16 ms·

Richard Stallman’s rider

• Portmanager 15y ago
  RMS is quite unkempt, his feet stink like a hobo. In general he has a retarded way of dealing with people, not a nice person to be in touch with. Just my 2 cents. PS: I did not mention his philosophy, neithe if his ideas are wrong. I just said he's got a bad personal hygiene and that he is has a retarded way of dealing with people, here are some quotes: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms It is plain wrong to offer condolences to a father with a newborn child and thus retarded.
  • jolie 15y ago
    RMS is a delightful man (I've had the pleasure of interviewing him at length in person), and his demands are completely in line with his philosophies. His dedication to free and open-source ideals, if impractical, is also inspiring and rare. Saying he has "a retarded way of dealing with people" is perhaps too general. I myself found him enchanting and enlightening in our interactions. Maybe you just didn't like the way he treated you.
    • marquis 15y ago
      He certainly manages to get your attention. I saw him speak many years ago, the room was full of young, passionate enthusiasts and true to form even with his unkempt appearance we were glued to every word. I have no doubt he has been almost entirely responsible for maintaining the high profile nature of free software (for all his complaints about 'open source', the side affect has been to create a rich culture of sharing while producing work you can get paid for).
    • JabavuAdams 15y ago
      > open-source ideals, You didn't read the part of the rider about "open source".
      • slowpoke 15y ago
        Your parent said "free and open source". Tiny but important difference.
  • drivingmenuts 15y ago
    "I didn’t receive the DEC message, but I can’t imagine I would have been bothered if I have. I get tons of uninteresting mail, and system announcements about babies born, etc. At least a demo might have been interesting." I actually laughed at that.
  • derleth 15y ago
    > It is plain wrong to offer condolences to a father with a newborn child Do a google search for 'childfree' some time and you'll see that RMS is on the nice side of that one.
  • eliasmacpherson 15y ago
    I think your poor English isn't sufficient to understand the dark humour at play in the post. The foreword from Edward O'Connor might just as well be rewritten: "In which I consider the latest example of my own utter lack of humour." I love his casual Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. Then Edward goes on to write authoritative posts on empathy, on hypocrisy, and on overpopulation. As it says on top of his homepage: Edward O'Connor is a web standards developer in San Francisco, CA.
    • Portmanager 15y ago
      Mr King of the Hill, get down from your eloquent throne and stop suggesting something untoward. You are twisting words around, no more no less. Your personal beef with Mr. O'Connor wasn't really worth mentioning and there is no dark humor at play, Edward's opinion is utterly irrelevant here, as I only asked to look at the statements made by RMS. In my humble opinion Richard Matthew Stallman is a prime example of antisocial personality disorder.
• mjs 15y ago
  This is wonderful, in so many different ways. I've read quite a bit of the FSF material--which is invariably specific, clear and verbose--and it's interesting to read material in the same style, but about a completely different topic. For example, under "Hospitality": "In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which is not a role I like. I start to worry that I might subject them to great burdens without even realizing. I start being afraid to express my appreciation of anything, because they would get it and give it to me at any cost. If it is night, and the stars are beautiful, I hesitate to say so, lest my hosts feel obligated to try to get one for me."
  • nobody3141 15y ago
    Ever visited an Arabic country? Whatever an American might think, this is THE major problem - not terrorism - but being 'hospitalitied' to death!
    • deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    • colton36 15y ago
      You are so right. When I visited Egypt years ago, the amount of "helping" was so over the top. It really does get in the way.
    • deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
• tptacek 15y ago
  This is charming; gives a sense of the guy; seems like it would be useful information. Who thinks to say "do not buy me a parrot"?
  • seiji 15y ago
    For such a specific rule, it must have happened before. I'd wager somebody once gave him a parrot for breakfast. "Good morning, sir. Your host ordered you a breakfast of eggs over easy and a parrot we've named Lenny, The Open Source Linux Parrot sponsored by Coke®."
    • tptacek 15y ago
      I mean obviously, I bet nothing happened before. Who gives someone a parrot? But he has a short graf on why you shouldn't give him Coke. I had no idea about the "Killer Coke" story. Clearly, he reads up on this stuff; he just wants to share how inhumane the parrot pet trade is, I'd guess. But still! It's charming in this context.
