I’ve been thinking about this for a while now.

Richard Stallman has been practically synonymous with Free Software since its inception. And there are good reasons why. It was his idea, and it was his passion that made the movement what it is today.

I deeply believe in the mission of the Free Software movement. But more and more, it seems that in order to survive, the Free Software movement may need to distance itself from him.

Richard Stallman has said some really disturbingly reprehensible things on multiple occasions (one and two). (He has said he’s changed these opinions, but it seems to me the damage is done.)

He’s asked that people blame him and not the FSF for these statements, but it seems naive to me to expect that to be enough not to tarnish the FSF’s reputation in the eyes of most people.

And Richard Stallman isn’t the only problematic figure associated with the Free Software movement… Eben Moglen (founder, Direct-Council, and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center which is closely associated with the FSF) has been accused of much abusive and anti-LGBTQIA+ behavior over which the Free Software Foundation Europe and Software Freedom Concervancy have cut ties with the SFLC and Moglen (one and two).

Even aside from the public image problems, it seems like the FSF and SFLC have been holding back the Free Software movement strategically. Eben Moglan has long been adamant that the GPL shouldn’t be interpreted as a contract – only as a copyright license. What the SFC is doing now with the Visio lawsuit is only possible because the SFC had the courage to abandon that theory.

I sense there’s a rift in the Free Software movement. Especially given that the SFC and FSF Europe explicitly cutting ties with the SFLC and Moglen. And individual supporters of Free Software are going to have to decide which parties in this split are going to speak for and champion the cause of the community as a whole.

I imagine it’s pretty clear by this point that I favor the SFC in this split. I like what I’ve seen from the SFC in general. Not just the Visio lawsuit. But also the things I’ve heard said by SFC folks.

If the Free Software movement needs a single personality to be its face moving forward, I’d love for that face to be Bradley M. Kuhn, executive director of the SFC. He seems to have all of Stallman’s and Moglen’s assets (passion, dedication, an unwillingness to bend, and experience and knowledge of the legal aspects of Free Software enforcement) perhaps even more so than Stallman and Moglen do. And Kuhn excels in all the areas where Stallman and Moglen perhaps don’t so much (social consciousness, likeability, strategy.) I can’t say enough good things about Kuhn, really. (And his Wikipedia page doesn’t even have a “controversies” section.) (Also, please tell me there aren’t any skeletons in his closet.)

Even if the community does come to a consensus that the movement should distance itself from Stallman and Moglen, it’ll be difficult to achieve such a change in public perception and if it’s achieved, it may come at a cost. After all, Stallman is the first person everybody pictures when the FSF is mentioned. And acknowledging the problems with the Free Software movement’s “old brass” may damage the reputation of Free Software as a whole among those who might not differentiate between the parties in this split. But I feel it may be necessary for the future of the Free Software movement.

That’s my take, anyway. I’ll hop down off of my soap box, now. But I wanted to bring this up, hopefully let some folks whose ideals align with those of the Free Software movement about all this if they weren’t already aware, and maybe see what folks in general think about the future of the Free Software movement.

  • Possibly linuxMEnglish
    3•11 months ago

    I think the fsf needs to focus on outreach. Right now its run by grey beards.

    Also I think the RYF certification is silly. It glosses over the issue of microcode at the expense of security which ultimately affects privacy. I think the better option would be to create a freedom scale for hardware to help consumers make purchasing choices. Also promoting old devices that have terrible battery life and ergonomics is not a great way to build popularity. It would be smarter to focus on arm and risc-v as many of those chips are compatible with free software in some way while being highly efficient and portable.

    Anyway sorry for the brain dump.

    Note: this is purely my option is unassociated with moderation.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•11 months ago

      You make some good points.

      I agree, we should really be focusing on ARM, and especially RISC-V. If these platforms become the mainstream for computers (they already are for phones but they have a whole load of other freedom issues that need ironed out) and we have first-class support for the hardware, that gives us a leg up on the proprietary megacorporations, which is rare. It would be very beneficial.

      And of course RISC-V doesn’t have a Management Engine equivalent which is very nice for security and privacy.

    • @FreesoftwareenjoyerEnglish
      1•11 months ago

      It glosses over the issue of microcode at the expense of security which ultimately affects privacy.

      I’m pretty sure the FSF doesn’t say that you shouldn’t be allowed to update/changed the firmware. They just say it shouldn’t be a part of the operating system. The OS needs to be entirely libre with no compromises.

      It would be smarter to focus on arm and risc-v as many of those chips are compatible with free software in some way while being highly efficient and portable.

      Most devices with those chips require a custom kernel and most likely proprietary firmware (at least for WiFi and Bluetooth). I don’t think you can install an official Debian build from debian.org on a Raspberry PI for example (on RPI 4 you could by using some custom BIOS, but I’m not sure if everything will work then - https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi4). Almost nobody talks about this, though. I have a PinePhone and it runs a custom kernel maintained by the community and its future is uncertain (https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2023/09/30/paperweight-dilemma/). In PinePhone Pro at lot of the patches to the Linux kernel have been upstreamed, but some things are still missing. Librem 5 developers tried to get a RYF certificate, but I’m not sure what happened there. So those kinds of devices can’t save us right now.