39 ms·

Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

1366 points by fury999io 3y ago

fury999io 3y ago
Timestamp: 2:16
freeqaz 3y ago
Some type of Lymphoma that is being managed, he said in the video. Does anybody have any other info about this?
- throwaway81523 3y ago
  The audio is really terrible, but he says that the cancer is being managed and that he will be around for many more years. I am glad to hear that. Before that, he talks about covid and long covid. But I couldn't tell if he says that he has long covid now. I know that he was being pretty careful to avoid covid, to the extent that's possible while travelling on planes as much as he does. I had some discussions with him about N95 mask fitting and testing. Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? That interferes badly with mask seals. I never had such a bushy beard myself, but before the pandemic I was lax about shaving and often had some beard growth. I keep it clean now so that masks will work better, Anyway, I hope he beats the cancer and stays healthy and active.
  - fury999io 3y ago
    No he don't have beards anymore https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallman_is_growing_older_pics_from_gnu_40_event/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallma...
    - isoprophlex 3y ago
      "Mature content. To view this, open in the app." Stallman weeps. Edit: link to old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallman_is_growing_older_pics_from_gnu_40_event/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallma...
      - Gigachad 3y ago
        It's a dark pattern but you don't have to use the app, if you log in it will let you view.
        microtonal 3y ago
        Also, old.reddit.com usually doesn't have all these shenanigans, so I just set up a redirect.
        isoprophlex 3y ago
        Nice, any tips on doing that for an entire home network? Or do you have to do it per device somehow
        ozr 3y ago
        I use a a chrome extension for it. Otherwise when I hit their wall on another device or browser, I just skip it. Reddit seems fine with killing themselves off, I'm not going to any great length to mitigate their mistakes.
        kstenerud 3y ago
        There are browser plugins to redirect to old.reddit.com.
        globular-toast 3y ago
        You can run your own DNS server locally. I run an unbound server on my router but you can also run dnsmasq on a raspberry pi or something. Pihole uses that. Then you can do whatever you want with local DNS (doesn't help with devices like Chromecast that ignore your local configs, for that you need your own router, which I also recommend. I use pfsense). You'll need a local webserver running to serve the redirect, but that's a simple nginx config. Maybe I'll write a blog post for this stuff...
        jraph 3y ago
    - psychoslave 3y ago
      He probably gave it to Noam Chomsky.
    - azangru 3y ago
      A completely different person. Wow.
  - colesantiago 3y ago
    > Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? You can a video of Stallman's now without his beard in his closing remarks at GNU 40th anniversary. https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/gnu40/closing-remarks-gnu40.webm https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/gnu40/closing-remarks-gnu4...
  - sambazi 3y ago
    > audio is really terrible almost like a rite of passage for a/v content from the foss sphere
  - jwestbury 3y ago
    > while travelling on planes as much as he does Does he travel on planes a lot? His speaking rider used to explicitly say that you should NOT book a plane for him, because he wasn't comfortable with the level of personal information required. In fact, he said you should book trains under a false name.
    - adulion 3y ago
      I seen him speak in ireland twice in the past 20 years so i assume he got here by plane
  - morita2342 3y ago
    On the topic of (long) covid, luckily he apparently is fully vaccinated (judging from the many times he wrote about the vaccine and mandates in his blog), so he likely won’t catch the new strands in the process of recovery or be in any danger of long covid.
    - ekianjo 3y ago
      There are still naive people who believe the vaccines do anything at this stage?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - vlugorilla 3y ago
    > Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? In minute 3 of the video he takes off the mask, he no longer has the beard
  - orblivion 3y ago
    His point about long covid is that it's a small but nontrivial chance of having brain fog for life and it would impede his work, and he suggests others make the same consideration for themselves. I think this implies that he doesn't have it.
- deepsummer 3y ago
  This is what's on his personal page, stallman.org: `Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphona, so he will probably live many more years nonetheless. But he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.`
  - killjoywashere 3y ago
    for the curious, "follicular lymphoma" is what you want to search for. Fairly pithy site to get started: https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lymphomafollicularnodalusual.html https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lymphomafollicularno...
    - yread 3y ago
      Specifically Prognostic factors - Median overall survival of > 15 years
    - kuerbel 3y ago
      My mother had it. It can be managed really well and also completely heal (in the context of cancer, which means a really low 5 year recurrence rate).
      - ricardo81 3y ago
        Yes, indeed. My father had it in '06 and lived for 16 years more (a different kind of cancer ultimately got him). After receiving a stem cell transplant in '09 he was cancer free for over a decade. The marvels of modern medicine.
  - Findecanor 3y ago
    I am almost recovered from slow-growing lymphoma myself. (not sure if the same subgroup, but both are B-cell lymphoma) I had my last doctor's appointment about it earlier today, in fact. The problem is that it is chronic. It can reoccur. And it can mutate into malign lymphoma. But some people go twenty or more years without it reoccurring. BTW. I got Covid-19 while having lymphoma. I recovered from that normally. But if I had also been under chemo, it would have been a different matter.
omgmajk 3y ago
I hope for a speedy recovery RMS.
fasteddie31003 3y ago
[flagged]
- rf15 3y ago
  Tasteless and inappropriate towards someone who suffers from a life-threatening disease.
- tudorw 3y ago
  Noxious and unwelcome, go and be unpleasant somewhere else.
  - fasteddie31003 3y ago
    It was an honest question. Interesting that it seems like I’m being rude.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  Easy—it sucks bigtime.
jhatemyjob 3y ago
Horrible fate. Freedom is in freefall.
- dtaht 3y ago
  All the that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
eurleif 3y ago
Asking out of curiosity, not to be cruel: I wonder if he's willing to use medical equipment that uses non-Free software? To my knowledge, his stated position against using non-Free software is pretty much absolute; but given that medical equipment's software is almost universally non-Free, taking that stance here would seriously endanger his ability to receive necessary medical care.
- ladyanita22 3y ago
  i'd bet many machines run on old Linux kernels with some shitty blobs and software on top.
  - thallosaurus 3y ago
    I got a slight feeling that most equipment runs on windows. Could also be wrong.
    - andrewia 3y ago
      Windows is common from what I've seen. When I did a brief interview with Abbott Medical Devices in the 2010s, Windows experience was mentioned.
    - milianw 3y ago
      sadly there's also a lot of QNX :(
      - elromulous 3y ago
        Ah QNX, one of the few remaining vestiges of the microkernel. I know it's not foss, and I'm aware of mach, but QNX still holds a place in my heart.
    - skywal_l 3y ago
      From what I know in the industry, Windows for the UI and some real time OS for control like VxWorks. But things are changing and linux is getting some traction. The healthcare industry is very slow moving (as it should be).
minebreaker 3y ago
He is the one who we need now, in the era of saas/cloud run by big tech. So sad.
- elliotec 3y ago
  We’ve always needed him, and just haven’t listened.
- _cenw 3y ago
  I always thought the advocacy was fundamentally correct, but way too distanced from achievable and realistic compromises within a system that wants profit over everything. The only real path would've been through legislation, and now we're back to setting your expectations to realistic.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    I mean, he succeeded in at least giving everyone the choice. I happily run entirely free software on my computers. But yes, it needs legislation to switch off copyright for software and make computing a human right.
    - HYTjfZKV96gUpz 3y ago
      > I happily run entirely free software on my computers You do? No graphics card? No (good) games? No firmware? And if so, how much of a premium did you pay for the lack of scale from your hardware vendor alone?
      - a-french-anon 3y ago
        >No (good) games Quake 3 is still free, you know.
        achenet 3y ago
        0AD as well is pretty sweet :)
H8crilA 3y ago
What's cool about RMS is that he perfectly foresaw many decades ago the world that we live in today: your car or smart fridge refusing actions because its software says so. And you cannot change the bloody software! I cringe every time I see encrypted firmware running in trusted execution environment, DRM, DLCs for fucking physical products, websites or apps that scam you into signing up or giving up some other freedoms, or some other corpo garbage made in this era. Tesla literally sells car speed upgrade as an over the air update. My phone makes it hard or impossible to install the software that I want, unless some corpo bureaucrat from Google or Apple decided they like this software.
- walteweiss 3y ago
  This very morning, my wife performed reset of cache/cookies from our family’s perfectly fine iPad 3 (yeah, the one from 2012, 11 years old). The iPad is our kitchen TV, it shows either some content from VLC (works perfectly fine, kudos to the devs) or some YouTube from Safari (the AppStore’s app support is long gone, web app still works quite well, even considering it was updated recently). Today I spent my morning trying to login our kitchen account. Didn’t work. The account is perfectly fine, but Google refuses to login, as — I’m pretty sure — we use our obsolete software. Well, we do, we do. But even YouTube itself works relatively fine, and as many of you may understand, the iPad is great and much beyond what we need for kitchen, it has a loud speaker and great display, we don’t need anything else for that use-case. On top of that that’s separate device is nothing to worry about, as you may imagine controlling the iPad with dirty fingers, all the oils of the kitchen, etc. Not a place for a modern iPad that we also have, imo. For me that’s a great example. I personally know many old (even obsolete iPads) lying here and there collecting dust, as their software (and hardware) vendor decided they are all in for nature and ecology (sarcasm), so let millions of perfectly capable devices would be thrown away as a trash. Eyeing some Android tablet for that, the one I can flash with Lineage OS and be happy with. Maybe Google’s Pixel C or even Nexus 7. Meanwhile we continue using the iPad unlogginned till it stop working.
  - aegis4244 3y ago
    Have you thought about the pinetab ? https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/ https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/
mid-kid 3y ago
So that's why he was bald in the video. Fuck...
gregopet 3y ago
Fuck cancer.
coffeemug 3y ago
The man saw nearly half a century ahead, and then did something about it. Wish him the best of luck, and, hopefully, full recovery.
- tharakam 3y ago
  I can't agree more!
yura 3y ago
RMS is one of the most amazing individuals that I know of, and has certainly changed my life forever. I wish he stays many more years in this world.
testermelon 3y ago
We are in dire need of succession. Can memories of his reasoning alone withstand the erosion of time in the mindshare of public discussion? I know FSF will codify stuffs and preserve things that are ideologically important. But without someone as strong-headed as him we will have a hard time defending freedom of software.
