Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF board:
Richard Stallman's return to the Free Software Foundation's board of directors has drawn condemnation from many people in the free software community. An open letter signed by hundreds of people today called for Stallman to be removed again and for the FSF's entire board to resign.
The open letter said:
Richard M. Stallman, frequently known as RMS, has been a dangerous force in the free software community for a long time. He has shown himself to be misogynist, ableist, and transphobic, among other serious accusations of impropriety. These sorts of beliefs have no place in the free software, digital rights, and tech communities. With his recent reinstatement to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation, we call for the entire Board of the FSF to step down and for RMS to be removed from all leadership positions.
Previously:
Richard Stallman Rejoins Free Software Foundation Board of Directors
Richard M. Stallman Resigns
Richard Stallman Deserved to be Fired, Says Fired GNU Hurd Maintainer
Related Stories
Richard M. Stallman Resigns as FSF President and from its Board of Directors
https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns (emphasis from original retained):
On September 16, 2019, Richard M. Stallman, founder and president of
the Free Software Foundation, resigned as president and from its board
of directors.The board will be conducting a search for a new president, beginning
immediately. Further details of the search will be published on
fsf.org.For questions, contact FSF executive director John Sullivan at
johns@fsf.org.Copyright © 2004-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Privacy Policy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license (or later version) — Why this license?
Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Resigns from MIT Over Epstein Comments
Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Resigns From MIT Over Epstein Comments
Famed free software advocate and computer scientist Richard Stallman has resigned from MIT, according to an email he published online. The resignation comes after Stallman made comments about victims of child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, including that the victims went along with the abuse willingly.
"I am resigning effective immediately from my position in CSAIL at MIT," Stallman wrote in the email, referring to MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "I am doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations."
[...] Last week, Motherboard published the full email thread in which Stallman wrote that the "most plausible scenario" is that Epstein's underage victims in his campaign of trafficking were "entirely willing." Stallman also argued about the definition of "rape" and whether the term applies to the victims.
[Ed.'s note - just because Vice say things in the above blockquote does not mean that SoylentNews or its editors consider it a demonstrably provable representation of reality. We're just reporting that they are reporting, nothing more. At least this Ed. finds out-of-context quoting of short inflamatory phrases to be particularly disingenuous, and perhaps even a warning sign that manipulation of a quote has taking place. -- FP.]
Thomas Bushnell, former maintainer of GNU Hurd until his dismissal by Richard Stallman, has opined in a biased blog post that the forced resignation of Stallman from MIT and the Free Software Foundation is deserved.
https://medium.com/@thomas.bushnell/a-reflection-on-the-departure-of-rms-18e6a835fd84
So Richard Stallman has resigned from his guest position at MIT and as President of the Free Software Foundation. You can easily find out all you need to know about the background from a web search and some news articles. I recommend in particular Selam G's original articles on this topic for background, and for an excellent institutional version, the statement from the Software Freedom Conservancy.
But I'll give you a personal take. By my reckoning, I worked for RMS longer than any other programmer.
[...]4) RMS's loss of MIT privileges and leadership of the FSF are the appropriate responses to a pattern of decades of poor behavior. It does not matter if they are appropriate responses to a single email thread, because they are the right thing in the total situation.
5) I feel very sad for him. He's a tragic figure. He is one of the most brilliant people I've met, who I have always thought desperately craved friendship and camaraderie, and seems to have less and less of it all the time. This is all his doing; nobody does it to him. But it's still very sad. As far as I can tell, he believes his entire life's work is a failure.
6) The end result here, while sad for him, is correct.
The free software community needs to develop good leadership, and RMS has been a bad leader in many ways for a long time now. He has had plenty of people who have tried to help him, and he does not want help.
MIT needs to establish as best it can that paramount are the interests of women to have a safe and fair place to study and work. It must make clear that this is more important than the coddling of a whiny child who has never reached the emotional maturity to treat people decently.
Richard M Stallman, founder and former president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), announced at the organisation's LibrePlanet virtual event that he has rejoined the board and does not intend to resign again.
