4 ms·

Even ignoring the things he's currently in hot water for Stallman is a terrible choice as the face of a movement. As attested to by many who have spent time wi

Even ignoring the things he's currently in hot water for Stallman is a terrible choice as the face of a movement. As attested to by many who have spent time with him in person, his social skills are horrendous. There's a video of him at a talk, picking crap off his bare foot and eating it. He has some good opinions specifically on computer software, but as a person in general he's seriously lacking. Is this really the best we can do?

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
What he picks to eat or writes on his personal website is completely irrelevant: his social skills were sufficient to create a planet-wide movement and completely change the software development industry. Since you think we can do better, please, name a better candidate.
- zenethian 6y ago
  I'm not sure that's true. He didn't invent open source, and while he should be credited with being an early pioneer, he was largely ignored for decades until he got /just/ enough people onboard to find someone personable enough to get it to catch on in the corporate world, which then gets the attention of marketing.... and that's how we got to today. Not just by his "social skills" (or lack thereof) alone.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
    No. No. No. This is a complete misrepresentation of the events. Stallman created a GNU project which culminated in the GNU/Linux OS. His contribution is far more important that that of Torvalds, because by the time linux kernel appeared, the emergence of GNU-licensed kernel for GNU OS was inevitable. Had Linux been licensed differently, it would not gain a fraction of traction it received licensed under GPL, and the GNU project would come up with something anyway. They just didn't need it after they had one good kernel. So, without Torvalds ot would have been someone else. Without Stallman, there would be no GNU. All of this happened a decade before corporations started to take notice. By the time it happened, a great number of developers contributed to the GNU project and have created a lot of applications.
d_tr 6y ago
For me the issue now is not whether Stallman should hold 'leadership' positions or not, it's the fact that the pursuit of his removal from all such positions is based on heavy accusations which I do not believe to be true (transphobic, ableist, misogynist, and more). For example, making a stupid joke about women does not mean that there is malintent at play. One could argue that that joke could have negative impact on certain people and this is one thing. Attributing it to misogyny and sexism is something entirely different.
- kazinator 6y ago
  Get this: Stallman is supposedly transphobic because he refuses to use the "they" pronoun in the singular sense, but instead uses gender-neutral neo-pronouns "person", "per" and "pers". He shortened "person" to "perse". These were first created by a John Clark in a 1972 issue of the Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association. They also appeared in 1976 feminist novel , Marge Piercy's feminist novel, Woman on the Edge of Time. According to the wiki below this is "about a utopian future in which gender was no longer seen as a big difference between people". https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/English_neutral_pronouns#Per https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/English_neutral_pronouns#Per Thus: Stallman uses gender pronouns from an old feminist novel about an androgynous future ... and that is supposed to be evidence of "thinly disguised transphobia". This was written into petition a letter that supposedly intelligent people signed.
kazinator 6y ago
Stallman is weird. He is walking, talking diversity. He is being attacked in the name of diversity. Diversity evidently means "no weird allowed". You can be gay, trans, man, woman, black, white; just don't be eccentric.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago

What he picks to eat or writes on his personal website is completely irrelevant: his social skills were sufficient to create a planet-wide movement and completely change the software development industry. Since you think we can do better, please, name a better candidate.

zenethian 6y ago
I'm not sure that's true. He didn't invent open source, and while he should be credited with being an early pioneer, he was largely ignored for decades until he got /just/ enough people onboard to find someone personable enough to get it to catch on in the corporate world, which then gets the attention of marketing.... and that's how we got to today. Not just by his "social skills" (or lack thereof) alone.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  No. No. No. This is a complete misrepresentation of the events. Stallman created a GNU project which culminated in the GNU/Linux OS. His contribution is far more important that that of Torvalds, because by the time linux kernel appeared, the emergence of GNU-licensed kernel for GNU OS was inevitable. Had Linux been licensed differently, it would not gain a fraction of traction it received licensed under GPL, and the GNU project would come up with something anyway. They just didn't need it after they had one good kernel. So, without Torvalds ot would have been someone else. Without Stallman, there would be no GNU. All of this happened a decade before corporations started to take notice. By the time it happened, a great number of developers contributed to the GNU project and have created a lot of applications.

d_tr 6y ago

For me the issue now is not whether Stallman should hold 'leadership' positions or not, it's the fact that the pursuit of his removal from all such positions is based on heavy accusations which I do not believe to be true (transphobic, ableist, misogynist, and more). For example, making a stupid joke about women does not mean that there is malintent at play. One could argue that that joke could have negative impact on certain people and this is one thing. Attributing it to misogyny and sexism is something entirely different.

kazinator 6y ago
Get this: Stallman is supposedly transphobic because he refuses to use the "they" pronoun in the singular sense, but instead uses gender-neutral neo-pronouns "person", "per" and "pers". He shortened "person" to "perse". These were first created by a John Clark in a 1972 issue of the Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association. They also appeared in 1976 feminist novel , Marge Piercy's feminist novel, Woman on the Edge of Time. According to the wiki below this is "about a utopian future in which gender was no longer seen as a big difference between people". https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/English_neutral_pronouns#Per https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/English_neutral_pronouns#Per Thus: Stallman uses gender pronouns from an old feminist novel about an androgynous future ... and that is supposed to be evidence of "thinly disguised transphobia". This was written into petition a letter that supposedly intelligent people signed.

kazinator 6y ago

Stallman is weird. He is walking, talking diversity. He is being attacked in the name of diversity. Diversity evidently means "no weird allowed". You can be gay, trans, man, woman, black, white; just don't be eccentric.