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
  RMS and the FSF have honestly and I guess unfortunately made their bed here. I think a lack of succession and to be frank the ageing population of people that care for the FSF are in large part a result of these folks conflating “fostering the development / use of free software” with “do things the way we did them 40 years ago, because that’s what we like”. I am not sure how many young people successfully penetrate these sorts of greybeard cultures, even if they want to.
  - KennyBlanken 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - kklisura 3y ago
      Your post is misinformation at best or disinformation at the worst. https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-against-richard-stallman.html https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-agai...
- yura 3y ago
  > But without someone as strong-headed as him we will have a hard time defending freedom of software. Anyone who is not as strong-headed as he is will have no hope of defending software freedom. The only thing I wish is that he would learn how to be more persuasive, i.e. improve his rhetoric skills. His reasoning and logical skills are exceptional, but winning over the public is not always about being right.
0xcb0 3y ago
This is so sad to hear! I wish him all the best and hope he can recover. I think he is one of the most influential persons in the last decades, not only regarding GNU or FreeSoftware but also about technology overall. While sadly at the same time lots of people underestimate his works and foreseeing. He has really been and still is an inspiration for me. Really all the best to him!!
questinthrow 3y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
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deleted 3y ago
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max_ 3y ago
This is so unfortunate. Cancer used to be something I would just hear other people getting until my Dad got it. The I understood that it was very real and that I can also be a victim. Do you guys know of any ways to reduce your risks of getting cancer? I know not smoking tobacco works. What foods, bad habits should one avoid. What other habits can reduce cancer risks? Are there any prophylactic techniques?
- James87211 3y ago
  Exercise. The single most effective thing you can do you keep your body healthy.
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    Nope not just that. Diet, not smoking not drinking will go a long way to reduce your risks too. And also keeping good vitamin D levels (highly correlated with lower cancer risk)
    - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
      But is that because vitamin d protects against cancer, or because cancer lowers your vitamin D levels? Or is it because people with higher vitamin D levels probably spend more time outdoors, and are getting more exercise? I wish it was easier to figure this stuff out.
- bdamm 3y ago
  Avoid sugar, alcohol, bacon, and exercise daily?
  - eternal_braid 3y ago
    This is great advice. Remember, though. You can still get it, even if you do all that. Having cancer is not a moral failure. Even kids may get it. Realizing, not in a philosophical way, one way way or another, that we will die, is something that changes you. Fewer reasons to accumulate fame and money. More reasons to make yourself happy in this life.
tibbydudeza 3y ago
A divisive character and not the easiest to deal with and rather cranky and very set in his ways (his web browsing via an email - eish) but without his early efforts there would have not been the FSF and GNU and later Linux. Right person at the right time - live long and prosper RMS.
- onetimeuse92304 3y ago
  Once you start reading some more accurate history of famous people in the past you will find out that pretty much everybody did things that today would get you canceled. Nobody is perfect. World is moved forward by imperfect people that are able to do something productive for the society.
  - Ensorceled 3y ago
    > pretty much everybody did things that today would get you canceled Do you have some examples of someone being “cancelled” in this way?
    - bsdnoob 3y ago
      Stallman himself
      - Ensorceled 3y ago
        The guy who just gave a well attended speech to loud applause and is getting gushing well wishes in this very conversation? The guy who is back at the FSF? That guy?
        calderknight 3y ago
        There is a difference between "cancelled" and "permanently cancelled and also hated by all". One can be cancelled but still adored by the masses - see Norman Finkelstein One can be cancelled but still adored by minority - see Socrates One can be cancelled but later regain his previous position - See Richard Stallman
mgd 3y ago
Sad to hear this. I hope for a fast recovery. I wouldn't have as much of an appreciation for free software had it not been for the FSF
gigatexal 3y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
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- fifteen1506 3y ago
  There was a note on stallman.org in which he said he was made aware of the mental implications that pedophilia, even with supposed consent, would have on the development of the person, and apologized for his previous stance. Can't find it now, though.
  - epolanski 3y ago
    It's quoted literally in the arstechnica article. > "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it," Stallman wrote. "Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per [sic] psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why."
  - acherion 3y ago
    Having a look at the Richard Stallman entry in Wikipedia[0] it menions this quote you're referring to, which links to this Engadget article[1] that links to rms's blog with that specific entry[2] [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman [1] - https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-17-rms-fsf-mit-epstein.html https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-17-rms-fsf-mit-epstein.html [2] - https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Sex_between_an_adult_and_a_child_is_wrong) https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September...
- epolanski 3y ago
  I don't think Stallman has been unreasonable in pointing out that rape definition is "forcing someone to have sex against their will" but, as per victim's deposition, she was instructed to seduce and have sex with Minsky by Epstein. Is it so unreasonable to not call Minsky a rapist? Even the victim herself points out that Minsky was not aware of her being coerced. I have no real sympathy for Stallman besides his FS movement, I find the man disgusting for many reasons, last but not least his hygiene, and his statements about pedophilia were another part of this disgust (albeit he later condemned his own words and apologized). But taking his words out of context to say that he is a rape apologists is no more than Twitter-level witchunting.
SillyUsername 3y ago
I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say... fuck cancer.
- redog 3y ago
  I think I speak on behalf of RMS when I say Fuck proprietary software!
jraph 3y ago
Here he is, 70, under chemo, giving a speech. He keeps being a force of nature. May he recover well, or at least have long enjoyable years ahead. He has/had arguable/unacceptable behavior, but I believe we strongly owe him. He has built incredible software, defined important stuff and kicked our asses in the right direction.
- PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago
  He's also been the victim of some pretty vile smear campaigns and is still going on. I know if I was the target of the crap he got, I wouldn't want to continue doing anything anymore.
  - op00to 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - oblio 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - jonahbenton 3y ago
        Knew him a long time ago. It's a very different thing not understanding what other people are, compared to bearing them ill will. Definitely interactively incompetent, but doesn't carry ill will.
      - tokai 3y ago
        [flagged]
        oblio 3y ago
        > Like clockwork. Doesn't make me wrong, even if you personally want to look the other way. Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37702077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37702077
jll29 3y ago
I wish RMS all the best for his health, a long and happy life. I also know that if he reads this, it will be from an Emacs mail client on his dusty ThinkPad in text mode (no X11 or Wayland) by sending a URL to a service he wrote that will email him the Web page back - a clean process without any using any tainted proprietary software. He only ever exchanged one sentence with me when we had dinner together with other computer scientists two decades ago in Edinburgh: "I don't do smalltalk." - and he didn't mean the programming language. :)
- kaptainscarlet 3y ago
  well written. sounds like an accurate description of him
- kristofferg 3y ago
  Thats hilarious. :) What traumatizing nicety did you subject him to in order to prompt that response?
  - jll29 3y ago
    I asked him if besides fighting for free (open source) software, we should also discuss freeing our data from corporate control; that in 2004 (I can now say exactly because he also gave an interview then [1]), so that topic was not much of a thing back then. [1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-interview-edinburgh.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-interview-edinburgh.html
- Biganon 3y ago
  The only thing he told me is "this t-shirt implies a political affiliation that isn't mine; I won't sign it." I had asked him to sign my t-shirt, that depicted him with a beret with a Gnu on it, in the style of Che Guevara
  - DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
    I think that's a valid and reasonable position of him to take, though. If I ever became a celebrity or public figure I'd be sure to take a course on public-relations and media-training - it's easy to (intentionally or otherwise) turn something innocuous into something worse - Che Guevara is currently a popular figure and a positive inspiration for many, but for many other people he represents a depostic regime that routinely violates human rights - world opinion could very quickly turn against the Che T-shirt meme and I wouldn't want any stories of how I signed something I'd later regret. (Yes, I know about RMS' history too (yes, that history) and I'm not defending that at all - but so far, of what I've seen, he seems to be wanting to avoid being misinterpreted by others, which is something I deeply empathise with, such is life-on-the-spectrum)
99112000 3y ago
I wish him all the best, fighting cancer is a tough battle. After he beats his own cancer, perhaps he has energy to defeat the cancer that is FSF.
- fuckyouraccount 3y ago
  [dead]
golemotron 3y ago
Crummy streaming. Why isn't this on YouTube?
- eloisant 3y ago
  Do you really need to ask? It's the GNU project we're talking about!
- nesarkvechnep 3y ago
  Think about it once more.
  - hk__2 3y ago
    > Think about it once more. There’s nothing to think more; the FSF should use YouTube or similar services as mirrors so people can watch the videos even when their website is hammered down by the HN crowd. You can hardly argue that the current situation where nobody can watch the video is a good idea.
    - taway1237 3y ago
      The FSF is ideologically opposed to youtube and other proprietary services. They don't want to use it and will not use it. It's their work and they have no obligation to you - it's like going to a vegan party, complaining they have no food you like and demanding they order some hamburgers for you. There's nothing to think more, the FSF shouldn't use YouTube or similar services.
      - hk__2 3y ago
        > The FSF is ideologically opposed to youtube and other proprietary services. They don't want to use it and will not use it. It's their work and they have no obligation to you - it's like going to a vegan party, complaining they have no food you like and demanding they order some hamburgers for you. There's nothing to think more, the FSF shouldn't use YouTube or similar services. It definitely should, but it doesn’t want to. That’s two different things. The goal of the FSF is to promote free software; that they don’t want to do it through proprietary mediums is obviously a legitimate choice, but that doesn’t make it intelligent.
