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The comments in the blog talk about arrogance and how someone else would have done what RMS did if he didn't exist. They also complain that him being a "nutjob

The comments in the blog talk about arrogance and how someone else would have done what RMS did if he didn't exist. They also complain that him being a "nutjob" has actually done harm to freedom. This line of thinking is dead wrong. It takes someone precisely like RMS to stand for his ideal and dedicate his life to what he believes. I, personally, feel a great debt to the man.

dasht 17y ago
It's "funny" that people see his statement, that perhaps it's better he didn't die as an infant because he's done some good, as arrogant. He could be paraphrased as saying something like "I've experienced such misery that sometimes I wish I wasn't here at all but on the other hand I think I've done more good than harm for others and there is some comfort in that." How that's arrogant is beyond me. I can understand people having the opinion that, no, he's done more harm than good - but he's not arrogant for thinking otherwise.
- mrkurt 17y ago
  "I think I've done more good than harm" is vastly different than "in terms of the effect on the world, it's very good that I've lived", though. A little humility goes a long way.
  - samd 17y ago
    It's not arrogant if it's true.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - mrkurt 17y ago
      True or not, a little humility still goes a long way.
      - matthewn 17y ago
        Towards what?
        ErrantX 17y ago
        Being respected. (for example: I respect his ideals but have a generally low opinion of the man himself. I think that can be important)
        mrkurt 17y ago
        I'll echo the "being respected". I'll also add that it goes a long way towards effectively communicating a message.
- iamwil 17y ago
  Yeah, I'll have to agree with that sentiment, and hope that at least Stallman reads HN. I, for one, have been personally paid over multitudes of times due to free software, not just free to use, but also free to read and free to tinker. I'm better at what I do because of what he championed.
_delirium 17y ago
The "someone else would have done it" seems particularly unlikely to me, at least at the time. If you were to list significant bodies of free software that were released between the FSF's founding in 1983 and the Linux kernel's release in 1991, they're almost all GNU projects. The one significant exception I can think of is the X consortium's decision in 1986 to freely license X. And the stuff that started to be released starting in the early-90s pretty much without exception built on GNU stuff (even all the free BSDs still grudgingly include GNU code, despite 10 years of actively reducing their reliance on it).
- apotheon 17y ago
  "Good enough" is the enemy of "perfect". What do you think would happen to FreeBSD if GCC vanished tomorrow? Hint: It would probably suddenly finish incorporating some other, more freely licensed, compiler into its base system.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - Zev 17y ago
    FreeBSD's probably not the best example you could have picked; it can already build on a non-GCC compiler, Clang (for x86 and x64, at least): http://wiki.freebsd.org/BuildingFreeBSDWithClang http://wiki.freebsd.org/BuildingFreeBSDWithClang. And the last time I looked, it was more of "Clang not being complete" then anything else to hold up DragonFly BSD from compiling. Not sure about the state of OpenBSD or NetBSD with Clang, though.
    - JoachimSchipper 17y ago
      On OpenBSD: there have been quite a few "Fix <simple bug>. Found by Clang static analyzer" commits. I believe that everything builds with Clang, but I'm not sure.
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    The question is not what would happen tomorrow...the question is what would have happened has RMS never existed. I think there's a pretty compelling case to be made that FreeBSD would have never happened; or at least, it would be a very different beastie. I don't agree with RMS on all things, but he was absolutely instrumental in making our free software world what it is today, and just because you have differing beliefs about what a "free" license really is doesn't mean you should discount what he did for your favorite OS.
modokode 17y ago
Quite true. A movement like the free software one needs people who are not willing to barter with their ideals. I for one do not agree with RMS on everything, and I do still use a few proprietary pieces of software, but I do appreciate the fact that RMS is who he is.

dasht 17y ago

It's "funny" that people see his statement, that perhaps it's better he didn't die as an infant because he's done some good, as arrogant. He could be paraphrased as saying something like "I've experienced such misery that sometimes I wish I wasn't here at all but on the other hand I think I've done more good than harm for others and there is some comfort in that." How that's arrogant is beyond me. I can understand people having the opinion that, no, he's done more harm than good - but he's not arrogant for thinking otherwise.

mrkurt 17y ago
"I think I've done more good than harm" is vastly different than "in terms of the effect on the world, it's very good that I've lived", though. A little humility goes a long way.
- samd 17y ago
  It's not arrogant if it's true.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - mrkurt 17y ago
    True or not, a little humility still goes a long way.
    - matthewn 17y ago
      Towards what?
      - ErrantX 17y ago
        Being respected. (for example: I respect his ideals but have a generally low opinion of the man himself. I think that can be important)
      - mrkurt 17y ago
        I'll echo the "being respected". I'll also add that it goes a long way towards effectively communicating a message.
iamwil 17y ago
Yeah, I'll have to agree with that sentiment, and hope that at least Stallman reads HN. I, for one, have been personally paid over multitudes of times due to free software, not just free to use, but also free to read and free to tinker. I'm better at what I do because of what he championed.

_delirium 17y ago

The "someone else would have done it" seems particularly unlikely to me, at least at the time. If you were to list significant bodies of free software that were released between the FSF's founding in 1983 and the Linux kernel's release in 1991, they're almost all GNU projects. The one significant exception I can think of is the X consortium's decision in 1986 to freely license X. And the stuff that started to be released starting in the early-90s pretty much without exception built on GNU stuff (even all the free BSDs still grudgingly include GNU code, despite 10 years of actively reducing their reliance on it).

apotheon 17y ago
"Good enough" is the enemy of "perfect". What do you think would happen to FreeBSD if GCC vanished tomorrow? Hint: It would probably suddenly finish incorporating some other, more freely licensed, compiler into its base system.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- Zev 17y ago
  FreeBSD's probably not the best example you could have picked; it can already build on a non-GCC compiler, Clang (for x86 and x64, at least): http://wiki.freebsd.org/BuildingFreeBSDWithClang http://wiki.freebsd.org/BuildingFreeBSDWithClang. And the last time I looked, it was more of "Clang not being complete" then anything else to hold up DragonFly BSD from compiling. Not sure about the state of OpenBSD or NetBSD with Clang, though.
  - JoachimSchipper 17y ago
    On OpenBSD: there have been quite a few "Fix <simple bug>. Found by Clang static analyzer" commits. I believe that everything builds with Clang, but I'm not sure.
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  The question is not what would happen tomorrow...the question is what would have happened has RMS never existed. I think there's a pretty compelling case to be made that FreeBSD would have never happened; or at least, it would be a very different beastie. I don't agree with RMS on all things, but he was absolutely instrumental in making our free software world what it is today, and just because you have differing beliefs about what a "free" license really is doesn't mean you should discount what he did for your favorite OS.

modokode 17y ago

Quite true. A movement like the free software one needs people who are not willing to barter with their ideals. I for one do not agree with RMS on everything, and I do still use a few proprietary pieces of software, but I do appreciate the fact that RMS is who he is.