5 ms·

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GN

by logjam 13y ago

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)." 1996: Honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology 1998: Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award 1999: Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award 2001: The Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being (武田研究奨励賞) 2001: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow 2002: United States National Academy of Engineering membership 2003: Honorary doctorate, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2004: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Nacional de Salta. 2004: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú. 2007: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 2007: First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimiento Libre 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote. 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Pavia 2008: Honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, in Peru 2009: Honorary doctorate, from Lakehead University 2011: Honorary doctorate, from National University of Córdoba. 2012: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad César Vallejo de Trujillo, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Latinoamericana Cima de Tacna, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad José Faustino Sanchez Carrió, in Peru. Source: Wikipedia But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties.

gohrt 13y ago
Your first sentence is deeply meaningful. The rest is all gunk -- it's basically his equivalent of his Facebook friends list.
- mbel 13y ago
  It's maybe me being subjective, but the last one seems to have a bit of meaning too.
ternaryoperator 13y ago
Dare I point out that his personal preferences in ties are the topic RMS spends the most amount of text on?
- reledi 13y ago
  I thought his opinion on ties (or really on the social pressure of ties) was one of the more interesting sections. BTW, he uses more text to describe his taste in music.
  - rpgmaker 13y ago
    I think the principle he talked about using the "ties" allegory was the most interesting part: "The people who wear ties under these circumstances are victim-coperpetrators: each one who cedes to this pressure and wears a tie increases the pressure on others. This is a central concept for understanding other forms of propagating nastiness, including nonfree software and Facebook. In fact, it was in regard to ties that I first recognized this phenomenon. I don't condemn victim-coperpetrators, since they are primarily victims and only secondarily perpetrators. But I believe I should not be one of them. I hope my refusal to wear a tie will make it easier for others to refuse as well." I don't really see wearing or not wearing ties as some kind of moral imperative.
- belorn 13y ago
  That is a statistical lie. His music preferences are described with 2076 characters, while ties uses 1838. You could state that ties is the singular item under a bullet point list with most text. However then we are either saying that music isn't "a singular item", or that in a compositional sense, RMS hasn't spaced the tie text with bullet points where for music he do.
comex 13y ago
I think HN is excessively critical of Stallman, but to be fair, this is a thread about his personal preferences.
- __--__ 13y ago
  Criticizing people for their personal preferences is about as useful as criticizing a cat for licking itself. You look like an idiot and the cat ignores you.
foobarbazqux 13y ago
Copy pasta much? > But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties. So someone writes about their personal life, and then people discuss it. What the heck does a whole bunch of honorary doctorates from Latin America have to do with this? Obviously the people in Latin America like him. As far as I'm concerned, a single actual doctorate is worth more than all of that, or say an equivalent feat like writing gcc, emacs, gdb, and the GPL (iirc). But nevertheless, even those significant accomplishments don't make his personal opinions sacred to the point of inoculating them against possible counterpoints. Guy states a bunch of preferences on internet, preferences are now up for discussion. End of. I thought it was an interesting read.
- pjscott 13y ago
  Do you honestly think that he would face such intense criticism if he were just some guy on the internet? You seem to be defending a double standard by arguing that there shouldn't be a double standard.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - foobarbazqux 13y ago
    I don't consider the posts in this thread to be intense criticism relative to many of the flame wars here, nor do I think that the choices are lots of criticism or zero criticism. From what I've seen, it generally seems like intense criticism on HN is directed at attention seekers irrespective of their celebrity. I don't find this to be a particularly attention seeking post, but nevertheless RMS has engaged in a fair amount of attention seeking behavior in the past. At any rate, the views being most criticized are actually critical of others anyway, including the one about ties.
- hga 13y ago
  Perhaps a nit, but he didn't "write" any version of EMACS to my knowledge, just improved existing versions of them, in the two cases I'm most familiar with, making a significant qualitative difference. Guy Steele provided the start of the first (in that there were 3 or so visual TECO systems, each with its own key bindings etc., and he got enough people to agree on one), and RMS took off with it and made it into much of what makes EMACS good (minus normal users writing code, since that version was in TECO). I'm sure he contributed to the the Lisp Machine's EMACS, but Dan Weinreb was the major author of its two initial versions (EINE Is Not EMACS, ZWEI Was Eine Initially). The current EMACS we use was written by an obscure guy at CMI who included a bytecode compiler in it, you might have heard of him, James Gosling ^_^. RMS illicitly started with a copy of this, the rights holders, UniPress, which ran as much as possible then on the "gated community open source" business model, including EMACS, were savvy enough not to try to do anything about this (heck, even in the face of some pretty vicious stuff from RMS, up to and including an face to face accusation that they set his house on fire (it was a couple of kids with matches and ... kerosene as I recall); we did name our Laserprinter "Software Hoarder" :-). Don't know about gdb, but he does to my knowledge get full credit for starting gcc, the GNU project and of course the GPL, essentially the modern FOSS movement, and it's hard to overstate the value of that. Disclaimers: acquaintance/sort of friends for a while ... until I went to work for UniPress, I worked for Lisp Machines Inc. (LMI) at a time when he was pretty much the only guy working on the MIT/LMI fork and keeping it fairly close to feature complete with Symbolics, and we were roommates for a few months in the latter part of 1983, starting a bit before the launch of the GNU Project, in that (half of a) house that later was torched.
glurgh 13y ago
Surely several of these are possible, by any individual, at once. You can admire and benefit from Stallman's work and achievements, without necessarily agreeing with all of his positions. And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return.
- waterlesscloud 13y ago
  "And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return." No. It's really not.
  - glurgh 13y ago
    I think it is. If you make such a tremendous claim (and it is one), you're likely to hear some counterclaims. Even if they are 'your singing totally sucks' http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossible.mp3 http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...
- moomin 13y ago
  Only if you're prepared to explain why a choice of ties is a moral imperative, and are ready for the ridicule of people who don't agree with you.
  - foobarbazqux 13y ago
    Except that, in explaining his choice of no ties at all, RMS resorts precisely to moral imperatives.
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      By my reading, he says people who wear ties because they feel they need to are complicit. If you just honestly like ties, I don't think he has any beef with you, provided you're not trying to force them on others.
jongraehl 13y ago
Yes. He started some great stuff. I don't see what a list of what amounts to MyFace "likes" adds to that. What matters is the great stuff.
bruceboughton 13y ago
What's with all the honorary doctorates from Peru?