tharakam 3y ago
̛If you check the surroundings, you will see the mess we are in. Virtually (?) there are 0 options for a viable IoT platform, mobile/desktop OS that doesn't annoy us. It could be privacy, locking, you name it, ... Only recently, I happen to realise, we could have listened to this man little more. Too late then, we are sold already. Recover well Mr Stallman! I wish you the best!
- lima 3y ago
  Linux desktop is more viable than ever. Zigbee/Matter/... are widely adopted open standards without vendor lock in. Things like Home Assistant are getting serious attention and funding. Could be much worse.
  - hkt 3y ago
    I can confirm: I've been using Linux on the desktop since I was 15, nearly 20 years ago now. Be not afraid, fellow nerds!
    - leansensei 3y ago
      Since 1997 here -- still my OS of choice, for desktops, laptops, and servers. I enjoy FreeBSD and NetBSD too, but Debian feels like "home". No surprises, no gotchas, no telemetry, no nonsense. Every time I have to use my Windows 10 corporate laptop, I become even more bewildered that people actually tolerate such a farce as their daily computing environment.
      - omgmajk 3y ago
        You and I are quite alike it seems, Linux always on some device, server, laptop since 1997 - Debian is home. I do tolerate Windows to some extent however, it doesn't bother me too much. But that might be the gaming nerd inside talking.
        vladislavv 3y ago
ngc248 3y ago
Wish him a fruitful recovery. Man's a legend
smudgy 3y ago
I talked with him briefly some 20+ years ago and he showed me his laptop with Free software. As I was younger back then I found it quaint but as I sit here and realize I'm doing something in the same vein, doing things thanks to a mountain of Free software. As I am prone to do when I'm brought back to that moment where I was just chatting with the RMS, I smile and wonder how many other dumb college compsci kids were exposed to a different kind of way of doing things that basically changed their lives. Get well soon Mr. Stallman!
pimpampum 3y ago
Ye should check Valter Longo and the Fast Mimicking Diet, it's been tried for accompanying chemo and it helps both against side effects and with better outcomes.
newscracker 3y ago
I hope he’s able to manage it well (since the prognosis is good) and is around for a lot longer. We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely. For a few moments, leave aside his personality and what people have said about his behavior or hygiene. If he hadn’t been there, our world would’ve been a lot different and a lot poorer. A visionary is what he was and is. While the Free part of FOSS is being substituted by “(just) open source” and “source available”, while DRM goes deeper into our lives, and while everything is becoming a “hosted service”, one can only hope for (and put efforts into) going back to the ideals he proposed and pushing back on the elements that control us and seek to do even more so. We all don’t have to be absolutists (it comes at the cost of convenience, which most people prefer), but there are enough of such people around the world as far as FOSS is concerned. Whenever I see FOSS meetups and people connecting over it, that’s something I’m grateful for and wholeheartedly support (though I’m not one of them).
- bitmadness 3y ago
  Does he have a reputation for poor hygiene?
  - camoleon 3y ago
    I think that might be referring to an incident where he picked at his foot then ate the pickings.
    - scaredginger 3y ago
      https://youtu.be/I25UeVXrEHQ https://youtu.be/I25UeVXrEHQ
  - op00to 3y ago
    Years and years ago he talked at my university lug. I picked him up in my car from the train. The BO smell remained in my car for WEEKS. Dude had a serious aroma.
    - shafyy 3y ago
znpy 3y ago
Wish him well, i hope he recovers fully and soon. So sad to hear this :(
PostOnce 3y ago
Stallman's character is one of the reasons I have repeatedly considered establishing some kind of "Church of Computing", i.e. an organized "religion" solely to secure religious protections and rights as they apply to the modern world. For example, the right not to have to use some random company's app to interact with a government agency or a public school (and agree to said company's EULA, etc). It only takes a few dozen people to create a church with legal standing in many countries. The FSF and the EFF are nice, but churches have additional legal protection for their adherents. It does sort of vaguely border on religious zeal at this point. I've told companies they can either talk to me on Signal (or email), wait til I arrive on site, or find another contractor, but I will not use WhatsApp no matter how much they pay. This also applies to, for example, Microsoft/Google/Amazon products where learning their APIs and products mean my human capital, my skills, can be revoked by someone I never met, made valueless, my income made moot, in a sense. Imagine having invested substantial time and effort into a proprietary ecosystem that was killed (by the company or its competition) and not being able to quickly leap into a competing esoteric, obtuse product.
- luma 3y ago
  You refuse to learn something because you are afraid that that thing might change and require you to learn new things? Maybe this isn’t the best industry for you.
  - omgmajk 3y ago
    This is not at all what he said, he refuses to use (learn) it because of ideological reasons. That is not the same. I can relate to some extent.
  - hkt 3y ago
    He's very much not saying this, he's saying he doesn't want a small number of very large companies to be in control of whether or not his skills are valuable at market. This could broadly be construed as an argument against the entire cloud/SaaS/PaaS/IaaS market, but it is still a very valid criticism. Most IT people are in some way subordinated by massive companies, and free/open source software is an escape hatch on that, because there's not a relationship of exploitation or control between users and community projects.
kome 3y ago
Richard Stallman changed the world, deeply. Everything we have around us is mostly because of him and his vision. FOSS keeps the world moving. We need his vision to inspire us to keep inspiring. And to help us understand what is right and what is wrong. I hope he will heal soon.
vlugorilla 3y ago
RMS has been such an inspiration for me, he's the reason I decided to contribute all my work to FOSS. I hope he can get better and continue with his life as usual!
squarefoot 3y ago
This is sad, I hope he will win this battle too. Get well soon, Mr. Stallman!
pvaldes 3y ago
It seems that we will have an Open Stallman finally, improved with all the non GPL code removed. I wish him the best and a good recovery. Richard, you can do this.
vfinn 3y ago
I hope you get better. You made the world a better place.
anticensor 3y ago
We really need a GNU Free Medical Products Licence.
mullikine 3y ago
Let's pray for RMS: Father God in Heaven, Please heal Richard Stallman of the cancer afflicting his body, and give him a strong will to endure all of this to the end. Let him keep his health through this period of his life here on Earth, LORD. And let both him and his legacy continue shine the light of freedom and transparency and human decency in this world, which is getting so dark. And keep him healthy through his chemo, please God. And give him the joy of Your salvation through Jesus Christ, and the hope of life eternal. Save his soul, please God. And if it is Your will, even make him a saint in the church of Jesus Christ, Your Son. Heaven wont be the same without him. In Jesus Christ's name I ask, Amen. I will continue to pray this for you RMS.
- mfalcao 3y ago
  [flagged]
marsven_422 3y ago
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TZubiri 3y ago
Fuck, I was hoping this moment wouldn't come
honeybadger1 3y ago
Sad news, even sadder that his critics just can't help themselves. He is greater than most, even if flawed.
- tentacleuno 3y ago
  Speaking of critics, I'm quite disappointed with some of the commentary on here, too[0][1]. Surely we can set our standards a touch higher than this sort of behaviour. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37705885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37705885 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37706055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37706055
oliverpk 3y ago
I hope he recovers, he's a programming legend.
deleted 3y ago
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sambeau 3y ago
Stallman, though not someone I’d want to deal with on a daily basis, is, I believe, a force for good in this world. We need terriers and geese honking and nipping the ankles of power.
kombai 3y ago
The largest discussion in this thread is about politics; The biggest tension at the GNU 40 years event was when an old Mr. was speaking about social economics and his attempts to make a local money in Basel (ch). Two american protagonists interrupted the speach telling it is too political. Later i talked to the one of them, a Chinese girl studiying in Harvard USA, she started telling me things about her big rich buisiness family and personal crypto projects she had in liberal finance field in Switzerland, she proposed me a job as a Solidity develloper. And I UNDERSTOOD why the previous speech was "TOO POLITICAL" for her. For me, FSF and GNU are not enought political; I was always disappointed of the FSF and GNU political positioning, while their fight is about freeing the world of proprietary licences (property right) they don't consider to support anticapitalists movements who are fighting for that to. Stallman was the only to publicly support the French left social-reformist party "La France Insoumise" with the candidat Jean Luc Mélenchon, and for me it means a lot. Now, let's say it; OF course I understand why this is strategic for them, but i don't stand for it because it is irresponsible and dangerous.
tegmark 3y ago
i hope he navigates this well and i hope he doesnt experience any pain but if people here are allowed to talk about his contribution then i should be able to do the same. i cant think of anyone who did more damage to software than him. his political zealotry, which didnt belong in a technical field, was very destructive. because of the poisonous vitriol that responses will undoubtedly have, i wont be reading responses. dont even bother.
known 3y ago
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clbrmbr 3y ago
One day I got a call from RMS’s assistant asking if I could help sell books for FSF at a conference. Not even bothering to ask what kind of conference it was, I said “For Richard Stallman, anything!” Two days later I found myself selling books alongside a self-described nomad and was approached by the leader of the communist party of Great Britain who shook my hand and said “I’m a big fan of your work.” Was one of those surreal moments.
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  I'm curious to know what the conference was; would you mind sharing that?
placesalt 3y ago
Wishing him a speedy recovery.
deleted 3y ago
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Bright_Machine 3y ago
Computing world will be a darker place without him. I wish HN crowd and tech enthusiasts stop worshiping latest Apple and Google products and teach others to use free software.
DonHopkins 3y ago
