Richard Stallman Resigns From The Free Software Foundation

[jjkk]

And again I ask myself (with the same tinfoil hat senses tingling as starshipeleven) WHO BENEFITS ? (from having RMS out of the way) https://itsfoss.com/richard-stallman-controversy/

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/open-letter-free-software-foundation-board-directors

"Diverse groups of people".. Ok.

[leipero]

Late to the party. First of all, this is really sad, after reading most of the posts here it's clear that this is the most ridicilous thing to get person fired of (as MIT guest speaker) and to be resigned for (FSF). Commenting VICE 'news' would be way too much, that's the media that propagates abuse of drugs (not just marijuana), their 'coverage' of world events is..., to put it nicely disgraceful, and most of their 'journalists' (who do not have 'j' from 'journalists') are biased lying scum from what I saw. It's fair to say that I do not watch/read that for years, so even if something changed (I doubt, considering who is the owner...), I wouldn't know. But they have done enough damage in their short existance already.

But let's assume Richard Stalman DID actually defended Epstein, and let's assume that (now late) man I will not use his name because it's not nice did not reject that 17 years old girl, and let's assume that RS said that girl was 'willing'. Ok, so what? It would be 'unpopular opinion' and that's where it ends.

I did not follow unfolding of Epstein case, last I've heard he 'commited suicide', but to my understanding (that could be wrong) he was mostly 'employing' girls of 15 years of age or older in his 'massage island'. Now call me dumb, but if someone travels with some person all over the place, while having literally unlimited number of chances to 'escape' even if that someone is 17 years old, it would be hard to convince me that person was 'abused'.

What I do find most disgusting in this whole situation is not the behaviour of Epstein, Stalman (who wasn't guilty of anything) or even VICE 'reporting', but it is the fact that people are so hypocritical and acting surprised and innocent that's beyond the joke. It looks to me like 'guilt projection'.

[AdamOne]

Very weird that old guys sit around at begin to question: is rape really rape? Its commonly known in sociology that some men, as they age become a bit more deviant. Some behaviors may include a sexual interest in young men. Less commonly seen in men who have a fulfilling and established family-life.

[fuzz]

Very weird that old guys sit around at begin to question: is rape really rape?

You're right, society deems philosophy as unimportant. Because why would we question things?

[sthalik]

The issue is taking millenials seriously. Opinions ought only be taken into consideration if voiced by a non-millenial.

[rabcor]

Wait what? FSF without Richard Stallman isn't gonna be much of an FSF... It's just gonna be a mouthpiece for the political left. I guess that was the goal all along for forcing his resignation tho wasn't it? Fuck...

[FSForce]

Against sfconservancy, we call for Stallman to step UP from his positions in the free software movement.

Richard Stallman have defended firmly and blamelessly free software for decades with rigorous and strict adherence to free software, without drifts or nuances opensourcist, FOSSist or similar in which many people and groups of the free software environment fall, and this (and nothing else) is what should be valued to judge whether a person does well its role of leading an idea or movement. We may or may not agree with his personal statements on issues other than free software, but we have always seen he make it clear when he talk about free software as a reference person on the subject, and when he talk as a ordinary person called Richard about issues that are not free software, avoiding mixing the personal and the professional.

Additionally, accept his resignation means giving the reason to those who believe in “perfect people” and idolize people to turn to hate them if they do something wrong, a dualistic perspective of people (the good ones and the bad ones) who feed nefarious discourses of groups pitted against each other, source of conflicts and wars. Considered the current regrettable tendency to judge a person’s role in one topic, by his personal statements in other topics, this sets a bad precedent. Since the perfect people don’t exist, then nobody can be a reference person on any subject. We strongly publicly criticize the regrettable role he has played Software Freedom Conservancy on it.

We are clear that much of the controversy has been promoted by those who creave to be people/organizations of reference in the free software world seeking to introduce opensourcist ambiguity in the environment, something they can only achieve if they discredit and remove from the scene those who have firmly defended free software for decades as it is and thanks to which we have achieved so much in this time.

We also criticize the role played by the Free Software Foundation, its management team has unpity assumed the resignation of a person who has made an unjust decision as a result of unjust persecution (they have not even published a minimal public statement showing their regret or discomfort about it). Moreover, the Free Software Foundation has not broken but maintains the relationship with Software Freedom Conservancy that has promoted the persecution of Richard Stallman, even the current Executive Director maintains his public support for Software Freedom Conservancy. Such an Free Software Foundation doesn’t deserve our support. With this, the Free Software Foundation has not lost only who was its president, they have lost all the people who support Richard Stallman. If the Free Software Foundation says goodbye to its president in this way, we say goodbye to the Free Software Foundation. We will continue our work of promotion and diffusion of free software, but we’re not gonna do it under the acronym of who has looked the other way when this was happening to a person who has done so much for the cause as Richard Stallman.

We call (in order to organize us) to all people who defend free software as it is, without ambiguities or slippery slides, as Richard Stallman has defended for decades, people who are mature enough to understand and defend that there are no ideal or perfect people, that with every person you share some things and disagree in others, and that people who act as representatives of one topic should only be judged by their adjustment or not to the cause that they are representing while they perform the role of representatives.

Thank you very much!

https://fsforce.noblogs.org

[alcalde]

Damn, I am truly shocked by this, I have trouble differentiating the FSF from RMS, it was his life goal... was it he going to do now? Go back to programming?

I'm imagining him working at an ice cream parlor, getting beard hairs in the ice cream, and refusing to scoop unless the customer calls it "GNU/chocolate".

[alcalde]

As Richard Stallman Resigns Let’s Consider Why GNU/Linux Without Stallman and Torvalds Would be a Victory to Microsoft

We're no longer at war with Microsoft, so there's no victory to be had. Microsoft is our friend, like Russia was the USA's friend post-Communism, pre-Putin. I've been saying for years that Stallman and Torvalds have made great technical contributions but have been horrible public faces for Linux and open source. Now when things have hit the fan people are finally starting to reign these two in. Up until now they've been like spoiled children who never get told "no".

We need a friendly, eloquent voice without significant personality disorders to be the public face of Linux. I've evolved on this one a bit and decided that Stephen Fry would be an excellent choice. In fact, he essentially made a demo reel of sorts for doing so several years ago....

Stephen Fry - Free Software

He doesn't eat anything off his feet or give the camera the middle finger and then cry about whether he might be made to wear a tie. He behaves like a well-adjusted adult. We could use some of that in Linux!

Now, as for mascots, it might be time to ditch the penguin. Penguins don't really have anything to do with Linux. My new idea is to use Benjamin Franklin as our mascot. Why?

[Franklin] refused to patent any of his inventions, saying:

"As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously."

If there had been computers, Franklin would have been an open source advocate!

If we did these things we might drastically improve the image of Linux and dispel the stereotype that it's only for maladjusted neckbeards... by hiding our maladjusted and our neckbeards.

[alcalde]

He took the libertarian contract and overlayed it on to people too stupid to negotiate a meal or clothes, much less a contract. Which then led to a 'Epstein did nothing wrong' conclusion. Meanwhile heads are rolling at MIT and Harvard just for taking a grant from the guy.

He F'ed up. That's not how Libertarianism works. Freedom + "Responsibility" does not apply to kids of any mammalian species.

The Register interview article nailed it on the head - for a man so meticulous about words (it must be called GNU/Linux, don't refer to his work as open source, etc.) he'd have done much better to have paid attention to the use of his own language instead.