Stallman spoke at the event yesterday on the subject of unjust computing – covering locked-down operating systems, non-free client software, user-restricting app stores, and more.
Before the talk he stated: "I have an announcement to make. I'm now on the Free Software Foundation Board of Directors once again. We were working on a video to announce this with, but that turned out to be difficult, we didn't have experience doing that sort of thing so it didn't get finished but here is the announcement. Some of you will be happy at this, and some might be disappointed, but who knows? In any case, that's how it is, and I'm not planning to resign a second time."
Ars Technica further notes:
Video of Stallman's announcement is available at It's FOSS News. Stallman gave a talk at LibrePlanet yesterday on "growing injustices in computing," including "locked-down operating systems; user-restricting app stores; [and] requiring nonfree client software, including Javascript."
Previously:
Richard M. Stallman Resigns
Richard Stallman Deserved to be Fired, Says Fired GNU Hurd Maintainer
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:07PM (25 children)
The people who want him ousted are picking on the handicapped.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:17PM (8 children)
This would be the best way to fight it. Get some real or imagined autism (or other similar disorder) diagnosis and then accuse them of hypocrisy, maybe even dig up some old toxic twitter comments of the loudest pontificators and launch a counterattack. Woke bullshit is pretty weak against Judo-throws. That's my technique for refuting woke bullshit in real-life, if they call me stupid or moron I accuse them of being insensitive toward the mentally-challenged (making up a story about a cousin with Downs' syndrome) and make them the asshole. When you're dealing with woke bullshit, it's niggers all the way down.
Huh, that's funny, back in the day when people on the internet actually knew their shit, that was the norm rather than the exception. Instead of whiny trannies, you had BME motherfuckers who actually cut their own dicks off instead of trannies who just had to put their dick in every discussion even when not welcome. Let it be known: Modern 'diversity and inclusion' are euphemisms for backdoor censorship.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:02PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:57PM (3 children)
An entire EF post where jews aren't mentionned even once. Is that a first ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:06PM
But you did!
JEWS JEWS JEWS JEWS JEWS JEWS
Is that a yellow six-pointed star of the rothschilds?
Make them wear it again.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:37PM
yeah but he threw "nigger" in there to make up for it
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @03:13AM
Frankly I think he's already gotten past his own schtick, and just pulls it out for gags when he can't come up with anything intelligent to say.
If he got rid of it entirely, I know I could call that a victory and a lot of people would; but I'll confess I'd feel a little sad. My days just aren't complete anymore, without a belly-tickler from EF, some sort of ridiculous "dem joos did it!" nonsense right in the middle of an otherwise sensible-sounding post. It makes me laugh, and laughter is the best medicine.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Friday March 26 2021, @01:41AM
"This meeting declares that it considers Richard Stock^^H^Stallmann, Free Software Acitivist, to be an enemy of the people." (A storm of cheers and applause. A number of men surround STALLMAN and hiss him.)
The whole crowd. (shouting). "Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He hates free software! He hates his own people!"
Aslaksen: "By the votes of everyone here, this meeting of citizens declares Richard Stallman to be an enemy of the people. (Shouts and applause.) Three cheers for our ancient and honourable citizen community! (Renewed applause.) The meeting is dissolved. (Gets down.) "
(Horn-blowing, hisses, and wild cries. STALLMAN goes out through the hall )
The Whole Crowd (howling after them as they go). "Enemy of the People! Enemy of the People!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:31AM
You mean like starting the discussion the moment you decide to open that door [dailykos.com]? You don't welcome the discussion, then don't enter, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @11:41PM
Apparently ASD is the one mental condition that are exempt from their protection.
Likely because people with it are more likely to lampshade the various logical flaws in the veiled appeals to emotion being tossed around.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:19PM (5 children)
Is he a subhuman? Should he have been euthanized?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:27PM (4 children)
He’s definitely get a few screws loose, and that’s been obvious since well before the eating root cheese video.