      • cryptoz 15y ago
        It may well have happened. I helped organized his talk at Concordia University a few years ago, and this text was slightly different back then. It specified that he'd like to meet a parrot. But that's it. Just was one sentence, giving little information. Given that this is his standard text, I bet someone bought a parrot at one point over the last few years, and that prompted this seemingly peculiar addition.
      • thret 15y ago
        Yes, he does read up on this stuff. He posts frequent updates here: http://stallman.org/archives/2011-jul-oct.html http://stallman.org/archives/2011-jul-oct.html
    • iab 15y ago
      "Once you are done sir, would you allow me the honour of directing you across several of our nearby streets?"
• sgt 15y ago
  To be completely honest, after what he wrote about Steve Jobs' death, I don't feel like paying much attention to RMS anymore.
  • Mvandenbergh 15y ago
    Much like Steve Jobs, RMS is a visionary. Most visionaries aren't necessarily pleasant people in any conventional sense, they can be peremptory, irritatingly specific and detailed in their demands.
    • maximusprime 15y ago
      Please don't compare the two. Steve Jobs created a massive company. Thousands of jobs. He created products we all love and use. Stallman just goes around ranting mad rants at people.
      • jrockway 15y ago
        Emacs has allowed me to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apple products? Nope.
        • maximusprime 15y ago
          It's a text editor.
          • jrockway 15y ago
            Yes. I edit text for a living.
            • maximusprime 15y ago
              Anyone can write a text editor though. It's fairly simple. It's beyond bizarre to compare the creation of a massive company, thousands of jobs, numerous earth shattering products which enhance the lives of millions, with a text editor a few programmers use. IMHO Stallman has been a net negative on the computer industry, and will not be remembered fondly outside the emacs niche userbase.
• quanticle 15y ago
  I don't see anything there that's especially unreasonable. When Stallman gives a speech he knows he's representing GNU and the FSF. The rider basically obligates the organization to tell Stallman in advance what kind of venue he's going to, and warns the organization that there will be a large crowd, so that they should plan accordingly. In his position, I'm sure that I'd have similar clauses in any agreement to talk.
  • runjake 15y ago
    I'm not sure if the message was posted to the list to criticize Stallman or whatever. And I was thinking the same thing as you, until I got down to the second half of the rider. Spoiler: it involves cats, parrots, hygiene, social awkwardness, and just about every other minute little detail. The sheer length of the piece might also be considered a turnoff.
    • pmattos 15y ago
      Yep, it gets scary... Tip: never use the word breakfast near him.
      • iuguy 15y ago
        Maybe someone served him Parrot Benedict?
      • pjscott 15y ago
        Alternate interpretation: he has had overly solicitous people fret over why he's not eating breakfast, and would rather simply put the topic out of everyone's minds. He comes off as a solidly decent person in the rest of this letter; losing his composure at the mention of breakfast seems out of character.
    • pavel_lishin 15y ago
      An allergy to cats and a phobia of dogs seems like a perfectly acceptable thing to list in a rider.
• code_duck 15y ago
  Very thorough... even includes advice about parrot acquisition.
• TruthElixirX 15y ago
  "I usually decline to participate in "open source" or "Linux" events. See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html for why it is incorrect to refer to the operating system as "Linux"." Ah, this never gets old. Also, using Pepsi to keep awake. Are all riders this god damn picky? It wouldn't surprise me. I imagine there is a great amount of antagonism between performers/speakers/etc and the venues.
  • nobody3141 15y ago
    Remember. A lot of his talks are likely to be to universities/user groups who have never organised a talk before - so 'remember a microphone' is useful! And a lot of talks maybe in 'emerging nations' who assume that since he is American he is rich and FSF is something like IBM - so he can afford to fly half way round the world without being paid. This is from a few years ago (ie recording on tape) so GNU/FSF/Linux may not have been as mainstream and organisers might have only advertised this as a computer department seminar rather than a large event. I once organised a university SciFi society talk for a UK "childrens" author - just as they became a global hit. A talk that might bring 20 people suddenly filled the largest auditorium. The rest of the stuff is just an engineers approach to solving problems. Rather than tell a dozen people at 100 talks a year how I like my coffee - I write it down once and end of problem
  • runjake 15y ago
    I've never read GNU's Linux FAQ that I can remember, but this section is interesting in light of the GNU kernel's history: Question: Isn't writing the kernel most of the work in an operating system? Answer: No, many components take a lot of work. If I recall correctly, work on the GNU kernel began in the mid-80's (HURD in 1990?). I'll leave the correlation to the reader.
