RMS: No Radical Changes In GNU Project

[AndyChow]

What does Stallman actually do these days?

I'm just curious. It sounds to me like he really just goes around to conferences giving speeches, which shouldn't really be affected one way or the other no matter whether he remains in these groups or not.

I've always found it a great mystery. Which actually makes a point: the right to be free and not tracked. How does he make money, where does he live, what does he eat for breakfast? Unfortunately, by only using products that respect his freedom, we may never know.

So I don't really see this as a big deal one way or the other. It's just a Rorschach test for commenters and their politics to comment on and get outraged about (on both sides).

This is actually a very astute and perceptive comment. How true.

[LaeMing]

Haha, I totally forgot about that.

His unique quality of having zero inhibitions is... refreshing. The FSF and GNU would be losing a great asset!

Do people really think that someone who does this in public should be held completely accountable for something written (and then later apologized for) on the internet? They should give the poor guy a break quite frankly. No-one is perfect; they should readjust their expectations. Perhaps calibrate them upon our politicians that run the country. All prime examples of honesty and integrity XD.

Heh, re: politicians ... I'd prefer someone who eats toe fungus over someone who /is/ toe fungus any day!

[azdaha]

I'm still calling for this, its myopic to think this is about a single event. His personality, beliefs, and leadership style can't be "debunked".

His beliefs and leadership don't need to be "debunked", unless you are threatened by open source software or his relentless attacks on authoritarian practices. His personality, as with many of us, can be abrasive or a hindrance at times. Move along now. Ultimately, this is a great moment to learn from; as he's mentioned, already, creating a plan for succession is never too early. This will, hopefully, ensure that the project lives on for a long time to come.

[fsfhfc2018]

The more hurd advances, the happier I am for the hurd authors.

Not that anybody thinks people will be using hurd someday. If they do, it's a very nice design-- if they don't, it's because the design is too ambitious to the point of absurdity. But (jokes aside) maybe they will eventually build an AI to figure out how to make it work. And then (joking now) use it to kick off the singularity.

It will (I've made quite a few predictions this year, many came true-- I also asked for Stallman to voluntarily step down less than a year ago-- but stay on the board and stay on GNU and I wouldn't have kicked him off CSAIL either... Note if he had, he would be relatively immune to all this now) be necessary to fork the Linux kernel eventually. Maybe not this year, but before most people expect it.

[Mavman]

I'm VERY glad he's staying!!!

Now, if only the Hurd would adopt seL4...

[skeevy420]

yet the fake news media keeps doubling down.

I read a story today about how the Russian Fake News people and the North Korean Fake News people are joining forces so they both spread the same fake messages.

Just read the doubling down line and thought it was funny. Not "good joke, ha ha" funny, more like "I was barefoot and stepped in dog poop but there are too many children to yell expletives so I have to laugh it off" funny.

[smitty3268]

What does Stallman actually do these days?

I'm just curious. It sounds to me like he really just goes around to conferences giving speeches, which shouldn't really be affected one way or the other no matter whether he remains in these groups or not.

So I don't really see this as a big deal one way or the other. It's just a Rorschach test for commenters and their politics to comment on and get outraged about (on both sides).

[JorgePeixoto]

Hello guys. I strongly support Dr. Stallman. His vision has strongly changed my worldview. I owe to him my knowledge and concern for digital rights, software freedom, privacy and in fact, through his personal website, also a significant part of of my knowledge about social and economic justice, environmentalism, and a few other subjects. He may have his flaws, but the public assessment of his character is now drastically contaminated by a storm of hate. I made a simple website about this situation (please publicize it): https://jorgemorais.gitlab.io/justice-for-rms/

[euler271]

At this point who is still calling for this? Have they been living under a rock since the initial misinformation campaign against RMS? It's been debunked for weeks...

For instance, look here, from today: https://www.zdnet.com/article/gnu-pr...ed-leadership/
From the first Paragraph:

Richard M Stallman (RMS) recently put his foot in his mouth by defending a sexual abuser and was pressured into resigning from the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Also, linking in the same paragraph to their own previous article (https://www.zdnet.com/article/richar...re-foundation/ ) , from 3 weeks ago telling the same lie, about how Stallman defended Jeffrey Epstein "Richard Stallman resigns from Free Software Foundation after defending Jeffrey Epstein behavior". However the one from today is way worse, because now we do now that he didnt do that, yet the fake news media keeps doubling down.

[Templar82]

He also doesn't use a GUI or a cellphone, so doesn't really understand probably one of the biggest hurdles of our day, Smartphones, and how they are generally the least Free, without much

He doesn't use a phone because he does understand how un-free they are.