Anyway, now that big names such as RedHat are pulling all support from the FSF, including financial and participation in FSF events, he’s being euthanized , in a matter of speaking. He’s a pariah.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/26/redhat_fsf_funding_richard_stallman/ [theregister.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:59AM (2 children)
Redhat pulling funding is like a damn endorsement! Fuck systems!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:59AM
*systemd
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:11AM
And all the other organizations?
Not everyone things a perennially homeless smelly bum who hasn’t done anything in decades is someone worth emulating. Most people want at least a semipermanent address to live in, and an income from work. His “salary “ of $0 per year as the titular head left him free to collect social assistance, and mooch off people for things like a temporary room and board.
Behold your fallen idol. Fat, smelly, a misogynist, a transphobe, an incel, someone who seriously misjudged how much hate and anger his treatment of others accrued over the years. He thought (and so did the FSF directors) that his return would be popular, not reviled.
So tell me, how is the FSF going to continue in its current pitiful irrelevant down without corporate sponsors putting money into their coffers? And a boycott?
Remember, once the tap is turned off, it’s going to be damn hard to re-open it. Especially since there will be others who will be competing for those funds who haven’t fucked up big time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @12:29AM
Not quite. His actual writing is far more nuanced than that.
His opinion is that the state should not write rules around what the would be mother can or can't do if the test shows that the child to be may suffer that condition.
And yes, he does advocate against bringing the pregnancy to term. But that is not based on the evaluation of the potential worth of the person, but based on the potential suffering that the syndrome imparts on that person.
RMS' site, stallman.org, has a reasonably functioning search system, and his writing is more detailed there than any of the out of context "quotes" social media and mainstream media provides.
Keep in mind though that he writes "down's syndrome" not "downs' syndrome" when you go searching.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:26PM (4 children)
AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
By the way, this happens when you get an organisation infested with worms, in the name of "political correctness".
An organization does not need genders, or etnicities.
It needs professionals.
This shit comes, when people who considers themselves as slaves get respect and a place for free...
Never give respect, never free those who dont fight, but talk when there already is freedom fought for by those who could...
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:39PM (1 child)
Merit-based advancement? That's racist!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:59PM
NO, Runaway is racist. This is more of a ESR phenomenon. Marginalized due to personality flaws. Does not play well with others.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:36AM
Then why do you accept people who parade their gender in the organization?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:08AM
Fuck off, Trumptard
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:02PM (2 children)
It’s not classified as a handicap when he does it on purpose to manipulate people.
Let’s not forget that he’s lived his entire adult life sponging off other people.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Freeman on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:54PM (1 child)
So do nurses, but you don't hear people complaining about them, unless they accidentally kill someone. Oh, not sponge baths? Nevermind, carry on.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:08PM
you're an ableist! Preferring people who are capable is one of RMS's sins.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @03:07AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Monday March 29 2021, @04:55PM
I've known plenty of people with confirmed medical diagnoses of being on the spectrum.
Every one of them takes responsibility for their behavior. Every one of them would make changes to avoid damaging an organization they cared about.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:18PM (15 children)
Accusations.
And, what is the purpose of the Board? And is he good at doing that? What I seldom see in these types of discussions is whether the person in question is actually doing a good job or not, and wether the organization or company is doing well, or not.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:35PM (2 children)
Irrelevant, apparently ,
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:48PM
Worse, many of these are adherents of the post-meritocracy movement. They take actually being good at something as a reason to destroy someone, because being good at something is 'privilege' and therefore must be suppressed.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday March 26 2021, @12:34AM
If they kick them all out, they should form a new board. With blackjack! And ... roulette!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aim on Friday March 26 2021, @11:04AM (3 children)
I wonder who the people on the Board are. "Free Software advocates". Leaders of some large projects. Uhm sorry, there would be no Free Software, none of these projects, if it were not for RMS starting the whole thing in the first place. Booting him out for really no reason at all (considering the facts of what he actually said/wrote) reeks of some sort of attempted power grab. Sure, he has some obnoxious sides (hell I know, I've driven him around in my car while he was visiting for a conference), but as for his stance on Free Software, he's spot on, and that's what counts.
