No. In the intervening years somebody else would have done substantially what RMS did: it's not like he's the only hacker of his era who believes software shou

No. In the intervening years somebody else would have done substantially what RMS did: it's not like he's the only hacker of his era who believes software should be free. There's no guarantee he would have been successful in business and, even if he was, he would have undermined his moral authority on free software. People don't in general have serious doubts about RMS's motivations even if they don't agree with him - he's a true believer - but they can be much more cynical about Google or Facebook and their open source efforts.