Here's what another great free software project leader Ton Roosendaal said about his experience with cancer, the lessons he learned, and the implications on leadership continuity of free software projects, in his 2020 BlenderCon closing address. Richard Stallman has certainly been successful inspiring Ton and others to do great work and carry the flame! I hope he has access to excellent healthcare, and is as lucky as Ton. Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosendaal: https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/jlaxaf/can_we_just_take_a_moment_to_appreciate_ton/ https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/jlaxaf/can_we_just... "Money doesn't interest me" - Ton Roosendaal interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg BlenderCon 2020 closing address transcript: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951703 DonHopkins on Oct 31, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosen... It's well worth watching and discussing the entire video, including Ton's introduction and close, bracketing all the amazing contributions by blender artists and developers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951550 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjmbsiflMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjmbsiflMU I think he saved the important personal news to discuss at the end, so it didn't distract from the virtual conference's focus on Blender itself, its community, and developers. Ton is an unstoppable lucky force of nature: First he survived a vicious ceiling attack, now he survived leukemia! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk&ab_channel=Blender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk&ab_channel=Blend... In the introduction, Ton says that it has been a year of introspection and renewal, and describes how the Blender organization has been restructured. That's followed by a series of mind blowing videos by a diverse worldwide bunch of talented Blender artists and developers. In his closing statement, Ton tells what has happened to him in the past months, explains his change of perspective, and the implication and changes at the Blender Foundation. Ton Roosendaal's BCON2020 Blender Conference closing address transcript: https://youtu.be/uEjmbsiflMU?t=5427 https://youtu.be/uEjmbsiflMU?t=5427 I think it is a quite common effect in films. Imagine, you are standing in the middle of a waterfall. It is noisy, it is messy, it is colorful, it is wet. You see everything is falling down. Suddenly stops, the jets are coming down. You see a bit of splashes. You are standing there in the darkness. On a black mirror. That's how it feels when the doctor tells you that you have leukemia. On February 24th, this year I was urgently hospitalized because I was developing bruises all over my body. I started to bleed on my mouth. The doctor said go to the hospital. Ton, we have to examine you. At midnight I got the infamous bad news delivery by the doctor that I have acute leukemia of the quite rare kind. It is called APL, which is not very common, but it is very lethal. So usually you don't survive two weeks with this, unless, of course, the treatment works. So that's what happened. They immediately gave me blood transfusions and chemotherapy, and luckily after a few days I was recovering. So I quickly moved from the critical phase to the phase of that you may get cured. Four weeks later I was released from the hospital. I was strong enough to join the rest of the world in the ... lockdown, staying at home. After five weeks I had my first bone marrow test, which was extremely good. And cancer was in remission, the doctor said. We are going to take you to the next phase, to cure you fully. And that's called the maintenance phase. Maintenance, right? Then he said, well ... actually it is 7 months of treatments in which you have to be four months in hospital. Not full time. But imagine in the afternoon you go to the hospital, they hook you up with the bag of poison, you wait three hours, you get sick, you go home, go to bed, in the morning you feel a little bit better. And in the afternoon you go back to the hospital. They hook you up, and you get sick again. That's for 4 weeks, and then you get 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks getting sick, and 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick, another 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick! It was last Friday, the last of the chemotherapy. And this morning I went to the doctor again to discuss the tests I had. And luckily my blood is fantastic, the bone marrow is looking really good, I could be declared cured. But there was one little test they are still waiting, is the DNA test, which will take another 2 weeks to get. But the doctor said I shouldn't worry about that. I'm recovering extremely well. So basically I've got my life back So ... And oh, how much I would have loved to sit together, today, at the conference with everyone because there would have been a conference and we would have thrown an enormous party not this year. So I'm telling you this because this whole experience has had a profound impact on me, on my personality, on my life of course, plus I had time to think. And I learned a couple of lessons. First, getting cancer and surviving it it is not a fight. It is not something you win, something you lose. You only need one thing. A little bit of discipline of course, to take care of yourself, eat well, do some exercises. But what you need is luck. And I was lucky. I was lucky that science found the right treatment for me. This is only 15 years old. This treatment for people with this kind of leukemia. I was lucky to have family, friends around me to stand by. I was lucky to have a team here in the company to stand by and to have. Francesco Siddi to replace me for 8 months, doing fantastic job on it. So I was lucky to live in the Netherlands, where there is a universal health care for everyone. So there was not a moment that I had to worry about what would the treatment cost, and the doctors didn't have a moment to think other than what can we do for Ton, to help him, to cure him, and to make it as good and easy as possible for him. So next time if you see people having cancer, don't wish them strength, or in Dutch "sterkte", just say good luck, and I wish you well, or a good day, a good evening. Other things that I learned was that I want to start taking better care of myself, and I want to, I have a feeling that I was sacrificing myself too much. So I want to put myself more forward, and also take care better of myself in a way that I can pay myself a little bit better. So I can afford a little house outside of Amsterdam with a garden. I also mentioned last year that at some moment I have to step aside from Blender, for the future, to allow other people to come in. And the process is been sped up, but not so much that I want to step down, but to get very strong people around me to help making Blender strong, and keep it strong, and move on, and step forward. Because the main thing I learned was that I was really really not ready to let that go. I couldn't let go of Blender, because that' s my life' s work. Blender is life, right. Blender is a community. It is a team of people here. It is everybody who is contributing. It's the developers. The bug fixers. It is the people that make add-ons. It is even the people who complain, or the people use Maya and don't like Blender. It is the forum trolls. And even the people who want to have the game engine back. So all of them are the people I love. And all of them I feel like is my family. And I would never let go of that family. So, enough drama, right? I want to end with a little more happy note. As you all know 2020 is not very nice. It is a year that we are going to forget. But the happy message is that 2020 didn't get me down, and I want to spread that positive vibe with everyone. So please take care of yourself, take care of each other, and a little bit of Blender. And I see you next year in Amsterdam, or somewhere else. Bye Bye!
FredPret 3y ago
I hope he gets better soon. The more the tech world develops and the more I learn, the more I start to like free & open source tech. I do think there will always be a a large and growing amount of space for paid software work, but the variety and quality of free software seems to go up and to the right over time.
tusharhero 3y ago
I had emailed stallman about this. My email: Greetings Dr. Stallman, First of all, Happy 40th GNUversary! I was not able to attend the GNU40 meeting in Switzerland, but I have heard rumours that you have announced that you have some form of cancer. Can you give me some more information about this? And is the cancer manageable? I hope you are around for many more years. --- tusharhero Stallman's reply: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] I'm glad you are concerned about my well being. At the same time, I am disappointed that people are spreading incomplete rumors, instead of passing along all of what I said about this. That is going to waste a lot of people's time and concern, just as it has done with you. My prognosis is good. I can expect to live many more years. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org https://internethalloffame.org)
- bjourne 3y ago
  Very kind of him to reply to you. Perhaps it is just my culture, but asking someone you don't know personally who has a potentially life-threatening illness what their prognosis is can be perceived as very rude. Stallman is sharing the information he wants to share and rest is none of our business.
  - 63 3y ago
    I think it would be rude under different circumstances but this is information that he already shared semi-publicly and would've shared with OP had OP been able to make it. Also I get the feeling that Stallman is enough of a pragmatist to not get too offended about that sort of thing though I could be wrong.
    - 93po 3y ago
      I personally think the more appropriate request would be to first research instead of asking him to answer your question, and if incomplete, secondly to kindly show interest in him, at some further point, discussing this more in a public way when he feels ready to do so. Obv he doesn't seem to mind the question. Just my approach.
garba_dlm 3y ago
I think it's impressive how he saw a danger, a possibility some 20 years before it was even a feasible technical reality referring to his story of "right to read" or something like that about books being able to get deleted of your bookshelf... and then Amazon making this a reality some decades later
collyw 3y ago
[flagged]
- meepmorp 3y ago
  Are you suggesting his cancer was somehow caused by being vaccinated?
  - collyw 3y ago
    I can't say definitively. But if you look at the linked article there has been a large increase in cancer since the vaccine rollout. Are you going to somehow tell us that they are safe and effective despite all the evidence to the contrary? Other oncologists reporting similar, and it is being covered up by mainstream media. https://kittywells.substack.com/p/london-oncologist-reporting-several https://kittywells.substack.com/p/london-oncologist-reportin... But go for it put your head in the sand and call me an antivaxxer.
    - meepmorp 3y ago
      > I can't say definitively. But if you look at the linked article there has been a large increase in cancer since the vaccine rollout. https://swizec.com/blog/pirates-downfall-causes-global-warming/ https://swizec.com/blog/pirates-downfall-causes-global-warmi... > But go for it put your head in the sand and call me an antivaxxer. Ok.
      - collyw 3y ago
        Will you be taking the next booster out of interest? Rushed out in record time. Tested on a few mice. But sure its safe and effective.
billy99k 3y ago
The video won't play for me. What kind of cancer does he have?
- acegopher 3y ago
  He says in the video that it is a "type of lymphoma".
- nabakin 3y ago
  https://youtu.be/vUwQLsWjA-g&t=2m https://youtu.be/vUwQLsWjA-g&t=2m
PHGamer 3y ago
he looks different without is locks
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
User23 3y ago
Cancer is no joke even when the prognosis is good. He will be in my prayers, even though he’d probably find that silly.
jjice 3y ago
While we joke that he's been an oddball at times, he is one of the most influential people in all of modern computing. GNU's impact on this industry can't be understated. I wish him the best.
rflec028 3y ago
[flagged]
bigbillheck 3y ago
There's an awful lot of non-free code in medical devices.
staringback 3y ago
Is he going to accept treatment from non-free medical machines?
adamc 3y ago
I guess everyone hitting it at once has brought the server to its knees...
Aspie96 3y ago
I have many disagreements with Richard Stallman. And I think he has many flaws. But I think the world is better with him than without him and that he's worked hard to further his mission. Not everyone should be like him, but it's great that he is. I sincerely wish RMS all the best.
pkdpic 3y ago
He's clearly a complicated figure but he was a big inspiration when I was transitioning into a tech career. I'll be sending him good thoughts. <3