He who is without sin should throw the first stone. Anyone? Certainly not these guys.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday March 26 2021, @04:53PM (1 child)
Stop saying that! You're going to put the rock polishers out of business.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @08:57PM
Nonsense. There is no shortage of new-age beliefs, and so there will continue to be significant demand for
polished rocks^W^W chakra healing gemstones.(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @07:47PM
I agree. This is almost certainly an attempted power grab. Free as in freedom software is a direct threat to the capability of the bourgeoisie to accomplish large-scale censorship of the internet, while routing around pesky 1A issues, on the eve of World War 3.
The WSWS has been documenting the suppression of left and anti-war viewpoints, and Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (← you are here) is a part of that.
ICFI/Socialist Equality Party—
A brief history of free software until May 2000: The Microsoft law suit, software development and the capitalist market [wsws.org]
More recently: IBM’s purchase of Red Hat highlights growing power of technology giants [wsws.org] - Evidence of Google blacklisting of left and progressive sites continues to mount [wsws.org]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @06:27PM
No, he isn't useful in the slightest. He hasn't contributed any sort of significant technical leadership in decades. His only role in the modern world is as a spokesman/PR person. And when your PR person is a lightning rod that comes across as a pedophilia apologist, and generates a massive backlash, and a significant chunk of the industry is begging you to throw him out, he's a terrible PR person. That's the opposite of being good at PR. An empty chair would be much better at PR.
If you were an actor who appeared in commercials for a corporation as a spokesperson and said any of the controversial crap that RMS had said, you'd be permanently out on your ass before the newspapers even came out the next morning. The idea of someone like that being elevated to a board of directors position for no damned reason would be unthinkable. No matter what you think of his (actually kinda kooky and extremist) message about software freedom, his ability to convey that message has been utterly pissed away by his controversies and general jackassery. His most vocal supporters are largely people who have never met him, and not had to work with him. Aside from his public disruption as a PR lightning rod, he's also just a pain in the ass to deal with on an individual level, so he'll probably be a net-negative disruption to board meetings in terms of their ability to actually accomplish the FSF mission.
And to be clear, none of that even requires him to genuinely think very highly of pedophilia, or be especially transphobic or anything else. The appearance of being a dismal jackass is more than enough reason to brush aside somebody who's only supposed value is in PR. Again, he's of no practical use as a board member for day to day operations stuff, and he's no technical leader either. PR value is the only axis left to judge him on, and that's clearly empirically negative just from the observation that we are having this conversation.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:10PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:25PM (1 child)
Does Redshat have the authority to spend, or not spend, IBM money?
Obviously a takeover attempt. Hope the FSF will stand up to the pressure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:20AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:07AM
How does he deserve it? It seems they're fighting harder against RMS over complete garbage than they are against proprietary software.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:34PM (2 children)
Stallman’s role is supposed to be advocacy. He’s now a pariah. Large organizations like RedHat and Mozilla and Opensuse want him gone.
He can’t do software advocacy when heis toxicity has become the story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @03:28AM (1 child)
What about the toxicity of Redhat, Mozilla and Suse?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @04:09AM
Mozilla is currently destroying itself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:18PM (35 children)
s/t
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:40PM (26 children)
https://rms-open-letter.github.io/ [github.io]
After that, 2304 and counting individuals, some of prominence, some anonymous cowards.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by krishnoid on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:32PM
Then there's this analysis [github.io] as well. Maybe he should go on Fox and see if both sides can make it through an interview about cancel culture. I'll reimburse you for a package of microwave popcorn if that ever happens.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:41PM (12 children)
All of those need to be minimized.
No, I won't be switching to MacOS or Windows, but I'll make a reasonable attempt at boycotts and bans.
Maybe the next step is to generate a list of alternatives. For each item on the list, what is the next-best thing that might need some help? Possibilities include code, monetary donation, and PR effort. Let's show toxic people a dose of their own poison.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:15PM (11 children)
> Let's show toxic people a dose of their own poison.
