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Wow, the close of Lessig's introduction is powerful. We have indeed not earned that freedom yet. > I don’t know Stallman well. I know him well enough to know

Wow, the close of Lessig's introduction is powerful. We have indeed not earned that freedom yet. > I don’t know Stallman well. I know him well enough to know he is a hard man to like. He is driven, often impatient. His anger can flare at friend as easily as foe. > He is uncompromising and persistent; patient in both. Yet when our world finally comes to understand the power and danger of code — when it finally sees that code, like laws, or like government, must be transparent to be free—then we will look back at this uncompromising and persistent programmer and recognize the vision he has fought to make real: the vision of a world where freedom and knowledge survives the compiler. And we will come to see that no man, through his deeds or words, has done as much to make possible the freedom that this next society could have. > We have not earned that freedom yet. We may well fail in securing it. But whether we succeed or fail, in these essays is a picture of what that freedom could be. And in the life that produced these words and works, there is inspiration for anyone who would, like Stallman, fight to create this freedom.

jrauser 8y ago
A followup: The GNU project was born while I was in junior high, gcc started when I was a senior in high school. Linux was started when I was in college. Stallman, in a very real sense, made my entire career possible. Likely yours too.
- rileymat2 8y ago
  That is a jump, software may have eaten the world without free software and been more lucrative. It is impossible to know.
  - omeid2 8y ago
    Unlikely, software is eating the world in large because it is extremely accessible unlike most other industries. Consider Git vs BitKeeper, for growth difference of libre and closed source software.
  - jrauser 8y ago
    Could I have made a lot of money in software had the free software movement never started? Sure. Could I have had my particular career? Nope. Could the current world of a zillion startups enabled by cloud computing exist without the GNU project or something like it? Seems unlikely to me, but perhaps my imagination is limited.
  - mikekchar 8y ago
    I agree with you that it's a jump. I was around early enough to see what the world was like before the FSF. While my professional career started after that, for much of it I worked with $5000k per seat compilers, libraries and frameworks that didn't include source code and I even accepted jobs (out of need) that forbid me from using anything without a restrictive (to the point of abusive) license. I've seen both worlds. You don't want to be in that other one, trust me. What I will say is not that free software has made my career possible, more that it has made it possible for me to do my job without going crazy. No more reverse engineering bizarre bugs in my tools. No more building everything from scratch because I can't possibly trust anybody else's code. Not as much struggling to deal with boneheaded vendor lock-in that some executive in the nose-bleed seats commits me to (OK... it still happens... but it's a lot better). I'll be honest, though. I didn't actually believe that the reality we have today, as flawed as it still is, would come. I'm incredibly grateful.
  - cup-of-tea 8y ago
    People would be using software with or without free software existing but that's completely beside the point. Free software enables people to do computing. The fact that you can do computing at home with state of the art tools is something you can thank the GNU project for.
jimmies 8y ago
Everyone knows Stallman is very hard to work with. But not everyone knows he is also one of the nicest, most honest, down-to-earth people ever. He actually spent time to read and answer every single email I sent to him despite me being a little no one. I know he couldn't possibly have hired a person who pretends to be him -- he corrected the lingo of the sender. Ah, such a Stallman thing :). I don't have much to say to Stallman most of the times. So I just sent him notes thanking him for GNU on GNU anniversary and wishing him a happy birthday on his birthday. Last time I sent him a happy birthday note, he replied something like he will not live forever. We need more people who stand up and fight for software freedom. Are you ready to become one? I wonder if he will actually be the last person who is a genius and willing to set aside personal financial interests and live humbly, or maybe he will be the last person that has the balls to actually do it. BTW - Normally I don't care what people call anything. But Stallman wanted to call desktop distros GNU/Linux. So when I created a distro, I call my distro Crankshaft GNU slash Linux. I use his software everyday to get things done. It has never asked me to activate, never asked me to patreon him, never asked me to pay, never asked me to like and subscribe. It never betrays me and I know it never will, it just works. If he just asks me to call his software in a funny way, I am happy to call it GNU slash Linux out of respect for him.
- kashyapc 8y ago
  Very much agree with the point about how accessible (especially via email) RMS is. A month ago I too have exchanged some email with him about license clarification of some slides he's worked on in the past. He responded within a day with precise details. (From my exchange I was again reminded of his funny auto-responder email.) And not to mention how unfailingly honest he is, which is impossible to miss when you read and listen to him. Say what you want about the man and his idiosyncrasies, but I am yet to see another high-profile Person in Tech come close to match Stallman's integrity.
  - DonHopkins 8y ago
    [[[ 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. ]]]
weinzierl 8y ago
A lot of what makes Stallman hard to like is that what he says are inconvenient truths. It took me a while to realize that.
- cup-of-tea 8y ago
  It's the same reason people hate vegans or hippies etc. People hate having their comfortable illusions shattered.
  - Executor 8y ago
    False. Stallman's work and vegans/hippies are unassociated. Veganism is an unhealthy lifestyle. Hippies are dropouts/losers. Don't spread around unhealthy advice.
    - hrnnnnnn 8y ago
      I'd be really interested to hear how you arrived at the conclusion that a vegan diet is unhealthy.
davidgould 8y ago
I am not religious, but I think that Richard Stallman is as close as we can get to an actual literal saint. He has changed the world through his works, will and vision in ways that are still unfolding and that will not be fully understood for a long time. There has been a lot of criticism of the GPL and the principles behind it often by people who do not wish to abide by the licence. This has led to some bitter and unkind criticism of RMS personally. Yet historical saints have always been difficult and determined people and often misunderstood in their own time. It is not an easy avocation.
- severine 8y ago
  For those who didn't know: https://stallman.org/saint.html https://stallman.org/saint.html Warning: taking the Church of Emacs (or any church) too seriously may be hazardous to your health.
  - dangom 8y ago
    Reminds me of this Emacs splash screen: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8debin/my_emacs_splash_image/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8debin/my_emacs_spla...