1366 points by fury999io 3y ago

fury999io 3y ago

Timestamp: 2:16

freeqaz 3y ago

Some type of Lymphoma that is being managed, he said in the video. Does anybody have any other info about this?

throwaway81523 3y ago
The audio is really terrible, but he says that the cancer is being managed and that he will be around for many more years. I am glad to hear that. Before that, he talks about covid and long covid. But I couldn't tell if he says that he has long covid now. I know that he was being pretty careful to avoid covid, to the extent that's possible while travelling on planes as much as he does. I had some discussions with him about N95 mask fitting and testing. Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? That interferes badly with mask seals. I never had such a bushy beard myself, but before the pandemic I was lax about shaving and often had some beard growth. I keep it clean now so that masks will work better, Anyway, I hope he beats the cancer and stays healthy and active.
- fury999io 3y ago
  No he don't have beards anymore https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallman_is_growing_older_pics_from_gnu_40_event/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallma...
  - isoprophlex 3y ago
    "Mature content. To view this, open in the app." Stallman weeps. Edit: link to old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallman_is_growing_older_pics_from_gnu_40_event/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxmemes/comments/16ts15z/stallma...
    - Gigachad 3y ago
      It's a dark pattern but you don't have to use the app, if you log in it will let you view.
      - microtonal 3y ago
        Also, old.reddit.com usually doesn't have all these shenanigans, so I just set up a redirect.
        isoprophlex 3y ago
        Nice, any tips on doing that for an entire home network? Or do you have to do it per device somehow
        ozr 3y ago
        I use a a chrome extension for it. Otherwise when I hit their wall on another device or browser, I just skip it. Reddit seems fine with killing themselves off, I'm not going to any great length to mitigate their mistakes.
        kstenerud 3y ago
        There are browser plugins to redirect to old.reddit.com.
        globular-toast 3y ago
        You can run your own DNS server locally. I run an unbound server on my router but you can also run dnsmasq on a raspberry pi or something. Pihole uses that. Then you can do whatever you want with local DNS (doesn't help with devices like Chromecast that ignore your local configs, for that you need your own router, which I also recommend. I use pfsense). You'll need a local webserver running to serve the redirect, but that's a simple nginx config. Maybe I'll write a blog post for this stuff...
        jraph 3y ago
  - psychoslave 3y ago
    He probably gave it to Noam Chomsky.
  - azangru 3y ago
    A completely different person. Wow.
- colesantiago 3y ago
  > Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? You can a video of Stallman's now without his beard in his closing remarks at GNU 40th anniversary. https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/gnu40/closing-remarks-gnu40.webm https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/gnu40/closing-remarks-gnu4...
- sambazi 3y ago
  > audio is really terrible almost like a rite of passage for a/v content from the foss sphere
- jwestbury 3y ago
  > while travelling on planes as much as he does Does he travel on planes a lot? His speaking rider used to explicitly say that you should NOT book a plane for him, because he wasn't comfortable with the level of personal information required. In fact, he said you should book trains under a false name.
  - adulion 3y ago
    I seen him speak in ireland twice in the past 20 years so i assume he got here by plane
- morita2342 3y ago
  On the topic of (long) covid, luckily he apparently is fully vaccinated (judging from the many times he wrote about the vaccine and mandates in his blog), so he likely won’t catch the new strands in the process of recovery or be in any danger of long covid.
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    There are still naive people who believe the vaccines do anything at this stage?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- vlugorilla 3y ago
  > Can anyone tell from the video if he still has the big beard? In minute 3 of the video he takes off the mask, he no longer has the beard
- orblivion 3y ago
  His point about long covid is that it's a small but nontrivial chance of having brain fog for life and it would impede his work, and he suggests others make the same consideration for themselves. I think this implies that he doesn't have it.
deepsummer 3y ago
This is what's on his personal page, stallman.org: `Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphona, so he will probably live many more years nonetheless. But he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.`
- killjoywashere 3y ago
  for the curious, "follicular lymphoma" is what you want to search for. Fairly pithy site to get started: https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lymphomafollicularnodalusual.html https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lymphomafollicularno...
  - yread 3y ago
    Specifically Prognostic factors - Median overall survival of > 15 years
  - kuerbel 3y ago
    My mother had it. It can be managed really well and also completely heal (in the context of cancer, which means a really low 5 year recurrence rate).
    - ricardo81 3y ago
      Yes, indeed. My father had it in '06 and lived for 16 years more (a different kind of cancer ultimately got him). After receiving a stem cell transplant in '09 he was cancer free for over a decade. The marvels of modern medicine.
- Findecanor 3y ago
  I am almost recovered from slow-growing lymphoma myself. (not sure if the same subgroup, but both are B-cell lymphoma) I had my last doctor's appointment about it earlier today, in fact. The problem is that it is chronic. It can reoccur. And it can mutate into malign lymphoma. But some people go twenty or more years without it reoccurring. BTW. I got Covid-19 while having lymphoma. I recovered from that normally. But if I had also been under chemo, it would have been a different matter.

omgmajk 3y ago

I hope for a speedy recovery RMS.

fasteddie31003 3y ago

[flagged]

rf15 3y ago
Tasteless and inappropriate towards someone who suffers from a life-threatening disease.
tudorw 3y ago
Noxious and unwelcome, go and be unpleasant somewhere else.
- fasteddie31003 3y ago
  It was an honest question. Interesting that it seems like I’m being rude.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Easy—it sucks bigtime.

jhatemyjob 3y ago

Horrible fate. Freedom is in freefall.

dtaht 3y ago
All the that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

eurleif 3y ago

Asking out of curiosity, not to be cruel: I wonder if he's willing to use medical equipment that uses non-Free software? To my knowledge, his stated position against using non-Free software is pretty much absolute; but given that medical equipment's software is almost universally non-Free, taking that stance here would seriously endanger his ability to receive necessary medical care.

ladyanita22 3y ago
i'd bet many machines run on old Linux kernels with some shitty blobs and software on top.
- thallosaurus 3y ago
  I got a slight feeling that most equipment runs on windows. Could also be wrong.
  - andrewia 3y ago
    Windows is common from what I've seen. When I did a brief interview with Abbott Medical Devices in the 2010s, Windows experience was mentioned.
  - milianw 3y ago
    sadly there's also a lot of QNX :(
    - elromulous 3y ago
      Ah QNX, one of the few remaining vestiges of the microkernel. I know it's not foss, and I'm aware of mach, but QNX still holds a place in my heart.
  - skywal_l 3y ago
    From what I know in the industry, Windows for the UI and some real time OS for control like VxWorks. But things are changing and linux is getting some traction. The healthcare industry is very slow moving (as it should be).

minebreaker 3y ago

He is the one who we need now, in the era of saas/cloud run by big tech. So sad.

elliotec 3y ago
We’ve always needed him, and just haven’t listened.
_cenw 3y ago
I always thought the advocacy was fundamentally correct, but way too distanced from achievable and realistic compromises within a system that wants profit over everything. The only real path would've been through legislation, and now we're back to setting your expectations to realistic.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  I mean, he succeeded in at least giving everyone the choice. I happily run entirely free software on my computers. But yes, it needs legislation to switch off copyright for software and make computing a human right.
  - HYTjfZKV96gUpz 3y ago
    > I happily run entirely free software on my computers You do? No graphics card? No (good) games? No firmware? And if so, how much of a premium did you pay for the lack of scale from your hardware vendor alone?
    - a-french-anon 3y ago
      >No (good) games Quake 3 is still free, you know.
      - achenet 3y ago
        0AD as well is pretty sweet :)

H8crilA 3y ago

What's cool about RMS is that he perfectly foresaw many decades ago the world that we live in today: your car or smart fridge refusing actions because its software says so. And you cannot change the bloody software! I cringe every time I see encrypted firmware running in trusted execution environment, DRM, DLCs for fucking physical products, websites or apps that scam you into signing up or giving up some other freedoms, or some other corpo garbage made in this era. Tesla literally sells car speed upgrade as an over the air update. My phone makes it hard or impossible to install the software that I want, unless some corpo bureaucrat from Google or Apple decided they like this software.

walteweiss 3y ago
This very morning, my wife performed reset of cache/cookies from our family’s perfectly fine iPad 3 (yeah, the one from 2012, 11 years old). The iPad is our kitchen TV, it shows either some content from VLC (works perfectly fine, kudos to the devs) or some YouTube from Safari (the AppStore’s app support is long gone, web app still works quite well, even considering it was updated recently). Today I spent my morning trying to login our kitchen account. Didn’t work. The account is perfectly fine, but Google refuses to login, as — I’m pretty sure — we use our obsolete software. Well, we do, we do. But even YouTube itself works relatively fine, and as many of you may understand, the iPad is great and much beyond what we need for kitchen, it has a loud speaker and great display, we don’t need anything else for that use-case. On top of that that’s separate device is nothing to worry about, as you may imagine controlling the iPad with dirty fingers, all the oils of the kitchen, etc. Not a place for a modern iPad that we also have, imo. For me that’s a great example. I personally know many old (even obsolete iPads) lying here and there collecting dust, as their software (and hardware) vendor decided they are all in for nature and ecology (sarcasm), so let millions of perfectly capable devices would be thrown away as a trash. Eyeing some Android tablet for that, the one I can flash with Lineage OS and be happy with. Maybe Google’s Pixel C or even Nexus 7. Meanwhile we continue using the iPad unlogginned till it stop working.
- aegis4244 3y ago
  Have you thought about the pinetab ? https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/ https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/

mid-kid 3y ago

So that's why he was bald in the video. Fuck...

gregopet 3y ago

Fuck cancer.

coffeemug 3y ago

The man saw nearly half a century ahead, and then did something about it. Wish him the best of luck, and, hopefully, full recovery.

tharakam 3y ago
I can't agree more!

yura 3y ago

RMS is one of the most amazing individuals that I know of, and has certainly changed my life forever. I wish he stays many more years in this world.

testermelon 3y ago

We are in dire need of succession. Can memories of his reasoning alone withstand the erosion of time in the mindshare of public discussion? I know FSF will codify stuffs and preserve things that are ideologically important. But without someone as strong-headed as him we will have a hard time defending freedom of software.

tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
RMS and the FSF have honestly and I guess unfortunately made their bed here. I think a lack of succession and to be frank the ageing population of people that care for the FSF are in large part a result of these folks conflating “fostering the development / use of free software” with “do things the way we did them 40 years ago, because that’s what we like”. I am not sure how many young people successfully penetrate these sorts of greybeard cultures, even if they want to.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
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  - kklisura 3y ago
    Your post is misinformation at best or disinformation at the worst. https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-against-richard-stallman.html https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-agai...
yura 3y ago
> But without someone as strong-headed as him we will have a hard time defending freedom of software. Anyone who is not as strong-headed as he is will have no hope of defending software freedom. The only thing I wish is that he would learn how to be more persuasive, i.e. improve his rhetoric skills. His reasoning and logical skills are exceptional, but winning over the public is not always about being right.