    • sp332 15y ago
      Coding is easy. Herding cats (internal politics of hackers) is hard. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/HURD#Development_history https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/HURD#Developm...
• heyrhett 15y ago
  All of his demands are either directly related to his health or the moral causes that he champions. He is specific and verbose. Some of these things might seem strange to people who are younger than 50 years old, and aren't flown around the world to give hundreds of talks. I think that this demonstrates the value of a clear and verbose contract.
  • tibbon 15y ago
    Precisely. Nothing is left to ambiguity, and then hopefully the fewest possible things will go wrong. About the only thing that I laughed at (in joy) was the thing about parrots...
    • stickfigure 15y ago
      Nothing is left to ambiguity? A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar, any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar. Really, I think he's just screwing with us. Douglas Adams would be proud.
      • derleth 15y ago
        How is that even somewhat ambiguous? Personal and, perhaps, skirting the outer edge of what a remarkably parochial person might regard as quirky, but he laid out a drink preference specific enough someone has a shopping list and doesn't have to guess. Which is what a rider is for. You don't even need to buy him tea; he explicitly says he always brings his own with him.
        • rgbrgb 15y ago
          Well actually he does say that a supply of tea would be nice. I'm assuming he is not talking about his own supply.
          • 15y ago
• bitwize 15y ago
  "So there I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at 3 in the morning, looking for 1000 brown M&M's to fill a brandy glass, or Richard Stallman wouldn't go on stage that night."
  • drivingmenuts 15y ago
    Just fill it with parrots. I mean, that wasn't specifically mentioned as a no-no.
• mikeryan 15y ago
  My favorite If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.
• iqster 15y ago
  Heh ... reminds me of the story of Van Halen's rider - no brown M&Ms or they have the right to not play the event (without penalty)! This actually served a purpose. The had exacting specs for some of their pyrotechnics. They reasoned that if someone had adhered to the rider carefully enough to notice the M&Ms clause, they likely would have been exacting for the other specifications as well.
  • Arjuna 15y ago
    For those that want to read more about the "Van Halen and M&Ms" story: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839581 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839581
  • mbreese 15y ago
    I thought it was the weight of the stage, not the pyrotechnics...
  • derleth 15y ago
    > The had exacting specs for some of their pyrotechnics ... and their electrical gear (amps and so on), and possibly the sheer weight of everything they'd be bringing on to the stage, and the simple fact that, at the time that rider was drawn up, Van Halen was playing venues that had never had a serious rock band of their kind before and were likely to be unprepared to the point of putting the fans at risk of being killed, which has happened a few times (that Whitesnake concert is the most recent, I believe).
    • mikey_p 15y ago
      Are you thinking of Great White and The Station nightclub fire?
      • derleth 15y ago
        Yes. Thank you.
• joshu 15y ago
  TLDR: Don't buy a parrot for RMS's sake.
• libraryatnight 15y ago
  I think my favorite piece, aside from the parrots, is this: "If the police want information about free software, they are welcome to come to my speech."
• joshaidan 15y ago
  My funniest memory of Richard Stallman is once he was invited to give the commencement speech at my local university, Lakehead University. He was pretty oblivious to the fact he was at a graduation, and not at any point in his speech did he address the students and their future. All he talked about was free software, how copyright was bad, and that the university should be using free software. Most of the students were pretty pissed off at him because he ruined one of the most significant moments in their life. He didn't even say, congratulations well done on graduating, or even a simple "hello." He only spoke about free software. I think the video is still up on the university's website somewhere. If you're interested in it, I could try to find it and post it.
  • 0x12 15y ago
    But you do remember the talk and you are still willing to promote it, so from his point of view that's mission accomplished.
    • joshaidan 15y ago
      You see, that's the problem. His mission was to promote free software, instead of the mission the university hired him for: sending the graduates off on their next journey.
