governance Free Software Foundation 25 March 2021 with the intent of putting its existing board members through the process as soon as possible.
On April 12, the FSF confirmed its reappointment of Richard Stallman,Statement of FSF board on election of Richard Stallman Free Software Foundation 12 April 2021 and Stallman wrote an apology.RMS addresses the free software community Free Software Foundation 12 April 2021
==See also==
*Free Software
*GNU Free Documentation License
==External links==
*Stallman's Home page
*Our GNU/Lord and GNU/Savior is 100% sexy!
*GNU's Website
*Free Software Foundation
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Atheists
Category:Computer scientists
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Living people
Category:Paedophilia
Category:Sexists
Category:Technology