jrauser 8y ago

A followup: The GNU project was born while I was in junior high, gcc started when I was a senior in high school. Linux was started when I was in college. Stallman, in a very real sense, made my entire career possible. Likely yours too.

rileymat2 8y ago
That is a jump, software may have eaten the world without free software and been more lucrative. It is impossible to know.
- omeid2 8y ago
  Unlikely, software is eating the world in large because it is extremely accessible unlike most other industries. Consider Git vs BitKeeper, for growth difference of libre and closed source software.
- jrauser 8y ago
  Could I have made a lot of money in software had the free software movement never started? Sure. Could I have had my particular career? Nope. Could the current world of a zillion startups enabled by cloud computing exist without the GNU project or something like it? Seems unlikely to me, but perhaps my imagination is limited.
- mikekchar 8y ago
  I agree with you that it's a jump. I was around early enough to see what the world was like before the FSF. While my professional career started after that, for much of it I worked with $5000k per seat compilers, libraries and frameworks that didn't include source code and I even accepted jobs (out of need) that forbid me from using anything without a restrictive (to the point of abusive) license. I've seen both worlds. You don't want to be in that other one, trust me. What I will say is not that free software has made my career possible, more that it has made it possible for me to do my job without going crazy. No more reverse engineering bizarre bugs in my tools. No more building everything from scratch because I can't possibly trust anybody else's code. Not as much struggling to deal with boneheaded vendor lock-in that some executive in the nose-bleed seats commits me to (OK... it still happens... but it's a lot better). I'll be honest, though. I didn't actually believe that the reality we have today, as flawed as it still is, would come. I'm incredibly grateful.
- cup-of-tea 8y ago
  People would be using software with or without free software existing but that's completely beside the point. Free software enables people to do computing. The fact that you can do computing at home with state of the art tools is something you can thank the GNU project for.

jimmies 8y ago

Everyone knows Stallman is very hard to work with. But not everyone knows he is also one of the nicest, most honest, down-to-earth people ever. He actually spent time to read and answer every single email I sent to him despite me being a little no one. I know he couldn't possibly have hired a person who pretends to be him -- he corrected the lingo of the sender. Ah, such a Stallman thing :). I don't have much to say to Stallman most of the times. So I just sent him notes thanking him for GNU on GNU anniversary and wishing him a happy birthday on his birthday. Last time I sent him a happy birthday note, he replied something like he will not live forever. We need more people who stand up and fight for software freedom. Are you ready to become one? I wonder if he will actually be the last person who is a genius and willing to set aside personal financial interests and live humbly, or maybe he will be the last person that has the balls to actually do it. BTW - Normally I don't care what people call anything. But Stallman wanted to call desktop distros GNU/Linux. So when I created a distro, I call my distro Crankshaft GNU slash Linux. I use his software everyday to get things done. It has never asked me to activate, never asked me to patreon him, never asked me to pay, never asked me to like and subscribe. It never betrays me and I know it never will, it just works. If he just asks me to call his software in a funny way, I am happy to call it GNU slash Linux out of respect for him.

kashyapc 8y ago
Very much agree with the point about how accessible (especially via email) RMS is. A month ago I too have exchanged some email with him about license clarification of some slides he's worked on in the past. He responded within a day with precise details. (From my exchange I was again reminded of his funny auto-responder email.) And not to mention how unfailingly honest he is, which is impossible to miss when you read and listen to him. Say what you want about the man and his idiosyncrasies, but I am yet to see another high-profile Person in Tech come close to match Stallman's integrity.
- DonHopkins 8y ago
  [[[ 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. ]]]

weinzierl 8y ago

A lot of what makes Stallman hard to like is that what he says are inconvenient truths. It took me a while to realize that.

cup-of-tea 8y ago
It's the same reason people hate vegans or hippies etc. People hate having their comfortable illusions shattered.
- Executor 8y ago
  False. Stallman's work and vegans/hippies are unassociated. Veganism is an unhealthy lifestyle. Hippies are dropouts/losers. Don't spread around unhealthy advice.
  - hrnnnnnn 8y ago
    I'd be really interested to hear how you arrived at the conclusion that a vegan diet is unhealthy.

davidgould 8y ago

I am not religious, but I think that Richard Stallman is as close as we can get to an actual literal saint. He has changed the world through his works, will and vision in ways that are still unfolding and that will not be fully understood for a long time. There has been a lot of criticism of the GPL and the principles behind it often by people who do not wish to abide by the licence. This has led to some bitter and unkind criticism of RMS personally. Yet historical saints have always been difficult and determined people and often misunderstood in their own time. It is not an easy avocation.

severine 8y ago
For those who didn't know: https://stallman.org/saint.html https://stallman.org/saint.html Warning: taking the Church of Emacs (or any church) too seriously may be hazardous to your health.
- dangom 8y ago
  Reminds me of this Emacs splash screen: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8debin/my_emacs_splash_image/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8debin/my_emacs_spla...