15 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
15 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Richard Stallman
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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).
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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!
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Stallman has a beautifully minimalist website http://www.stallman.org where he actively comments on current news and issues.
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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). Sadly he has also shown signs of being a [type A fail](fail_ab.md) personality by writing about some kind of newspeak "*gender neutral language*" and by seeming to be caught in a [fight culture](fight_culture.md) (e.g. by supporting copyleft).
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RMS made the free software song (well, only the lyrics, the melody is taken from a Bulgarian folk song Sadi Moma).
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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).
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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. |