0xcb0 3y ago

This is so sad to hear! I wish him all the best and hope he can recover. I think he is one of the most influential persons in the last decades, not only regarding GNU or FreeSoftware but also about technology overall. While sadly at the same time lots of people underestimate his works and foreseeing. He has really been and still is an inspiration for me. Really all the best to him!!

questinthrow 3y ago

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max_ 3y ago

This is so unfortunate. Cancer used to be something I would just hear other people getting until my Dad got it. The I understood that it was very real and that I can also be a victim. Do you guys know of any ways to reduce your risks of getting cancer? I know not smoking tobacco works. What foods, bad habits should one avoid. What other habits can reduce cancer risks? Are there any prophylactic techniques?

James87211 3y ago
Exercise. The single most effective thing you can do you keep your body healthy.
- ekianjo 3y ago
  Nope not just that. Diet, not smoking not drinking will go a long way to reduce your risks too. And also keeping good vitamin D levels (highly correlated with lower cancer risk)
  - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
    But is that because vitamin d protects against cancer, or because cancer lowers your vitamin D levels? Or is it because people with higher vitamin D levels probably spend more time outdoors, and are getting more exercise? I wish it was easier to figure this stuff out.
bdamm 3y ago
Avoid sugar, alcohol, bacon, and exercise daily?
- eternal_braid 3y ago
  This is great advice. Remember, though. You can still get it, even if you do all that. Having cancer is not a moral failure. Even kids may get it. Realizing, not in a philosophical way, one way way or another, that we will die, is something that changes you. Fewer reasons to accumulate fame and money. More reasons to make yourself happy in this life.

tibbydudeza 3y ago

A divisive character and not the easiest to deal with and rather cranky and very set in his ways (his web browsing via an email - eish) but without his early efforts there would have not been the FSF and GNU and later Linux. Right person at the right time - live long and prosper RMS.

onetimeuse92304 3y ago
Once you start reading some more accurate history of famous people in the past you will find out that pretty much everybody did things that today would get you canceled. Nobody is perfect. World is moved forward by imperfect people that are able to do something productive for the society.
- Ensorceled 3y ago
  > pretty much everybody did things that today would get you canceled Do you have some examples of someone being “cancelled” in this way?
  - bsdnoob 3y ago
    Stallman himself
    - Ensorceled 3y ago
      The guy who just gave a well attended speech to loud applause and is getting gushing well wishes in this very conversation? The guy who is back at the FSF? That guy?
      - calderknight 3y ago
        There is a difference between "cancelled" and "permanently cancelled and also hated by all". One can be cancelled but still adored by the masses - see Norman Finkelstein One can be cancelled but still adored by minority - see Socrates One can be cancelled but later regain his previous position - See Richard Stallman

mgd 3y ago

Sad to hear this. I hope for a fast recovery. I wouldn't have as much of an appreciation for free software had it not been for the FSF

gigatexal 3y ago

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deleted 3y ago
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fifteen1506 3y ago
There was a note on stallman.org in which he said he was made aware of the mental implications that pedophilia, even with supposed consent, would have on the development of the person, and apologized for his previous stance. Can't find it now, though.
- epolanski 3y ago
  It's quoted literally in the arstechnica article. > "Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it," Stallman wrote. "Through personal conversations in recent years, I've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per [sic] psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why."
- acherion 3y ago
  Having a look at the Richard Stallman entry in Wikipedia[0] it menions this quote you're referring to, which links to this Engadget article[1] that links to rms's blog with that specific entry[2] [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman [1] - https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-17-rms-fsf-mit-epstein.html https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-17-rms-fsf-mit-epstein.html [2] - https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September_2019_(Sex_between_an_adult_and_a_child_is_wrong) https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#14_September...
epolanski 3y ago
I don't think Stallman has been unreasonable in pointing out that rape definition is "forcing someone to have sex against their will" but, as per victim's deposition, she was instructed to seduce and have sex with Minsky by Epstein. Is it so unreasonable to not call Minsky a rapist? Even the victim herself points out that Minsky was not aware of her being coerced. I have no real sympathy for Stallman besides his FS movement, I find the man disgusting for many reasons, last but not least his hygiene, and his statements about pedophilia were another part of this disgust (albeit he later condemned his own words and apologized). But taking his words out of context to say that he is a rape apologists is no more than Twitter-level witchunting.

SillyUsername 3y ago

I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say... fuck cancer.

redog 3y ago
I think I speak on behalf of RMS when I say Fuck proprietary software!

jraph 3y ago

Here he is, 70, under chemo, giving a speech. He keeps being a force of nature. May he recover well, or at least have long enjoyable years ahead. He has/had arguable/unacceptable behavior, but I believe we strongly owe him. He has built incredible software, defined important stuff and kicked our asses in the right direction.

PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago
He's also been the victim of some pretty vile smear campaigns and is still going on. I know if I was the target of the crap he got, I wouldn't want to continue doing anything anymore.
- op00to 3y ago
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  - oblio 3y ago
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    - jonahbenton 3y ago
      Knew him a long time ago. It's a very different thing not understanding what other people are, compared to bearing them ill will. Definitely interactively incompetent, but doesn't carry ill will.
    - tokai 3y ago
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      - oblio 3y ago
        > Like clockwork. Doesn't make me wrong, even if you personally want to look the other way. Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37702077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37702077

jll29 3y ago

I wish RMS all the best for his health, a long and happy life. I also know that if he reads this, it will be from an Emacs mail client on his dusty ThinkPad in text mode (no X11 or Wayland) by sending a URL to a service he wrote that will email him the Web page back - a clean process without any using any tainted proprietary software. He only ever exchanged one sentence with me when we had dinner together with other computer scientists two decades ago in Edinburgh: "I don't do smalltalk." - and he didn't mean the programming language. :)

kaptainscarlet 3y ago
well written. sounds like an accurate description of him
kristofferg 3y ago
Thats hilarious. :) What traumatizing nicety did you subject him to in order to prompt that response?
- jll29 3y ago
  I asked him if besides fighting for free (open source) software, we should also discuss freeing our data from corporate control; that in 2004 (I can now say exactly because he also gave an interview then [1]), so that topic was not much of a thing back then. [1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-interview-edinburgh.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-interview-edinburgh.html
Biganon 3y ago
The only thing he told me is "this t-shirt implies a political affiliation that isn't mine; I won't sign it." I had asked him to sign my t-shirt, that depicted him with a beret with a Gnu on it, in the style of Che Guevara
- DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
  I think that's a valid and reasonable position of him to take, though. If I ever became a celebrity or public figure I'd be sure to take a course on public-relations and media-training - it's easy to (intentionally or otherwise) turn something innocuous into something worse - Che Guevara is currently a popular figure and a positive inspiration for many, but for many other people he represents a depostic regime that routinely violates human rights - world opinion could very quickly turn against the Che T-shirt meme and I wouldn't want any stories of how I signed something I'd later regret. (Yes, I know about RMS' history too (yes, that history) and I'm not defending that at all - but so far, of what I've seen, he seems to be wanting to avoid being misinterpreted by others, which is something I deeply empathise with, such is life-on-the-spectrum)

99112000 3y ago

I wish him all the best, fighting cancer is a tough battle. After he beats his own cancer, perhaps he has energy to defeat the cancer that is FSF.

fuckyouraccount 3y ago
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golemotron 3y ago

Crummy streaming. Why isn't this on YouTube?

eloisant 3y ago
Do you really need to ask? It's the GNU project we're talking about!
nesarkvechnep 3y ago
Think about it once more.
- hk__2 3y ago
  > Think about it once more. There’s nothing to think more; the FSF should use YouTube or similar services as mirrors so people can watch the videos even when their website is hammered down by the HN crowd. You can hardly argue that the current situation where nobody can watch the video is a good idea.
  - taway1237 3y ago
    The FSF is ideologically opposed to youtube and other proprietary services. They don't want to use it and will not use it. It's their work and they have no obligation to you - it's like going to a vegan party, complaining they have no food you like and demanding they order some hamburgers for you. There's nothing to think more, the FSF shouldn't use YouTube or similar services.
    - hk__2 3y ago
      > The FSF is ideologically opposed to youtube and other proprietary services. They don't want to use it and will not use it. It's their work and they have no obligation to you - it's like going to a vegan party, complaining they have no food you like and demanding they order some hamburgers for you. There's nothing to think more, the FSF shouldn't use YouTube or similar services. It definitely should, but it doesn’t want to. That’s two different things. The goal of the FSF is to promote free software; that they don’t want to do it through proprietary mediums is obviously a legitimate choice, but that doesn’t make it intelligent.

