His comments about women are inexcusable, but the fact he convinced Linus to adopt GPL is paying dividends to billions of people globally, and most of us don’t know it.
What comments about women?
Ugh. God damn. 🤢
Somehow I’m not surprised. He seems pretty eccentric. In a socially awkward way that makes you uncomfortable.
He seems to have no filter whatsoever. His comments are inexcusable but he seemed to set himself up to broadcast every single thought that ever goes through his head to the entire world. I suspect there would be some clangers in there if I - or anyone else - spewed all of their halfbaked thoughts out all the time like that.
Personally I’m never going to meet the guy and my opinion of him doesn’t particularly matter. That provides an opportunity to pick out the bits of his thoughts that I find interesting and leave out the bits that are crass. Appreciate not everyone has that luxury though, especially if they have been personally affected by one of the issues he’s crashed into like a bull in a china shop.
Smart guy. Not a good person. Don’t idolize people
Honestly it comes across to me not as him defending rapists, but actually just genuinely not understanding how rape works. The guy somehow understands people less than I do, and that’s saying something.
We’re talking about the creator of Emacs. Do you think that guy leaves his house.
That was my neighbor’s defense, too. “It wasn’t rape! She was very clearly coming onto me!” about the 14-year old girl he “”“encountered”“” as a college student.
He very absolutely understands what rape is. He just doesn’t want age to be a factor if she’s “into it”. It’s very very very very very clear where he stands: if she consents, it’s not rape, no matter her age!
Nobody is even accusing him of rape. Why treat him like a rapist when nobody has suggested the possibility that he had done anything wrong besides stick his foot in his mouth? It seems obvious to me that the point he was poorly attempting to make was that he’s uncomfortable with the inconsistencies around age of consent in different countries, not that there should be no such thing. 17 is enough to be a consenting adult in some actual reasonable countries.
No one is accusing him of rape. Just saying his view on the whole thing is sketch as fuck.
17 is enough to be a consenting adult in some actual reasonable countries.
…okay.
What, do you think someone’s 18th birthday suddenly magically transforms them from a child to an adult overnight? The line has to be somewhere, and I’m perfectly happy with it being 18, but other countries having a slightly different line doesn’t make them all rapists.
I wish people would read the published mail thread and not the news articles…he never defended rapists. His quote was quite different. Also, the victim, insofar as her interaction with his old boss, confirmed what happened.
An actual good take.
Thank you.
sad to see that he thinks like that about rape and the whole Epstein thing :(
Net positive to the world by a lot.
His fight for software freedom was essential for shaping technology in the last couple of decades. Basically any software today is based on open source directly or indirectly.
Don’t listen to him about child psychology though
You have to separate:
- Stallman the person
- Stallman the programmer
- Stallman the philosopher
I just woke up, so I started wondering who is Stallman the photographer?
The first two are already quite ghastly. The final one just solidifies my opinion.
What’s your opinion of Free Software?
First, don’t listen to his opinions on anything that isn’t about comouters and software. He doesn’t have a good track record there.
Do pay attention to his takes on technology and freedom, there’s a lot of food for though there.
I was at one of his talks recently, and he’s definitely and eccentric fellow. When it comes to free software he’s a die hard extremist, and I have a feeling he knows and to a certain extent he does that on purpose. Case in point, he mentioned how he refused hearing aids and would similarly refuse a pacemaker as there are none running on free software.
As such, that’s how I take his ideas about free software: a good philosophy taken to the extreme to showcase what’d be possible if we went all in on that, and the dangers of not doing it. Definitely not something that can work for everyone, or a realistic pathway to a world of free software.
I do think, however, that someone like him is fundamental to advance the cause of free software, even if no one takes him literally and emulates his way of life.
I’m not gonna refuse a life saving treatment or device because it runs on propriety software, but I am willing to sacrifice some convenience to use a free software alternative when available.
he was right about the computer stuff
Yeah, this is a good place to focus and stop. I don’t like the other stuff I’ve heard about him.
It’s GNU Richard Stallman, not Richard Stallman.
More properly, GNU/Richard Stallman, or GNU + Richard Stallman
Lol the OP is literally GNU?
I prefer to call it Linux, not GNU/Linux.
RMS is a weirdo but generally a well meaning one, and many of his points are being proven correct. I’d rather have him around than not
I’ve been going with LiGNUx. The G is silent.
LiGmaNUx
I’m a woman, and have talked to him via email 2-3 times in the last 20 years. While I’ve met Torvalds, Jobs, and others in the industry when I was living in the Bay Area and working as a tech journalist, I never got to meet RMS – only via email. I think he has social issues, maybe he’s on the autistic side or something similar. I don’t think he understands clearly some of the things he’s saying when it comes to social stuff. He doesn’t get a pass, but at the same time, he’s a bit different as an individual, so that needs to be taken into account. When it comes to software, his heart is in the right place, and in fact, if it was me, I’d be even more strict (or more “Free” – depends how you see it), with GPL.
Defintly, we need GPLv4 already. To fix holes in licence which using coorps in GPLv3.
I’ve watched one YouTube video of a talk he did and thought he was an odd duck with a lot of good ideas.
What stuck with me the most was “use free software, and be ready for it to lack convenience”.
I’m sorry if struggling (if that’s the right word) with that right now, because I’m interested in switching to OsmAnd instead of Google maps for navigation, but there’s no traffic or road closure info. There’s also no Android Auto option, as far as I’m aware.
I don’t know who that is.
based honestly
He’s a cutie <3 <3 <3 https://rms.sexy/
I love how in every photo rms has his laptop on his hand.
Imagine how many delights and horrors that Thinkpad has witnessed.
I like the memes, but I don’t know a lot about the person.
I think he may have been right.
