I was being half sarcastic. I wanted to point out the religiosity around Apple. People read Stallman's statement, saw that it was about Steve Jobs doing bad t

I was being half sarcastic. I wanted to point out the religiosity around Apple. People read Stallman's statement, saw that it was about Steve Jobs doing bad things, and just shut down their brains. Some nearly accused Stallman of being happy about Job's death. Of course those strong reactions are totally unjustified. And despite what pg seem to suggest above, Stallman is very probably justified in doing his comment: Steve Jobs is being a martyr, and martyrs are nearly always a good thing for the cause they defend (here, the locked-down model of the iPhone and the iPad). The error of Stallman was purely strategic (or tactic). He didn't foresee that people wouldn't read what he wrote as he wrote it. He didn't foresee that they would quote him out of context. He didn't foresee the near-total lack of rationality of Apple fanboys. The problem is, I don't know how I could have avoided those mistakes if I were Stallman.