by logjam 13y ago

gohrt 13y ago

Your first sentence is deeply meaningful. The rest is all gunk -- it's basically his equivalent of his Facebook friends list.

mbel 13y ago
It's maybe me being subjective, but the last one seems to have a bit of meaning too.

ternaryoperator 13y ago

Dare I point out that his personal preferences in ties are the topic RMS spends the most amount of text on?

reledi 13y ago
I thought his opinion on ties (or really on the social pressure of ties) was one of the more interesting sections. BTW, he uses more text to describe his taste in music.
- rpgmaker 13y ago
  I think the principle he talked about using the "ties" allegory was the most interesting part: "The people who wear ties under these circumstances are victim-coperpetrators: each one who cedes to this pressure and wears a tie increases the pressure on others. This is a central concept for understanding other forms of propagating nastiness, including nonfree software and Facebook. In fact, it was in regard to ties that I first recognized this phenomenon. I don't condemn victim-coperpetrators, since they are primarily victims and only secondarily perpetrators. But I believe I should not be one of them. I hope my refusal to wear a tie will make it easier for others to refuse as well." I don't really see wearing or not wearing ties as some kind of moral imperative.
belorn 13y ago
That is a statistical lie. His music preferences are described with 2076 characters, while ties uses 1838. You could state that ties is the singular item under a bullet point list with most text. However then we are either saying that music isn't "a singular item", or that in a compositional sense, RMS hasn't spaced the tie text with bullet points where for music he do.

comex 13y ago

I think HN is excessively critical of Stallman, but to be fair, this is a thread about his personal preferences.

