One of my greatest idols since I was a preteen. Learning about him and his existence made me confident that there was a future for people like me.
How he has been treated in the last few years has been making me feel a lot less optimistic about the future of humanity. :(
What part of how he’s been treated? Nobody is making fun of him for being neurodivergent and picking his toes in public. Its gross, but ultimately not harmful. People have problems with his inability to understand how his comments about sex with minors are not appropriate either. There’s a big gap between these two things and if you fall into it, you’re probably okay.
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.
“I am not a woman, therefore I am not affected by his comments! Conclusion: good guy!” — far too many people in this thread
Dude also has some… “”“interesting”“” opinions on the legalization of CP.
All you gotta do is contribute to FOSS and you’re a hero?
Some of y’all dumb as hell.
he has never endorsed cp! He has, however, supported any one over the age of 14 having sex, and has changed his view on that a decade ago.
As of 2016, there are reports of Stallman changing his views on the matter within the previous few years.[2] However, in 2018 he defended Cody Wilson, who later pled guilty to sex with an underage girl, with Stallman saying that the girl likely had “entirely willing sex with him.” Stallman changed his original post but nevertheless still said it is “normal for adults to be physically attracted to adolescents” and that adults using trafficked children shouldn’t be legally responsible. In 2019, Stallman posted an email to an MIT listserv about the allegation that MIT professor Marvin Minsky raped a 17-year-old girl, and due to public outcry he resigned from both MIT and the Free Software Foundation.
changed his view on that a decade ago
got quieter about his views
At 17 years, it is a matter of technicality. Plenty of places draw line at 16 years, some even lower.
Y’all are grown folk arguing if it’s ethical to fuck high school students.
I got nothing to say to that.
Would you prefer teens to discuss and decide that instead? Or preteens?
I don’t know him personally, so if he got quieter or lied (he actually has a statement on his website that, according to you is a lie) about his views, I would not know. Look, I see more than plenty of reasons for one not to like him. I feel people run with media reports even when we have his email transcripts that can be read word for word.
My criticism lies only with people who staunchly defend him and/or consider him a good guy / hero.
Pointless hasn’t been the same since he left. Xander looks so lonely
He’s a flawed character with, unconventional ideas about Jeffery Epstein and the nature of his crimes. Nevertheless, his ideas about Free Software undoubtedly changed the landscape of computing for the better.
He’s a creep and any org still employing him doesn’t care about women or children.
https://drewdevault.com/2023/11/25/2023-11-26-RMS-on-sex.html
Love him. His one hot take, which was completely misconstrued by the Twitter mafia, doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s been right for 50 years straight.
We’d still be in the IT stone ages without him. If you don’t believe me just look at the software they used to charge money for in the 1990’s.
Microsoft would have likely taken over the Web Server market just as they had the Desktop market, without him. The internet would be a fraction of the size it is now.
I wish his license had allowed for more equitable distribution of profits. It’s a crying shame companies can build billion dollar enterprises off of open source software and not pay devs a penny. It’s a problem that continues to hobble libre open source software all the way into today. But he’s stated he’s not a socialist so I can’t hold that against him too much.
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.
Politically, I don’t like him. He had a critical influence in the beginning of the Free Software movement, and its failure can be easily identified in the core ideas that put the freedom of the software before the freedom of the people. The fact he cared more about software than people is reflected in pretty much anything he did.
On a personal level, he seems an insufferable asshole with enough power to get away with toxic behavior. Luckily, I never had to interact with him, but his visibility for sure didn’t help marginalizing toxic egomaniacs in IT communities. Being neurodivergent is not an excuse for being an asshole. He’s the last remnant of an age that hopefully is over.
Is that a code name for a glory hole hookup?
I haven’t learned much about him, but my impression is he’s made some pretty heinous statements about his personal views, but he’s done some useful things for FOSS. I don’t have a strong desire to learn more, tbh
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I strongly disagree.
He is a creep, but he has done a lot of good for the open source community, that does make him a good guy, at best it makes him neutral, but after reading the whole kaffufle about his views on the Epstien scandal, I can no longer see him as a good guy.
I like the memes, but I don’t know a lot about the person.
I don’t know who that is.
based honestly