      • 0x12 15y ago
        You don't hire a missionary with a vision to pat yourself or your audience on the back. That's like expecting Sylvester Stallone to do higher mathematics or Mother Theresa to do an arms deal for you. Some people are what they are and their environment/audience will have to accept them as they are. The problem lies squarely with the person that hired him, the abstract of the speeches listed should have adequately explained what they were going to get. That's exactly what that rider exists for in the first place, to avoid misunderstandings like that. I highly doubt if RMS could even tailor his speech to the occasion, he must know it by heart by now except for the Q&A part. What I found interesting on reading the 'rider' is that he still refers to the GNU operating system as though it is in daily use. I've yet to see a HURD based system do anything useful in production but half the world wide web seems to run on Linux these days. Of course linux is 'merely a kernel'. But if you write free software the you also give away the right to name that software, after all, a fork is under no obligation to be named after the parent. So RMS holding on to insisting to call Linux GNU/Linux looks to be against the self-imposed freedoms.
• mef 15y ago
  "I do NOT use browsers, I use the SSH protocol. If the network requires a proxy for SSH, I probably can't use it at all." I wondered if this applied to all net usage or just email, turns out he never uses a web browser, ever. If he needs the contents of a web page, he emails a daemon which wgets the page and emails it back to him: http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/
  • keithpeter 15y ago
    That was mentioned on his interview on 'the setup'. I wondered at the time how he finds Web pages of interest. Suggestions by e-mail?
    • rfergie 15y ago
      I once wasted some of rms's time by emailing him to ask if using Google went against his principles. He was polite enough to reply to me and say that it was ok.
      • thebigshane 15y ago
        Curious: How long ago was this?
        • rfergie 15y ago
          2007 or 2008 I think. Unfortunately I don't have any email from that time so I can't check or find exactly what he said
  • muyuu 15y ago
    This takes me back. In the early/mid 90s, particularly in Universities, internet was slow as molasses and many of us used these mail interfaces, for web and also for FTP (FTPmail). In many places email was given most of the bandwidth and it was a lot faster like that. Big files would come Uuencoded in several parts. In Uni, usually pics of Cindy Crawford and Erika Eleniak among others. Now it seems incredibly geeky but back then it wasn't anything remarkable at all.
• jsavimbi 15y ago
  If there is something else interesting and unique in this link, please tell me about it. Maybe I will be interested.
  • 0x12 15y ago
    At a guess, then you'll mail your daemon to fetch the page, to be mailed back by the daemon?
    • jsavimbi 15y ago
      Only after I find a trustworthy wi-fi connection that'll allow proxy-less SSH.
      • brider 15y ago
        This entire comments thread has a higher than expected level of subtle/downplayed humor. I appreciate subtle humor, but I don't know if Hacker News is the place for it.
        • jsavimbi 15y ago
          That's odd. I found no references to either subtle or downplayed humor in the rider. You sir, are really subtle with your humor.
• gokhan 15y ago
  His demands are surely the cumulative result of years of travelling, giving speeches, dealing with cat fur, losing numerous tickets etc. I would be surprised if he wasn't this systematic.
• pygorex 15y ago
  The man is thorough. This line made me lol: "I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up."
• VonGuard 15y ago
  you need to know what I dislike: avocado eggplant, usually (there are occasional exceptions) hot pepper olives liver (even in trace quantities) stomach and intestine; other organ meats cooked tuna oysters egg yolk, if the taste is noticeable, except when boiled completely hard many strong cheeses, especially those with green fungus desserts that contain fruit or liqueur flavors sour fruits, such as grapefruit and many oranges beer coffee (though weak coffee flavor can be good in desserts) the taste of alcohol (so I don't drink anything stronger than wine)
  • slipperyp 15y ago
    By pure coincidence, the exact set intersection for "things rms has stuck up his ass and been unable to extract."
    • sneak 15y ago
      T
• dhechols 15y ago
  Mr. Stallman is neither nice in manner or smell. His ideas, while visionary at times, are not pragmatic. He is his own worst enemy. Perhaps, however, it takes an unfriendly, smelly man to trumpet the ideas of freedom in the digital age. I'm ok with that.
  • Udo 15y ago
    I thought about voting that down or not. Instead I'm just going to comment. This smell thing is really uncalled for, isn't it. I must admit that I always admired what he does, but - maybe like you - I have come to the conclusion that this guy is probably not a nice person. Probably. Also, he kind of comes across as a one-trick pony. He literally can only think about one single issue. I believe when he thinks about the entire universe, he just looks at free and proprietary software and he's done. There is nothing else. Yes, maybe that's what it takes. Maybe visionaries can't be nice. Maybe successful people have to be assholes. Then again, I hope not.
    • pnathan 15y ago
      Last time I rummaged around his personal site, he had social and political commentary not focused on libre software issues.