I totally agree. Toxic people were nice enough to provide a list of themselves by signing this petition. Let's try to remove them from positions of power.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:44PM (10 children)
per the usual the incels have no integrity, just reactionary bullshit with their faux victimhood
is muh cancel culture bad, or just when it is done to you?
is discrimination bad, or just when it happens to you?
saw a funny post about a libertarian who became a liberal after trying MDMA and finally comprehending that other people have feelings
so short an anecdote yet so poignant
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:06AM (9 children)
> waaaaah how dare you use our tactics against us
You fight violence with violence until potential opponents think twice before using it. Pacifist protests actually working are an exception in human history, not a rule.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @01:02AM (8 children)
Pacifistic resistance is highly effective if your opponent has a sense of ethics and/or honour because their own moral code will restrain them. It is not only completely ineffective but entirely self-destructive if your opponent has no morals because because their own code of conduct says to take full advantage of you.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @01:18AM (7 children)
This is a warmonger's myth. Non-violent resistance totally disables the evil opposition, because they actually depend on the kindness, and tacit compliance, of others. All power if based on the consent of the governed, and if the governed withhold consent, there is no power.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:37AM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @03:05AM (3 children)
It would be a better world if that were true. But it's not.
Non-violent resistance is the best method when it can work, but it does require some humanity on the other side to work. Maybe not at the top - but among the rank and file. The enforcers on the street.
As long as they remain human, they can be reached, they can be shamed, they can resist orders to commit murder. Resisting them non-violently puts them in a psychological bind; torn between obeying their superiors and obeying their conscience. This is the point - to tear them free of the control of their superiors.
But once it gets to the point where the enforcers are no longer human, this does not work anymore. They have no human instincts to call out. They will exterminate or be exterminated.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday March 26 2021, @06:28AM (2 children)
No, Arik, you are a coward, just like Runaway and khallow. You would collaborate rather than resist at the risk of your life.
If no one cooperates, the trains do not run on time, the busses go nowhere. the power to the death camps is shut off, and the Internet goes down. It's a goddammed general strike, Arik! And the "other side" can do nothing without the cooperation of a large proportion of the populace. This is why we kill collaborators in quite nasty ways, because they are cowards and traitors. There was a woman running for office in Lithuania, the granddaughter of Nazi collaborators, and the youngsters could not understand the reaction against her. We understand, don't we, Arik. The ones who turned in the Jews, the ones who tortured their fellow citizens, for a pittance and some food? Cowards, traitors. I really get the feeling that people have forgotten what fighting fascism is like. Prepare to die on your feet, or on your knees! And as Gandhi said, if you are not strong enough to be non-violent, being violent is better than being a coward. Suck it up, Arik!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @07:06AM (1 child)
Was the real-fake-ari-banned? I don't think so. Parsimony suggests you are the fake fake ari, and I probably shouldn't even reply to you.
Still;
"being violent is better than being a coward."
No. For anyone reading, no.
Being a coward is a personal failing you need to work on.
Being violent implicates everyone in the vicinity. And forces us to be violent in our responses, in some cases. You don't do that unless you're not only very certain you're right - but also that you can win and make things better instead of worse.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @05:35PM
Even when you can't win, sometimes especially then, when the only thing you can do is make oppression cost more, then fighting to the last is all you have left. "Give me freedom or give me death."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:46PM (1 child)
Bullies have no care or use of governance, and being a pacifist just rewards and reinforces their behaviour. A good punch in the face works wonders to enlighten them of the errors of their ways.
Stallman has always been a bully, a misogynist, and a freeloading bum. And now he’s getting the metaphorical punch in the face, along with the useless leadership of the increasingly irrelevant FSF.
When iconic projects like RedHat and openSUse and Mozilla publicly denounce Stallman and the FSF board for reinstating him, and cut financial ties, you can scream cancel culture all you want, but the guy is toxic, and what goes around has finally come around. Karma is a bitch, ain’t it?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @03:35AM
> iconic
Fucking "iconic", fuck me, pin me in the ass and cuck me with my wife before I accept that. Greasy corporate whores, money grubbers, people I'd happily shit upon while shielding Stallman.
