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I'll go ahead and shoot. The fact that this topic would be off-topic is just not true as the person speaking is in fact rms. Does this mean he is recuperated no

I'll go ahead and shoot. The fact that this topic would be off-topic is just not true as the person speaking is in fact rms. Does this mean he is recuperated now? Everyone was calling him a pedophile and the FSF lost a lot of contacts over him being re-appointed. What does this mean then? Tbh, I was curious what happened since last year and I didn't realize at the time he was somewhat apologetic, and honestly, it is hard for me to determine a lot of the veracity of the claims around him at the time and more so now. That said, as a leader of FSF and the free software movement, is he now recuperated, because his reputation since this episode, due to the truth or not, is pretty bad now and his being seen as a continuing leader of the movement could be seen as a liability. Should he be recuperated or should he not be?

deleted 5y ago
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thinkingemote 5y ago
Interesting question, and the discussion does still need to be had. Let me try to give some insights: The FSF today has the highest membership it has ever had. Most new members joined in support of RMS last year in defence of the attacks on his reputation. The Foundation is doing very well now. One interesting (and little discussed) theory about the attack on RMS that I heard was that it was also an attack on the Free Software and the FSF as a kind of coup and championed by people working from and benefiting from the chip makers, corporations and manufacturers. Now there's is some evidence for that the majority of attackers were from that group, however I suspect it's more likely a correlation between the new kind of professional cultural standard of Silicon Valley highly paid technologists and their income sources, than any coordinated attack on Free Software in principle. There was some a relation between the more lax Open Source developers and the anti-RMS stance seen in previous times, but I think, again, it's not some conspiracy to take down Free Software but rather a relationship between the more pragmatic Open Source developers being able to work for the Silicon Valley industry and becoming part of that culture.
xunn0026 5y ago
I see it the other way around. The "movement" does not exist without RMS. FSF itself is pretty woke nowadays so they have diluted and taken their mission in another direction. As for the RMS attacks, he did the heresy of thinking out loud on a private mailing list which do-gooders promptly leaked and framed. Your whole question is silly. He's not 'recuperated' since there's no authority to decide this. It's kinda hard when you replace institutions for woke mobs.

deleted 5y ago

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thinkingemote 5y ago

Interesting question, and the discussion does still need to be had. Let me try to give some insights: The FSF today has the highest membership it has ever had. Most new members joined in support of RMS last year in defence of the attacks on his reputation. The Foundation is doing very well now. One interesting (and little discussed) theory about the attack on RMS that I heard was that it was also an attack on the Free Software and the FSF as a kind of coup and championed by people working from and benefiting from the chip makers, corporations and manufacturers. Now there's is some evidence for that the majority of attackers were from that group, however I suspect it's more likely a correlation between the new kind of professional cultural standard of Silicon Valley highly paid technologists and their income sources, than any coordinated attack on Free Software in principle. There was some a relation between the more lax Open Source developers and the anti-RMS stance seen in previous times, but I think, again, it's not some conspiracy to take down Free Software but rather a relationship between the more pragmatic Open Source developers being able to work for the Silicon Valley industry and becoming part of that culture.

xunn0026 5y ago

I see it the other way around. The "movement" does not exist without RMS. FSF itself is pretty woke nowadays so they have diluted and taken their mission in another direction. As for the RMS attacks, he did the heresy of thinking out loud on a private mailing list which do-gooders promptly leaked and framed. Your whole question is silly. He's not 'recuperated' since there's no authority to decide this. It's kinda hard when you replace institutions for woke mobs.