Richard Stallman

You can follow him on https://stallman.org/ What is he doing? I believe still giving talks and taking stance on current day political issues. Additionally I believe the last few years where quite turbulent so I assume he is taking life at his own pace.

Yes, when you scope a movement to just the thing it's about, you'll get a greater intersection of people who can agree on those ideals (i.e. actual intersectionality). If you check https://stallman.org/ you'll see that he's very opinionated on politics, probably moreso than almost all people (he has multiple things he writes about across the world every single day going back decades and maintains a list of assorted topics that mostly have nothing to do with software where he thinks we should change the law[0]. He's encouraged many boycotts over the years, and goes way further than most people to stick to them), but he wisely kept that movement focused on the thing it was supposed to be about, and in doing so was able to actually accomplish something. [0] https://stallman.org/there-ought-to-be-a-law.html

I had emailed stallman about this. My email: Greetings Dr. Stallman, First of all, Happy 40th GNUversary! I was not able to attend the GNU40 meeting in Switzerland, but I have heard rumours that you have announced that you have some form of cancer. Can you give me some more information about this? And is the cancer manageable? I hope you are around for many more years. --- tusharhero Stallman's reply: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] I'm glad you are concerned about my well being. At the same time, I am disappointed that people are spreading incomplete rumors, instead of passing along all of what I said about this. That is going to waste a lot of people's time and concern, just as it has done with you. My prognosis is good. I can expect to live many more years. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

Again, what does "cancel culture" mean? Can you define it in a way which isn't politically biased against left-leaning viewpoints from the get-go? Obama's caution about a "‘circular firing squad’, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues" seems little different than "Life of Brian's" caution about doctrinaire differences in opposing the Romans - certainly not some caution about a new sort of cancel culture! And how much might come from Obama wanting to deflect criticism about his support for using US military power - just how many drone strikes did he order? - or handling of the Central American refugee crisis at the southern border? Do you think Chomsky is correct about everything? I don't agree with him about the creator of 'email' either. I certainly disagree with many of his co-signers. Changing "blacklist" or "master" is not worthwhile to debate. The effort is simple, the benefits small (but non-zero), so do it ... and realize that it's a weak-sauce paper-thin covering over much harder and more intractable problems. It's a "recycle your paper cups while companies kill rivers" sort of issue. Concerning 'Philosophy professors', if someone makes a philosophical argument that there are only males and females, and nothing else - clearly contrary to scientific evidence and cultural experience - then why don't they deserve censure the same way they would for making the philosophical argument that the Earth is flat?…

Richard Stallman has been way undervalued, as a whole, in the last couple of decades. He has predicted this and other similar situations and worked his entire career to try to prevent the "tyranny of software companies", or however he phrases it. If you don't know who he is, or haven't read up on him recently, please check him out. He gave a talk at my college back in 2007/2008 that I went to, talking about quants and investment algorithms, and how they had directly contributed to the economic collapse. He made the point that, because all of the algorithms were closed source and not open to public review, they were dependent on the market understanding of the individuals who wrote the algorithms. Given the nature of humanity, many of those individuals likely had faulty or incomplete understanding of the markets, and therefore the algorithms also misunderstood the markets. Free (open sourced) code could have prevented that. Well, i'm not sure I agree with his conclusions about that. I asked him about his thoughts on the recursive effect the algorithms would have on the market (the algorithms were so prevalent that they basically were the market makers, thus changing the market itself to reflect their faulty assumptions about the market before their existence). He said it was an excellent question, didn't have an answer, and offered me an internship to work on that problem under his direction. I declined for various reasons. anyways, he was correct about a lot of…

Huh. I mean, if you're gonna go that far to Make A Point with gender-neutral pronouns, might as well go the Stallman route with per/pers: https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html (I'm not necessarily endorsing his screed here... but it is one of my "favorite" bits of Stallmanism. His first entry in the "subsequent notes" section makes me laugh every time.) edit: oh, this user actually has a similar piece on xe/xem pronouns on his website! excellent. this pleases me greatly (no sarcasm).

Richard Stallman's site? Very OG. https://stallman.org/ Although I see someone has put a 1.5MB image at the top, whose intrinsic size is 2000 × 2588 px, but which was downsized to 320 × 400 px. That's not prioritizing function.

He has written some very questionable things about pedophilia (from which he has since distanced himself): https://stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20(Du… To be clear: this does not diminish his contributions in the field of software! His ideas about Free Software have been visionary and are as important as ever. One can be brilliant in one field and a fool in another. This is actually very common among technical people ("engineer's disease"). We cannot expect someone to be right 100% of the time.

I hadn't heard of anything he had said on the subject before your comment, so I did a quick search. I don't know if the following is about but one of many problematic views on the subject, or if after this change of mind his views on sex are all fine, but worth knowing that at least on one issue his opinion has improved: > "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it. > "Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why." https://www.stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_… (I do agree with your comment overall, anyway.)

