The great doctor Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS, born 1953 in New York) is one of the biggest figures in software history, inventor of [free software](free_software.md), founder of the [GNU project](gnu.md), [free software foundation](fsf.md) and the author of a famous text editor [emacs](emacs.md).
Stallman's life along with free software's history is documented by a free-licensed book named *Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software* on which he collaborated. You can get it for free e.g. at [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5768). You should read this!
Regarding [software](software.md) he has for his whole life strongly and tirelessly promoted free software and [copyleft](copyleft.md) and has himself only used such software; he has always practiced what he preched and led the best example of how to live without [proprietary](proprietary.md) software. This is amazing. Nevertheless he isn't too concerned about [bloat](bloat.md) (judging by the GNU software and his own creation, [emacs](emacs.md)) and he also doesn't care that much about [free culture](free_culture.md) (some of his written works prohibit modification and his GNU project allows proprietary non-functional data).
He is a weird person, having been recorded on video eating dirt from his feet before giving a lecture. In the book *Free as in Freedom* he admits he might be autistic. Nevertheless he's pretty smart, has magna cum laude degree in physics from Harvard, 10+ honorary doctorates, fluently speaks English, Spanish and French and has many times proven his superior programming skills (even though he later stopped programming to fully work on promoting the FSF).
In 2019 Stallman was [cancelled](cancel_culture.md) by [SJW](sjw.md) fascists for merely commenting rationally on the topic of child sexuality following the Epstein scandal. He resigned from the position of president of the FSF but continues to support it.