• snorkel 15y ago
  And yet I doubt that satisfying each of these requirements would actually make him less cranky.
• robfig 15y ago
  """ Food: I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up. """ Love it. Anyone know why?
  • staunch 15y ago
    Makes him hungry for breakfast.
    • hugh3 15y ago
      He doesn't drink coffee. If I didn't drink coffee I'd be cranky in the mornings too.
      • deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      • jrockway 15y ago
        He does drink tea, though, which is also a pretty good caffeine-delivery mechanism.
  • pwaring 15y ago
    I don't know why, but it's a new one since 2008 (I hosted a RMS talk then and still have the rider).
  • gwillen 15y ago
    As someone who does not eat breakfast, I imagine it's to avoid the kind of response I get when I tell my host I don't eat breakfast: "Oh, are you sure? It's no trouble? It's good for you! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Why not just eat breakfast with us?" etc. etc.
    • rbonvall 15y ago
      I can empathize with that, since I also have some traits that raise similar responses, which I'd rather avoid. But I'd better word my request as "please don't question my choices" instead of going into that much detail about them, which is precisely what I'd like to avoid in the first place.
• Androsynth 15y ago
  Given the kind of talks he does, I can see where he's coming from with this; it sounds like the kind of list that was built up over time. In general, I would imagine he doesn't want to repeat the kind of incident that happened at linuxworld 99, where the he was given the torvalds award[1]. 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDxMJQLXmBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDxMJQLXmBE
  • mekoka 15y ago
    ...so we can call it "GNU slash Linux" I never knew he pronounced the slash in GNU/Linux. Not very brandable IMO.
    • pluies 15y ago
      I think he pronounced it "GNU plus Linux" the time I attended one of his speeches. I don't know if he keeps on doing that, but it seems more elegant and positive than the slash.
• eliasmacpherson 15y ago
  Thanks for this, but I can't help feeling like something of a voyeur for reading. It really is a burden to be in a position where your communications are divulged publicly, to be dissected. He's hardly Van Halen.
  • Semiapies 15y ago
    This is a document designed to be given to complete strangers while making arrangements for his speaking engagements. It's not that personal, really.
• metafour 15y ago
  I apologize up front to those of you who take the following comments as me being purposefully obtuse. That's not my intent. I am not familiar with the intricate details of his message but on the surface it seems to me to be at odds, at some level, with the idea of it being ok to have a parrot as a pet. Software needs to be free or humans have a right to have free access to software but it's okay to keep a bird in a captive environment. Birds are meant to fly. Even if parrots aren't kept in a cage they're still kept within some confines. For those of you who have ever seen first hand a bird who surfs on wind drafts, remaining stationary in the air in the process, either on the edge of a canyon or just in a field somewhere; or a bird swooping through the Grand Canyon gets a sense of the freedom I'm inferring these birds are being deprived of. I'm perfectly willing to admit that I'm missing some piece of the puzzle but it seems hard to me to be able to reconcile these two ideas. Do you think he's ever thought about this?
  • outworlder 15y ago
    I had a parrot once. I have the following to say: Parrots should never be physically confined, either by cages or (god forbid!) chains. If they like you, they will hang around you on their own accord. After a while they seem to regard some humans as family. Mine would follow my mom around like a dog. As far as I know, they do not surf wind drafts, but they do require exercise. Therefore, you should have an open space. Either that, or take it outdoors at a safe location (no roads!) for it to fly. But most importantly, let it climb some tress, they love it - even more if it has fruits or seeds. It was difficult convincing mine to get out of trees - we usually had to resort to bribing. They can eat human food to some extent, mainly fruits and grain. I had trouble with parrot rations, because it was very picky and only ate what it wanted to (mostly the peanuts) and left the rest. If you do get a parrot, get a couple. It makes them happier and safer (a cat might attack and seriously hurt one - but it is unlikely to kill). A cat attacking two parrots would die before doing much. I don't really think that a pet parrot would be unhappy per se, provided the above holds. I can agree with RMS when he says that wild parrots would become unhappy. Unfortunately, mine was a wild one. What's more, judging by the behavior, he seemed to be the leader of his group - the others seemed to follow and imitate him. However, it was also the most docile and appeared to be the happiest one. The others didn't seem to be so well. But we did treat him as well as we could. The vet could not determine the cause of its death. I get the impression that, since it is an uncommon pet even here, he didn't have any previous experience. I think whatever it was, an experienced vet could have saved him. And I found years later that sunflower seeds have to be eaten in moderation, as they are very fatty. I am having a hard time using the pronoun "it". His death haunts me to this day and it's been almost two decades now. I never got any other pets.