I can understand Defending bad people. He is railing against freedom of injustice. I understand being abusive. He is feeling hopeless. I haven’t seen Harassment so I don’t know what to make of it. He seems to walk the path of purity of ideas. And may come off as aggressive. As a by product, he may also be aloof from the career ladder. His trust in being nice to people is broken (autism?). He has some good civil rights stuff https://www.stallman.org/

Most of these sites predate viewport tags. http://stallman.org/ is another one. Though that's more likely because your mobile device is full of non-free badware or something so why encourage it.

I do not remember when I read that I was Richard Stallman's favorite book. Then I read it, and I love it. I tried to find the citation online, but I found that Richard Stallman does not have a favorite book (https://stallman.org/rms-lifestyle.html); anyway, it is a good book with good ideas to think about.

Just in case people don't want to follow the threads, here's Stallman on statutory rape in 2006: https://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%2… (He himself recanted the statement years later but he had to be convinced by victims that victimization is a problem.)

I thought he already had a laptop. EDIT: https://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html "As of 2022 I use a Thinkpad x200 computer..." (followed by detailed explanation)

For Linus, I suggest looking for some forum posts for "what if Linus gets hit by a bus?" questions. And for RMS, he states on his website[1] that working on GNU would be his long-term committment. [1]: https://stallman.org/

Richard Stallman[1] should be appointed honorary president [1] https://stallman.org/

https://stallman.org/archives/polnotes.html and HN and youtube recommendations (two pages - one when I am logged in and when I am not logged in) is my whole picture of world.

I linked in the sib comment. here it is again: https://stallman.org/facebook-presence.html Keep in mind, since then FB has disabled the tor for mobile link that Stallman recommended.

What a sorry, shameful saga. I found this story linked to on rms' home page: > Our next rally for Julian Assange is Saturday, March 4 at 11:30 to 12:30pm. We will gather at Park St. Station on the Boston Common to speak out for Assange and gather signatures on our petition to our senators. (See how the media failed Julian Assange at Harper's Magazine.) https://stallman.org/

As much as I dislike Stallman's non-tech opinions and actions, I think his proprietary social media handling policy is probably the best: https://stallman.org/facebook-presence.html Assuming you must use proprietary solutions to reach your people, RMS's solution is to use the other platforms to convert to your open platform. Maybe that won't work for everyone, but at least it allows usage of cockroach motel systems to your open one.

I actually somehow knew that singular they is not exactly new, but not to this level of details. But that only makes the argument more interesting: something that was normal was lost, and is now somehow coming back in some form… with push backs like "it breaks the English grammar" , where English actually already worked like this before (for the exact same use or not). Push backs I saw here on HN, or on RMS's website [1]. Regardless the new use, the grammar construct was actually there all along. I love both your and the parent answers by the way, thanks! [1] https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html

Can't forget https://stallman.org/ if we're talking about the 90s

I love Richard Stallman's sense of humor. It feels so youthful and innocent. Also relevant: https://www.stallman.org/jokes.html

>>> And while I find some of his points too radical to implement practically in my own situation, I believe it's very important that we have someone like him in the tech world. As a result, whenever there is a RMS talk, I listen to it. And each time I gain new and valuable perspectives about free software that help guide future decisions. Most people would probably find his views and recommendations as too extreme to be practical, but he really does practice what he preaches in terms of only using free software for his own computing: https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

When I was reading the comments, I remembered that all this s#it was already predicted by one man that people love to hate: https://stallman.org/microsoft.html

> Where is Richard Stallman when you need him? He was canceled, but he still regularly updates his personal website: https://stallman.org/

RMS' entire post about gender pronouns is weird [1] > There are those who claim that we have an obligation to refer to someone using whatever pronouns person might choose. I disagree with that position, on grounds of principle and grounds of practice. I think we should respect other people's gender identification, but which pronouns we use for any particular gender identification is a separate matter — a matter of grammar. We do not owe it to anyone to change our grammar according to per wishes. That's four lines after, saying we should all switch to his personal favourite pronouns: > Use the elegant gender-neutral pronouns "person", "per" and "pers". I'd be interested to her when RSM would not use someone's preferred pronoun and instead call them a 'perse'? 1: https://www.stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html

I'd feel better if the mob cited his lifetime of shittiness, rather than focusing on exactly one incident. My favorite was when he gloated over Steve Jobs' death the day after he died: http://stallman.org/archives/2011-jul-oct.html#06_October_2011_%28Stev…

Stallman recommends the singular gender-neutral pronouns "person/per/pers" [1]. [1] https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html

> What makes you think that? Do you have any evidence to support that or is just a gut feeling or something? https://www.stallman.org/ shows his activism against all kinds of human rights violations