tharakam 3y ago

̛If you check the surroundings, you will see the mess we are in. Virtually (?) there are 0 options for a viable IoT platform, mobile/desktop OS that doesn't annoy us. It could be privacy, locking, you name it, ... Only recently, I happen to realise, we could have listened to this man little more. Too late then, we are sold already. Recover well Mr Stallman! I wish you the best!

lima 3y ago
Linux desktop is more viable than ever. Zigbee/Matter/... are widely adopted open standards without vendor lock in. Things like Home Assistant are getting serious attention and funding. Could be much worse.
- hkt 3y ago
  I can confirm: I've been using Linux on the desktop since I was 15, nearly 20 years ago now. Be not afraid, fellow nerds!
  - leansensei 3y ago
    Since 1997 here -- still my OS of choice, for desktops, laptops, and servers. I enjoy FreeBSD and NetBSD too, but Debian feels like "home". No surprises, no gotchas, no telemetry, no nonsense. Every time I have to use my Windows 10 corporate laptop, I become even more bewildered that people actually tolerate such a farce as their daily computing environment.
    - omgmajk 3y ago
      You and I are quite alike it seems, Linux always on some device, server, laptop since 1997 - Debian is home. I do tolerate Windows to some extent however, it doesn't bother me too much. But that might be the gaming nerd inside talking.
      - vladislavv 3y ago

ngc248 3y ago

Wish him a fruitful recovery. Man's a legend

smudgy 3y ago

I talked with him briefly some 20+ years ago and he showed me his laptop with Free software. As I was younger back then I found it quaint but as I sit here and realize I'm doing something in the same vein, doing things thanks to a mountain of Free software. As I am prone to do when I'm brought back to that moment where I was just chatting with the RMS, I smile and wonder how many other dumb college compsci kids were exposed to a different kind of way of doing things that basically changed their lives. Get well soon Mr. Stallman!

pimpampum 3y ago

Ye should check Valter Longo and the Fast Mimicking Diet, it's been tried for accompanying chemo and it helps both against side effects and with better outcomes.

newscracker 3y ago

I hope he’s able to manage it well (since the prognosis is good) and is around for a lot longer. We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely. For a few moments, leave aside his personality and what people have said about his behavior or hygiene. If he hadn’t been there, our world would’ve been a lot different and a lot poorer. A visionary is what he was and is. While the Free part of FOSS is being substituted by “(just) open source” and “source available”, while DRM goes deeper into our lives, and while everything is becoming a “hosted service”, one can only hope for (and put efforts into) going back to the ideals he proposed and pushing back on the elements that control us and seek to do even more so. We all don’t have to be absolutists (it comes at the cost of convenience, which most people prefer), but there are enough of such people around the world as far as FOSS is concerned. Whenever I see FOSS meetups and people connecting over it, that’s something I’m grateful for and wholeheartedly support (though I’m not one of them).

bitmadness 3y ago
Does he have a reputation for poor hygiene?
- camoleon 3y ago
  I think that might be referring to an incident where he picked at his foot then ate the pickings.
  - scaredginger 3y ago
    https://youtu.be/I25UeVXrEHQ https://youtu.be/I25UeVXrEHQ
- op00to 3y ago
  Years and years ago he talked at my university lug. I picked him up in my car from the train. The BO smell remained in my car for WEEKS. Dude had a serious aroma.
  - shafyy 3y ago

znpy 3y ago

Wish him well, i hope he recovers fully and soon. So sad to hear this :(

PostOnce 3y ago

Stallman's character is one of the reasons I have repeatedly considered establishing some kind of "Church of Computing", i.e. an organized "religion" solely to secure religious protections and rights as they apply to the modern world. For example, the right not to have to use some random company's app to interact with a government agency or a public school (and agree to said company's EULA, etc). It only takes a few dozen people to create a church with legal standing in many countries. The FSF and the EFF are nice, but churches have additional legal protection for their adherents. It does sort of vaguely border on religious zeal at this point. I've told companies they can either talk to me on Signal (or email), wait til I arrive on site, or find another contractor, but I will not use WhatsApp no matter how much they pay. This also applies to, for example, Microsoft/Google/Amazon products where learning their APIs and products mean my human capital, my skills, can be revoked by someone I never met, made valueless, my income made moot, in a sense. Imagine having invested substantial time and effort into a proprietary ecosystem that was killed (by the company or its competition) and not being able to quickly leap into a competing esoteric, obtuse product.

luma 3y ago
You refuse to learn something because you are afraid that that thing might change and require you to learn new things? Maybe this isn’t the best industry for you.
- omgmajk 3y ago
  This is not at all what he said, he refuses to use (learn) it because of ideological reasons. That is not the same. I can relate to some extent.
- hkt 3y ago
  He's very much not saying this, he's saying he doesn't want a small number of very large companies to be in control of whether or not his skills are valuable at market. This could broadly be construed as an argument against the entire cloud/SaaS/PaaS/IaaS market, but it is still a very valid criticism. Most IT people are in some way subordinated by massive companies, and free/open source software is an escape hatch on that, because there's not a relationship of exploitation or control between users and community projects.

kome 3y ago

Richard Stallman changed the world, deeply. Everything we have around us is mostly because of him and his vision. FOSS keeps the world moving. We need his vision to inspire us to keep inspiring. And to help us understand what is right and what is wrong. I hope he will heal soon.

vlugorilla 3y ago

RMS has been such an inspiration for me, he's the reason I decided to contribute all my work to FOSS. I hope he can get better and continue with his life as usual!

squarefoot 3y ago

This is sad, I hope he will win this battle too. Get well soon, Mr. Stallman!

pvaldes 3y ago

It seems that we will have an Open Stallman finally, improved with all the non GPL code removed. I wish him the best and a good recovery. Richard, you can do this.

vfinn 3y ago

I hope you get better. You made the world a better place.

anticensor 3y ago

We really need a GNU Free Medical Products Licence.

mullikine 3y ago

Let's pray for RMS: Father God in Heaven, Please heal Richard Stallman of the cancer afflicting his body, and give him a strong will to endure all of this to the end. Let him keep his health through this period of his life here on Earth, LORD. And let both him and his legacy continue shine the light of freedom and transparency and human decency in this world, which is getting so dark. And keep him healthy through his chemo, please God. And give him the joy of Your salvation through Jesus Christ, and the hope of life eternal. Save his soul, please God. And if it is Your will, even make him a saint in the church of Jesus Christ, Your Son. Heaven wont be the same without him. In Jesus Christ's name I ask, Amen. I will continue to pray this for you RMS.

mfalcao 3y ago
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marsven_422 3y ago

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TZubiri 3y ago

Fuck, I was hoping this moment wouldn't come

honeybadger1 3y ago

Sad news, even sadder that his critics just can't help themselves. He is greater than most, even if flawed.

tentacleuno 3y ago
Speaking of critics, I'm quite disappointed with some of the commentary on here, too[0][1]. Surely we can set our standards a touch higher than this sort of behaviour. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37705885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37705885 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37706055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37706055

oliverpk 3y ago

I hope he recovers, he's a programming legend.

deleted 3y ago

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sambeau 3y ago

Stallman, though not someone I’d want to deal with on a daily basis, is, I believe, a force for good in this world. We need terriers and geese honking and nipping the ankles of power.

kombai 3y ago

The largest discussion in this thread is about politics; The biggest tension at the GNU 40 years event was when an old Mr. was speaking about social economics and his attempts to make a local money in Basel (ch). Two american protagonists interrupted the speach telling it is too political. Later i talked to the one of them, a Chinese girl studiying in Harvard USA, she started telling me things about her big rich buisiness family and personal crypto projects she had in liberal finance field in Switzerland, she proposed me a job as a Solidity develloper. And I UNDERSTOOD why the previous speech was "TOO POLITICAL" for her. For me, FSF and GNU are not enought political; I was always disappointed of the FSF and GNU political positioning, while their fight is about freeing the world of proprietary licences (property right) they don't consider to support anticapitalists movements who are fighting for that to. Stallman was the only to publicly support the French left social-reformist party "La France Insoumise" with the candidat Jean Luc Mélenchon, and for me it means a lot. Now, let's say it; OF course I understand why this is strategic for them, but i don't stand for it because it is irresponsible and dangerous.

tegmark 3y ago

i hope he navigates this well and i hope he doesnt experience any pain but if people here are allowed to talk about his contribution then i should be able to do the same. i cant think of anyone who did more damage to software than him. his political zealotry, which didnt belong in a technical field, was very destructive. because of the poisonous vitriol that responses will undoubtedly have, i wont be reading responses. dont even bother.

known 3y ago

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fuckyouraccount 3y ago

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clbrmbr 3y ago

One day I got a call from RMS’s assistant asking if I could help sell books for FSF at a conference. Not even bothering to ask what kind of conference it was, I said “For Richard Stallman, anything!” Two days later I found myself selling books alongside a self-described nomad and was approached by the leader of the communist party of Great Britain who shook my hand and said “I’m a big fan of your work.” Was one of those surreal moments.

seabass-labrax 3y ago
I'm curious to know what the conference was; would you mind sharing that?

placesalt 3y ago

Wishing him a speedy recovery.

deleted 3y ago

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Bright_Machine 3y ago

Computing world will be a darker place without him. I wish HN crowd and tech enthusiasts stop worshiping latest Apple and Google products and teach others to use free software.