__--__ 13y ago
Criticizing people for their personal preferences is about as useful as criticizing a cat for licking itself. You look like an idiot and the cat ignores you.

foobarbazqux 13y ago

Copy pasta much? > But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties. So someone writes about their personal life, and then people discuss it. What the heck does a whole bunch of honorary doctorates from Latin America have to do with this? Obviously the people in Latin America like him. As far as I'm concerned, a single actual doctorate is worth more than all of that, or say an equivalent feat like writing gcc, emacs, gdb, and the GPL (iirc). But nevertheless, even those significant accomplishments don't make his personal opinions sacred to the point of inoculating them against possible counterpoints. Guy states a bunch of preferences on internet, preferences are now up for discussion. End of. I thought it was an interesting read.

pjscott 13y ago
Do you honestly think that he would face such intense criticism if he were just some guy on the internet? You seem to be defending a double standard by arguing that there shouldn't be a double standard.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  I don't consider the posts in this thread to be intense criticism relative to many of the flame wars here, nor do I think that the choices are lots of criticism or zero criticism. From what I've seen, it generally seems like intense criticism on HN is directed at attention seekers irrespective of their celebrity. I don't find this to be a particularly attention seeking post, but nevertheless RMS has engaged in a fair amount of attention seeking behavior in the past. At any rate, the views being most criticized are actually critical of others anyway, including the one about ties.
hga 13y ago
Perhaps a nit, but he didn't "write" any version of EMACS to my knowledge, just improved existing versions of them, in the two cases I'm most familiar with, making a significant qualitative difference. Guy Steele provided the start of the first (in that there were 3 or so visual TECO systems, each with its own key bindings etc., and he got enough people to agree on one), and RMS took off with it and made it into much of what makes EMACS good (minus normal users writing code, since that version was in TECO). I'm sure he contributed to the the Lisp Machine's EMACS, but Dan Weinreb was the major author of its two initial versions (EINE Is Not EMACS, ZWEI Was Eine Initially). The current EMACS we use was written by an obscure guy at CMI who included a bytecode compiler in it, you might have heard of him, James Gosling ^_^. RMS illicitly started with a copy of this, the rights holders, UniPress, which ran as much as possible then on the "gated community open source" business model, including EMACS, were savvy enough not to try to do anything about this (heck, even in the face of some pretty vicious stuff from RMS, up to and including an face to face accusation that they set his house on fire (it was a couple of kids with matches and ... kerosene as I recall); we did name our Laserprinter "Software Hoarder" :-). Don't know about gdb, but he does to my knowledge get full credit for starting gcc, the GNU project and of course the GPL, essentially the modern FOSS movement, and it's hard to overstate the value of that. Disclaimers: acquaintance/sort of friends for a while ... until I went to work for UniPress, I worked for Lisp Machines Inc. (LMI) at a time when he was pretty much the only guy working on the MIT/LMI fork and keeping it fairly close to feature complete with Symbolics, and we were roommates for a few months in the latter part of 1983, starting a bit before the launch of the GNU Project, in that (half of a) house that later was torched.

glurgh 13y ago

Surely several of these are possible, by any individual, at once. You can admire and benefit from Stallman's work and achievements, without necessarily agreeing with all of his positions. And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return.

waterlesscloud 13y ago
"And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return." No. It's really not.
- glurgh 13y ago
  I think it is. If you make such a tremendous claim (and it is one), you're likely to hear some counterclaims. Even if they are 'your singing totally sucks' http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossible.mp3 http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...
moomin 13y ago
Only if you're prepared to explain why a choice of ties is a moral imperative, and are ready for the ridicule of people who don't agree with you.
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  Except that, in explaining his choice of no ties at all, RMS resorts precisely to moral imperatives.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    By my reading, he says people who wear ties because they feel they need to are complicit. If you just honestly like ties, I don't think he has any beef with you, provided you're not trying to force them on others.

jongraehl 13y ago

Yes. He started some great stuff. I don't see what a list of what amounts to MyFace "likes" adds to that. What matters is the great stuff.

bruceboughton 13y ago

What's with all the honorary doctorates from Peru?