• Anechoic 15y ago
  I've helped to organize large conferences in the past, and right now I'm organizing a reception to honor some prominent Boston-area acousticians. Given those experiences, I would absolutely love to have this kind of a rider for honorees and speakers. It removes a lot of guesswork in planning large events and would make things go smoothly. Sure, some of the statements in the rider might seem odd, demanding or even irrelevant, but it's all there black and white. It would save a ton of time coordinating with speakers beforehand making sure everything is in accordance with their (and our) expectations, and also save time in putting out fires during/after events when we find out that things are not set in accordance with their expectations. I've never seen RMS speak at an event (although I've been to events where he has attended), but from reading this I now know what to expect if I ever wanted to him to speak at an event. I would request that other notable speakers develop a similar rider, especially if you've had unpleasant surprises at past events. Let everyone know what they're getting into when they invite you. edit: I accidentally a couple of words
  • sfg 15y ago
    "It would save a ton of time coordinating with speakers beforehand making sure everything is in accordance with their (and our) expectations," Saving time is a probably one of the main motivations for this document. From the rider: "I have no vacations. (Don't feel sorry for me; idleness is not something I wish for.) I have to spend 6 to 8 hours every day doing my usual work, which is responding to email about the GNU Project and the Free Software Movement. Work comes in every day for me, and if I skip it one day, I have to catch up another day"
  • cdcarter 15y ago
    Agreed, I started reading it thinking I'd be very frustrated afterward, but this has the right amount of detail and no requests that are too unreasonable for a venue to handle. The event sponsor may have to deal with some of the more tricky ones, but I really wouldn't mind executing this rider. Especially compared to some of the ones I've seen.
    • Anechoic 15y ago
      Actually I think that some of those details are unreasonable, but at least (as an event planner) I would rather know that up front rather than finding out midway through the planning process and it being to late to find another speaker. Put it another way - if I had invited RMS and he sent that rider, I'd probably say "no thanks, we'll find someone else" but at least it would be at an early enough point that there would be time to find someone else.
• ethank 15y ago
  This is one of the least crazy and nicest riders I've ever read.
  • _delirium 15y ago
    It's also nicely explicit and consists of a lot of "tell me if you plan to do [x] up front so we can agree or disagree". The more common "policy" is for speakers to not list all these things in advance, but then threaten to pull out at the last minute when they find out they were paired with another keynote speaker they don't like, causing mad panics to smooth things over or find replacements.
    • ethank 15y ago
      That is what is so great about it: it's specific. If you look at the smoking gun's archive, you'll see the more seasoned touring bands have the same level of specificity. When you are respected, in demand, etc you know how people will screw you and prevent it in writing.
  • jsavimbi 15y ago
    > This is one of the least crazy and nicest riders I've ever read. If it were written by a spoiled, tantrum-prone twelve-year old. The whole thing reads as a set of instructions to the babysitter. My senses tell me that rms has an additional rider for his hosts as it applies to bath time as well.
    • ethank 15y ago
      I rather thing you are either trolling or do not know the specifics on "for hire" work when it comes to either: a) performing b) speaking c) creating value around information and how you disseminate it (RMS' case) Riders are there to ensure every edge case is accounted for, especially with people who do things like this often. The apt comparison is how you keep your desk at work. What if you arrived tomorrow and someone had moved your keyboard around, changed your mouse and messed up the calibration of your monitor?
• latchkey 15y ago
  I read the entire thing and all I could think about it was: Too Much Information. Seriously.
  • derleth 15y ago
    TMI is what a rider is there for. Its whole purpose in life is to enable everything else to run smoothly, so it needs to lay things out in detail that is nothing short of exacting, and if it verges on the anal-retentive that's just a few fewer things for people to worry about later.
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• masterponomo 15y ago
  I wonder: If he's sleepy and you don't provide a couple of Pepsi's, does he just nod off in mid-speech? "Let me remind you, it's not just Linux, it's Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
• LeafStorm 15y ago
  Some of the things in the rider are definitely odd, but the only one that I would really consider unreasonable is the "GNU/Linux" thing. Yes, I know that the GNU project has done a lot of work for Linux, but on the other hand there are a lot of Linux distros that do not use an all-GNU userland anymore.