DonHopkins 3y ago

Here's what another great free software project leader Ton Roosendaal said about his experience with cancer, the lessons he learned, and the implications on leadership continuity of free software projects, in his 2020 BlenderCon closing address. Richard Stallman has certainly been successful inspiring Ton and others to do great work and carry the flame! I hope he has access to excellent healthcare, and is as lucky as Ton. Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosendaal: https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/jlaxaf/can_we_just_take_a_moment_to_appreciate_ton/ https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/jlaxaf/can_we_just... "Money doesn't interest me" - Ton Roosendaal interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg BlenderCon 2020 closing address transcript: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951703 DonHopkins on Oct 31, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosen... It's well worth watching and discussing the entire video, including Ton's introduction and close, bracketing all the amazing contributions by blender artists and developers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951550 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjmbsiflMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjmbsiflMU I think he saved the important personal news to discuss at the end, so it didn't distract from the virtual conference's focus on Blender itself, its community, and developers. Ton is an unstoppable lucky force of nature: First he survived a vicious ceiling attack, now he survived leukemia! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk&ab_channel=Blender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk&ab_channel=Blend... In the introduction, Ton says that it has been a year of introspection and renewal, and describes how the Blender organization has been restructured. That's followed by a series of mind blowing videos by a diverse worldwide bunch of talented Blender artists and developers. In his closing statement, Ton tells what has happened to him in the past months, explains his change of perspective, and the implication and changes at the Blender Foundation. Ton Roosendaal's BCON2020 Blender Conference closing address transcript: https://youtu.be/uEjmbsiflMU?t=5427 https://youtu.be/uEjmbsiflMU?t=5427 I think it is a quite common effect in films. Imagine, you are standing in the middle of a waterfall. It is noisy, it is messy, it is colorful, it is wet. You see everything is falling down. Suddenly stops, the jets are coming down. You see a bit of splashes. You are standing there in the darkness. On a black mirror. That's how it feels when the doctor tells you that you have leukemia. On February 24th, this year I was urgently hospitalized because I was developing bruises all over my body. I started to bleed on my mouth. The doctor said go to the hospital. Ton, we have to examine you. At midnight I got the infamous bad news delivery by the doctor that I have acute leukemia of the quite rare kind. It is called APL, which is not very common, but it is very lethal. So usually you don't survive two weeks with this, unless, of course, the treatment works. So that's what happened. They immediately gave me blood transfusions and chemotherapy, and luckily after a few days I was recovering. So I quickly moved from the critical phase to the phase of that you may get cured. Four weeks later I was released from the hospital. I was strong enough to join the rest of the world in the ... lockdown, staying at home. After five weeks I had my first bone marrow test, which was extremely good. And cancer was in remission, the doctor said. We are going to take you to the next phase, to cure you fully. And that's called the maintenance phase. Maintenance, right? Then he said, well ... actually it is 7 months of treatments in which you have to be four months in hospital. Not full time. But imagine in the afternoon you go to the hospital, they hook you up with the bag of poison, you wait three hours, you get sick, you go home, go to bed, in the morning you feel a little bit better. And in the afternoon you go back to the hospital. They hook you up, and you get sick again. That's for 4 weeks, and then you get 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks getting sick, and 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick, another 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick! It was last Friday, the last of the chemotherapy. And this morning I went to the doctor again to discuss the tests I had. And luckily my blood is fantastic, the bone marrow is looking really good, I could be declared cured. But there was one little test they are still waiting, is the DNA test, which will take another 2 weeks to get. But the doctor said I shouldn't worry about that. I'm recovering extremely well. So basically I've got my life back So ... And oh, how much I would have loved to sit together, today, at the conference with everyone because there would have been a conference and we would have thrown an enormous party not this year. So I'm telling you this because this whole experience has had a profound impact on me, on my personality, on my life of course, plus I had time to think. And I learned a couple of lessons. First, getting cancer and surviving it it is not a fight. It is not something you win, something you lose. You only need one thing. A little bit of discipline of course, to take care of yourself, eat well, do some exercises. But what you need is luck. And I was lucky. I was lucky that science found the right treatment for me. This is only 15 years old. This treatment for people with this kind of leukemia. I was lucky to have family, friends around me to stand by. I was lucky to have a team here in the company to stand by and to have. Francesco Siddi to replace me for 8 months, doing fantastic job on it. So I was lucky to live in the Netherlands, where there is a universal health care for everyone. So there was not a moment that I had to worry about what would the treatment cost, and the doctors didn't have a moment to think other than what can we do for Ton, to help him, to cure him, and to make it as good and easy as possible for him. So next time if you see people having cancer, don't wish them strength, or in Dutch "sterkte", just say good luck, and I wish you well, or a good day, a good evening. Other things that I learned was that I want to start taking better care of myself, and I want to, I have a feeling that I was sacrificing myself too much. So I want to put myself more forward, and also take care better of myself in a way that I can pay myself a little bit better. So I can afford a little house outside of Amsterdam with a garden. I also mentioned last year that at some moment I have to step aside from Blender, for the future, to allow other people to come in. And the process is been sped up, but not so much that I want to step down, but to get very strong people around me to help making Blender strong, and keep it strong, and move on, and step forward. Because the main thing I learned was that I was really really not ready to let that go. I couldn't let go of Blender, because that' s my life' s work. Blender is life, right. Blender is a community. It is a team of people here. It is everybody who is contributing. It's the developers. The bug fixers. It is the people that make add-ons. It is even the people who complain, or the people use Maya and don't like Blender. It is the forum trolls. And even the people who want to have the game engine back. So all of them are the people I love. And all of them I feel like is my family. And I would never let go of that family. So, enough drama, right? I want to end with a little more happy note. As you all know 2020 is not very nice. It is a year that we are going to forget. But the happy message is that 2020 didn't get me down, and I want to spread that positive vibe with everyone. So please take care of yourself, take care of each other, and a little bit of Blender. And I see you next year in Amsterdam, or somewhere else. Bye Bye!

FredPret 3y ago

I hope he gets better soon. The more the tech world develops and the more I learn, the more I start to like free & open source tech. I do think there will always be a a large and growing amount of space for paid software work, but the variety and quality of free software seems to go up and to the right over time.

tusharhero 3y ago

I had emailed stallman about this. My email: Greetings Dr. Stallman, First of all, Happy 40th GNUversary! I was not able to attend the GNU40 meeting in Switzerland, but I have heard rumours that you have announced that you have some form of cancer. Can you give me some more information about this? And is the cancer manageable? I hope you are around for many more years. --- tusharhero Stallman's reply: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] I'm glad you are concerned about my well being. At the same time, I am disappointed that people are spreading incomplete rumors, instead of passing along all of what I said about this. That is going to waste a lot of people's time and concern, just as it has done with you. My prognosis is good. I can expect to live many more years. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org https://internethalloffame.org)

bjourne 3y ago
Very kind of him to reply to you. Perhaps it is just my culture, but asking someone you don't know personally who has a potentially life-threatening illness what their prognosis is can be perceived as very rude. Stallman is sharing the information he wants to share and rest is none of our business.
- 63 3y ago
  I think it would be rude under different circumstances but this is information that he already shared semi-publicly and would've shared with OP had OP been able to make it. Also I get the feeling that Stallman is enough of a pragmatist to not get too offended about that sort of thing though I could be wrong.
  - 93po 3y ago
    I personally think the more appropriate request would be to first research instead of asking him to answer your question, and if incomplete, secondly to kindly show interest in him, at some further point, discussing this more in a public way when he feels ready to do so. Obv he doesn't seem to mind the question. Just my approach.

garba_dlm 3y ago

I think it's impressive how he saw a danger, a possibility some 20 years before it was even a feasible technical reality referring to his story of "right to read" or something like that about books being able to get deleted of your bookshelf... and then Amazon making this a reality some decades later

collyw 3y ago

[flagged]

meepmorp 3y ago
Are you suggesting his cancer was somehow caused by being vaccinated?
- collyw 3y ago
  I can't say definitively. But if you look at the linked article there has been a large increase in cancer since the vaccine rollout. Are you going to somehow tell us that they are safe and effective despite all the evidence to the contrary? Other oncologists reporting similar, and it is being covered up by mainstream media. https://kittywells.substack.com/p/london-oncologist-reporting-several https://kittywells.substack.com/p/london-oncologist-reportin... But go for it put your head in the sand and call me an antivaxxer.
  - meepmorp 3y ago
    > I can't say definitively. But if you look at the linked article there has been a large increase in cancer since the vaccine rollout. https://swizec.com/blog/pirates-downfall-causes-global-warming/ https://swizec.com/blog/pirates-downfall-causes-global-warmi... > But go for it put your head in the sand and call me an antivaxxer. Ok.
    - collyw 3y ago
      Will you be taking the next booster out of interest? Rushed out in record time. Tested on a few mice. But sure its safe and effective.

billy99k 3y ago

The video won't play for me. What kind of cancer does he have?

acegopher 3y ago
He says in the video that it is a "type of lymphoma".
nabakin 3y ago
https://youtu.be/vUwQLsWjA-g&t=2m https://youtu.be/vUwQLsWjA-g&t=2m

PHGamer 3y ago

he looks different without is locks

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

User23 3y ago

Cancer is no joke even when the prognosis is good. He will be in my prayers, even though he’d probably find that silly.

jjice 3y ago

While we joke that he's been an oddball at times, he is one of the most influential people in all of modern computing. GNU's impact on this industry can't be understated. I wish him the best.

rflec028 3y ago

[flagged]

bigbillheck 3y ago

There's an awful lot of non-free code in medical devices.

staringback 3y ago

Is he going to accept treatment from non-free medical machines?

adamc 3y ago

I guess everyone hitting it at once has brought the server to its knees...

Aspie96 3y ago

I have many disagreements with Richard Stallman. And I think he has many flaws. But I think the world is better with him than without him and that he's worked hard to further his mission. Not everyone should be like him, but it's great that he is. I sincerely wish RMS all the best.

pkdpic 3y ago

He's clearly a complicated figure but he was a big inspiration when I was transitioning into a tech career. I'll be sending him good thoughts. <3