4 ms·

RMS has been doing things that people in the open source community disagreed with for a long time. His latest offence also had the effect of bringing all/many_o

by Iolaum 6y ago

RMS has been doing things that people in the open source community disagreed with for a long time. His latest offence also had the effect of bringing all/many_of those previous slights to the attention of the "crowd" (because social media) and that amplified the message of criticism against him.

wazoox 6y ago
I think that his "latest offences" were of a particularly laden political tone (or could be painted as such), while eating stuff from his toenails publicly and other eccentricities passed as innocuous, though actually annoying the hell out of corporate types and other people interested in power, money, shiny PR and other matters that RMS always more or less considered with relative contempt. It's significant that you talk of "the open source community". I'm not of "the open source community" (less than ever, in fact), I'm firmly in the "Free software community" and an FSF member for 20 years. I don't remember ever having a disagreement with RMS on any important matter.
- ifmpx 6y ago
  I'm afraid your opinion of RMS is not universally shared, as evidenced by FSF's latest membership drive. Despite his numerous and off-putting shortcomings, many people (incl. myself) still believe RMS to be the best person for leading the free software community. His unyielding stance on how software should be used and shared is exactly what the FSF needs in its leadership. All the issues you and others list to justify RMS' dismissal are orthogonal to this task. Yes, this also includes the toe thing. I have personally stopped supporting the FSF because of this incident after about a decade of support, and I no longer include the "or-later" clause in my GPL software.
  - a1369209993 6y ago
    > All the issues you and others list to justify RMS' dismissal are orthogonal to this task. Where did you get the impression that wazoox considered RMS's dismissal in any way justified or justifiable? The comment you're responding to literally says: > > I don't remember ever having a disagreement with RMS on any important matter. Also: > and I no longer include the "or-later" clause in my GPL software. I'm embarrassed to admit that this problem didn't occur to me until you pointed it out; thank you; I need to go fix that for my own software.
dandellion 6y ago
Doing things? Do you have any examples? My impression at the time that he resigned was that it was because the crowd didn't like the things he was saying, not that he'd actually done anything himself.
- Iolaum 6y ago
  I intentionally left examples out because writing something that would be fair towards RMS is hard (and I don't want to spend the time to do it). It's also been some time since I read about this and I haven't saved the location of those sources.
- ifmpx 6y ago
  He was forced to resign for expressing his opinions and not for anything he did himself.
  - dralley 6y ago
    That's not true, it was more of a "straw breaking the camel's back" situation, and he has in the past personally acted in inappropriate ways for many many years. https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendix-a-a7e41e784f88 https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendi...
    - ifmpx 6y ago
      All these are just allegations. If his alleged misbehavior is as frequent as it is being famed, then it should be relatively easy to provide some evidence. The man was filmed eating stuff off his toes ffs!
- dabockster 6y ago
  I saw some tweets from some women AI researchers at MIT shortly after RMS was ousted. They all had vivid tellings of instances where RMS would make lewd comments about their bodies or look at them weird, and how a lot of the women researchers would actively avoid him. Tbh I think some of the memes about him and his sexuality might be valid. If that's the case, then frankly he should have been cut loose a long time ago.
agumonkey 6y ago
I'd say it was all stand-in charges under the pressurized internet of today.

by Iolaum 6y ago

wazoox 6y ago

I think that his "latest offences" were of a particularly laden political tone (or could be painted as such), while eating stuff from his toenails publicly and other eccentricities passed as innocuous, though actually annoying the hell out of corporate types and other people interested in power, money, shiny PR and other matters that RMS always more or less considered with relative contempt. It's significant that you talk of "the open source community". I'm not of "the open source community" (less than ever, in fact), I'm firmly in the "Free software community" and an FSF member for 20 years. I don't remember ever having a disagreement with RMS on any important matter.

ifmpx 6y ago
I'm afraid your opinion of RMS is not universally shared, as evidenced by FSF's latest membership drive. Despite his numerous and off-putting shortcomings, many people (incl. myself) still believe RMS to be the best person for leading the free software community. His unyielding stance on how software should be used and shared is exactly what the FSF needs in its leadership. All the issues you and others list to justify RMS' dismissal are orthogonal to this task. Yes, this also includes the toe thing. I have personally stopped supporting the FSF because of this incident after about a decade of support, and I no longer include the "or-later" clause in my GPL software.
- a1369209993 6y ago
  > All the issues you and others list to justify RMS' dismissal are orthogonal to this task. Where did you get the impression that wazoox considered RMS's dismissal in any way justified or justifiable? The comment you're responding to literally says: > > I don't remember ever having a disagreement with RMS on any important matter. Also: > and I no longer include the "or-later" clause in my GPL software. I'm embarrassed to admit that this problem didn't occur to me until you pointed it out; thank you; I need to go fix that for my own software.

dandellion 6y ago

Doing things? Do you have any examples? My impression at the time that he resigned was that it was because the crowd didn't like the things he was saying, not that he'd actually done anything himself.

Iolaum 6y ago
I intentionally left examples out because writing something that would be fair towards RMS is hard (and I don't want to spend the time to do it). It's also been some time since I read about this and I haven't saved the location of those sources.
ifmpx 6y ago
He was forced to resign for expressing his opinions and not for anything he did himself.
- dralley 6y ago
  That's not true, it was more of a "straw breaking the camel's back" situation, and he has in the past personally acted in inappropriate ways for many many years. https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendix-a-a7e41e784f88 https://medium.com/@selamjie/remove-richard-stallman-appendi...
  - ifmpx 6y ago
    All these are just allegations. If his alleged misbehavior is as frequent as it is being famed, then it should be relatively easy to provide some evidence. The man was filmed eating stuff off his toes ffs!
dabockster 6y ago
I saw some tweets from some women AI researchers at MIT shortly after RMS was ousted. They all had vivid tellings of instances where RMS would make lewd comments about their bodies or look at them weird, and how a lot of the women researchers would actively avoid him. Tbh I think some of the memes about him and his sexuality might be valid. If that's the case, then frankly he should have been cut loose a long time ago.

agumonkey 6y ago

I'd say it was all stand-in charges under the pressurized internet of today.