  • chwahoo 15y ago
    I wonder what the "least-GNU" distro is at this point. Are there any that use LLVM/clang and uclibc, for example?
    • apostlion 15y ago
      Android is essentially GNU-less.
      • officemonkey 15y ago
        Well, the Linux kernel is GPL.
• slowpoke 15y ago
  I'm still amazed at this man. You can like or dislike his views, but he has more dedication and, more importantly, integrity in every hair of his impressive beard than most people can ever hope to have in their entire body.
  • maximusprime 15y ago
    Many insane people get obsessed by things. That doesn't make them impressive. It's sad IMHO.
    • slowpoke 15y ago
      There's a fine line between genius and madness, and in my opinion, rms treads it rather nicely. As I said, if anything, you have to acknowledge him for sticking to his beliefs no matter what. Whether that's obsession or dedication is subjective and for everyone to decide for themselves.
• gonzo 15y ago
  Whatever you do, do NOT let him stay in the home of someone you respect or like. I've done it twice, and both parties ended up literally burning the sheets, and wouldn't discuss further what had happened.
  • deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  • pwaring 15y ago
    Bit late, I've already done that. :) Although I don't remember hearing any horror stories, other than an amusing anecdote about how his ultra-free netbook wouldn't connect to the wireless, whereas the proprietary Macbook worked perfectly... http://www.ukuug.org/newsletter/17.2/#repor_paul_ http://www.ukuug.org/newsletter/17.2/#repor_paul_
    • jrockway 15y ago
      Why would you expect any different? Wifi is pushing the bleeding edge of how proprietary a technology can be. Short of buying a semiconductor fab and replacing every access point and wlan chipset on earth, there is not a lot Stallman can do to prevent this problem. (Even then, the FCC does not care for radios that can be modified by their users. So this is why he has to advocate for Free Software: it's already illegal in some applications.)
  • hugh3 15y ago
    Ew. I must say that the whole "please let me sleep on your couch instead of making me stay in a hotel room" bit was the most bothersome part of this whole rider. I respect RMS for his work, but I wouldn't want to let him in my house.
  • shinratdr 15y ago
    You absolutely must elaborate, please.
  • Udo 15y ago
    Details or it didn't happen.
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• savoy11 15y ago
  Come on guys, you can't be serious defending this crap and trying to find anything sensible in this list. He is just crazy.
• ivankirigin 15y ago
  If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. love it
• brownie 15y ago
  For a rider so detailed, I'm shocked that there are no details on performing "Free the Software". How will I know which key it is supposed to be?
• damncabbage 15y ago
  ESR looks infinitely more reasonable by comparison: http://www.catb.org/esr/travelrules.html http://www.catb.org/esr/travelrules.html
  • sneak 15y ago
    The fact alone that he can make ESR seem like a reasonable person by comparison must be a legitimate superpower of some kind.
• Lighting 15y ago
  > Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Is this a dialect or a typo. I would have thought he'd have said "... about what I will do FOR breakfast"
• jackvalentine 15y ago
  I detest Richard Stallman, probably not justifiably because I respect the work that he did 20 years ago, but cannot stand the man's absolutism today. However "I can speak in English, French, and Spanish." surprised me, and I see him in a different light, strangely.
  • johkra 15y ago
    If you want to get to know him a bit better, read his (freely licensed) biography: http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/faif-2.0.pdf http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/faif-2.0.pdf
    • jackvalentine 15y ago
      Thank you, I'll read it over summer.
