Richard Stallman Resigns From The Free Software Foundation

[AndyChow]

In South Korea the age of consent is 20. So if you sleep with a 19 year old person in the US, how can that be acceptable?

I don't have an answer to that, but I know people shouldn't lose their jobs just for asking the damn question. When I was in high school, I emailed Marvin Minsky for advice about AI, twice. And both times he responded to me the same day with helpful advice. I don't like this demonization of people without the facts.

[andyprough]

Worth remembering that not only did RMS start the GNU project as was stated in the article, he was also probably the world's most prolific coder during that time. From 1984 to 1990, he single handedly wrote emacs from scratch (for a second time), wrote gcc and gdb from scratch, along with other GNU tools. At the same time he (plus lawyers) created the first GPL which gave us the copy left concept. His hacker productivity during that period was historic, and we all still stand on that foundation regardless of which tools we use.

Anyway, the man is old now (I should know, I'm old and he is more than a decade older than me). Probably a good time to retire. He was never going to stop saying outrageously controversial stuff (like "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone" at the death of Steve Jobs). The modern media hit mob were going to collect his scalp at some point. Might as well let a new generation be the face of the movement. His interim replacement, FSF board member Alexandre Oliva, creator of Linux-libre, has an extremely impressive resume and hopefully will be chosen as the permanent president of the FSF.

[Vistaus]

In South Korea the age of consent is 20. So if you sleep with a 19 year old person in the US, how can that be acceptable?

I don't have an answer to that, but I know people shouldn't lose their jobs just for asking the damn question. When I was in high school, I emailed Marvin Minsky for advice about AI, twice. And both times he responded to me the same day with helpful advice. I don't like this demonization of people without the facts.

Just because someone's nice and helpful doesn't mean he never did anything wrong. I had a friend with a troubled past who, despite her past, was doing very well. Eventually, she got herself a very nice and attentive boyfriend, but he ended up raping her with 2 other guys (so group sex against her will) which was the final nail in the coffin and led to her taking her own life.

So please, NEVER think someone is a goody two-shoes just because he/she is nice and helpful to you 'cause you never know if he/she is showing you his/her true face.

[Vistaus]

And I foresee many of them being really unpleasant to read.

And I foresee it will stay that way forever. RMS is the new Reiser4.

[Guest]

Free software is dead. I am no longer a supporter of the FSF, and I'll call myself a rms and GNU GPL supporter.

I've just sent a request to cancel recurring membership donations, as the foundation has turned on it's head. If they were to apologize for bending to outrage mob and let rms take back his position, I'd consider joining again.

Considering what's happening on the member forum (recent influx of new users posting low quality posts that belong on social media and posts being flagged even though they were just fine a couple of days ago), this looks like a planned attack.

[Guest]

Understandable. It's mostly about politics now, not free software.

Indeed. This is pretty sad, as I expected the foundation to be all about ensuring and enforcing softare freedom, and pushing it forward. All it takes to turn such a foundation to push political agenda is a single attention seeking medium post.

[SledgeHammer_999]

What the hell? I made a post, posting the actual quote of RMS and linking to good/small summary of the situation to slashdot. And it got deleted! Without even a PM explaining why. Why? Is there a bad actor/moderator here in phoronix?

[Guest]

He was never going to stop saying outrageously controversial stuff (like "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone" at the death of Steve Jobs).

This is why he did so well as a face of the free software movement. It's all about people with low social skills becoming big, and pushing innovative ideas forward. I still think highly of how Torvalds used to do his code review, and I struggle to find anything worth caring about in "offensive" opinions of rms. The civil war in USA seems to just be getting worse…

[fuzz]

What the hell? I made a post, posting the actual quote of RMS and linking to good/small summary of the situation to slashdot. And it got deleted! Without even a PM explaining why. Why? Is there a bad actor/moderator here in phoronix?

Might be unapproved, it happens to lots of posts.

[AndyChow]

So please, NEVER think someone is a goody two-shoes just because he/she is nice and helpful to you 'cause you never know if he/she is showing you his/her true face.

People are innocent until proven guilty. Whatever personally happened to you doesn't justify accusing people you don't know and have never interacted with.