• phzbOx 15y ago
  I, too, was disappointed by Richard Stallman' talk. We were a bunch of students in a conference in general software engineering. And he was invited to give a talk about copyright and freedom.. cool, right? Not exactly. He came in and started acting like he really didn't wanted to be there and didn't care at all about us, the place and the organizers. I'm usually not the kind to judge someone else dressing but Stallman' look was terrible. Not terrible like in "old geek" or whatever; terrible like I had pity of him. Seems like he didn't washed for days.. anyhow, let's continue for the talk. Before even starting, he started yelling "OPEN THE LIGHT", " I SAID OPEN THE GODAMN LIGHT". That was crazy as hell. Basically, what he wanted to say is "Please, open the light because I don't want my audience to fall asleep". But jesus, there's a way to say things and a way to say things. And, as much as I wanted to like him and the talk, it was extremely boring and even false at some points. And, with all that, it just makes me really sad. It makes me sad because this is such a genius and a legendary hacker but it seems that he stopped trying. It's like if you see someone trying to open a door by pulling really hard when it's clearly written push. And, you see that person getting frustrated and over frustrated about the fact that the door doesn't open. For me, Richard seems like that. There are ways to make things change. But you have to adapt. As someone already said "It's easy to go outside and whine, but true revolutioners dress up and change things from inside the system." (or something like that). Stallman could give so much if he wanted just a little bit, but he decided to keep pulling that door. Look, we get it, it's supposed to be called GNU os and not Linux. But there's a way to explain that to total newbies that don't know the history of unixes. It's not by being frustrated in front of an audience that people will understand and change their minds. Or when he talks about freedom, it seems so theoretical. Yeah right, Ubisoft should publish their code open sources and preserve the right on their assets. But comon, there are lots of money and families involved. Even thought it would be nice to have everything open source, in practice, you have to make trad-of. And, in my opinion, it's better to be practical and try to make the world a little better, rather than being an extremist and changing nothing. There's a reason why it's called Linux and not GNU; and yelling after everyone won't change that.
  • nimblegorilla 15y ago
    I agree totally. The most frustrating part about Stallman's "free software" is that he has to control how everyone else uses it. Linux people don't even get the freedom to name their own operating system.
• mark_l_watson 15y ago
  Love the part about the parrot, and Richard is right about never buying a wild parrot as a pet. My parrot was hand raised from an egg until he was old enough for us to care for him. Richard is also right not to own a parrot himself because he has to travel a lot. When I have to occasionally travel, a lady who my parrot likes a lot takes care of him (expensive!) but he still gets some separation anxiety being away from me and my wife. I can't imagine not owning a parrot, but I advise other people to not get them unless they have a lot of time for a pet. I literally spend over an hour a day playing with him, in addition to his hanging out on my shoulder while I work and write (My wife and I both work at home). It is great when he flies about 20 miles per hour to me, flairs up and thump!, lands on my shoulder. One issue, at least for my parrot, is that he always needs to be in the same room as either my wife or I if we are home. He seems really happy as long as he is with us.
• smacktoward 15y ago
  For comparison purposes, you can download the Foo Fighters' concert rider here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/foo-fighters-2011-tour-rider-872903 http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/foo-fighter... Perhaps Stallman's rider would be better received if he had provided it as a coloring book...
• nikcub 15y ago
  Make sure you feed him, otherwise this happens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
• ddol 15y ago
  We invited rms to speak at SkyCon '07[1], but he double booked and ended up not coming to Ireland. The rider has changed significantly since I received it in late 2006 - http://diffchecker.com/851d9eU http://diffchecker.com/851d9eU Can anyone point me toward more unique copies of this rider? I would like to be able to keep track of the changes over time. [1] http://skycon.skynet.ie/2007/ http://skycon.skynet.ie/2007/
• Artagra 15y ago
  I had the opportunity to see Richard Stallman speak, to participate in a Q&A session afterwards, and to ask him a few specific questions. I think he's a great man, whose acting with a huge amount of conviction and commitment to what he believes in - I have huge respect for this. I also think he's a bit crazy, but then so am I! I feel he could make a bigger impact for his cause if he was more moderated and accessible in his views, but I respect his views none the less. I think a detailed rider like this is generally a good thing, as it allows people to prepare more effectively. And from talking to the people who organised the event I attended, I think he's actually much more chilled out and reasonable than some of the things in the rider make him seem.
• alimbada 15y ago
  I'll just leave this here: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms
• mwexler 15y ago
  I particularly enjoyed this part of the rider: " Bus and train tickets: If you buy bus or train tickets for me, do not give my name! Big Brother has no right to know where I travel, or where you travel, or where anyone travels. If they arbitrarily demand a name, give a name that does not belong to any person you know of. If they will check my ID before I board the bus or train, then let's look for another way for me to travel. (In the US I never use long-distance trains because of their ID policy.) Don't give them your name either: please pay for the ticket in cash. " It's fascinating to see how far into the experience he lays out his expectations and concerns. The "no Coke" mentioned elsewhere here is also an interesting requirement.
• vladsanchez 15y ago
  Who the HELL cares about this guy?