Why don't you, Mozilla, RedHat and Suse fuck off?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tokolosh on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:14PM
"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Joseph Welch
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:33AM (1 child)
"To sign, please email digitalautonomy at riseup.net or submit a pull request."
riseup.net: "Riseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change." "This site is run by Riseup, your friendly Ⓐutonomous tech collective since 1999"
Considering how much some of them have been badmouthing the FSF, these radicals are sure eager to tell them how to run things.
I scanned the list and found at least three people I knew personally. Graduates within the last 20 years of a private university, probably 90% drawn from well-to-do families.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @11:54PM
And that is the ongoing pattern.
The people that hold these opinions are from one of two camps.
Either people with well established office careers, and thus would not know the hardships of service jobs, or newly minted graduates, often with social science degrees, with a upper middle or higher class background.
that term, class, is the one term USA do not talk about (except when fretting about "middle class", as if the nation was made up of only that). Possibly because even taking that into their mouth risk labeling them as communist.
Thus they will yak endlessly about race or gender (never mind that they conflate gender and gender roles, to avoid considering how rigid said roles are in USA, thus resulting in the whole trans-gender bruhaha) but ignore that more people are joined by class than anything else (or they know, and want to avoid it lest the working class will band together against them and take away their skimmed lattes).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Friday March 26 2021, @01:46AM (2 children)
A random list of people I've never heard of who no doubt contributed nothing of note to anything.
I guess this is their attempt to make up for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:06AM (1 child)
Including Microsoft employees. [newspunch.com]
(Score: 0) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday March 26 2021, @06:31AM
How many Microsoft Employees? All of the Linux Foundation? Oh, what a tangled web they weave, when first they try to FUD Linux. Always wondered why Ncommander was so into retro-Microsoft stuff, like installing DOS 3.3, or whatever, instead of actual free and open software. They got to him early?
(Score: 3, Funny) by shortscreen on Friday March 26 2021, @04:43AM
FreeDOS WTF? That's it I'm switching to DR-DOS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:16PM (1 child)
yeah, a bunch of twitter and linkedIn whores who are fine with discrimination as long as it's "positive discrimination". IOW, frauds and cultural marxist agents. You know who's not on twitter and linkedIn? fucking RMS, that's who.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:52PM
RedHat , openSUse, and Mozilla are hardly “unknown “, and their action are more significant than just signing a petition.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/26/redhat_fsf_funding_richard_stallman/ [theregister.com]
Stallman is a bug squished on the windshield. All that’s left is scraping him off. Will the FSF survive? It’s multiple choice: yes, no, who gives a shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @11:57PM (2 children)
One can't help wonder how much of that is ass kissing to a potential future HR search.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @12:18AM (1 child)
Identifiable people on the other list are already being threatened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @03:31AM
Interesting, but not surprising. Have a link to more information?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:42PM (7 children)
Oh, and NCommander signed:
1556. Michael NCommander Casadevall (Ubuntu Core Developer, former Debian Developer, former FSF Savannah Administrator)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fnord666 on Friday March 26 2021, @03:09AM (6 children)
NCommander's take [youtube.com] on the issue.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by darkfeline on Friday March 26 2021, @03:25AM (2 children)
With all due respect to NCommander, he can fuck right off. I only bothered to waste 3.5 minutes at 2x speed on his video. He briefly cites all of the malicious libel around the Epstein issue, and I suspect his reference to RMS being hard to work with is because RMS refuses to compromise on free software, e.g., disallowing linking GCC with closed source software. We need someone to take a hard stance for free software, and I say this as someone who uses lots of proprietary software. I don't care about the FOSS community being welcoming if it means attracting subversive elements (whether due to lack of ability or socially destructive delusions).
I do agree that having done good doesn't excuse bad actions. Thank you for SN, but fuck you.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:26PM (1 child)
fat, soy-sweating bitch who posts his videos on youtube. Who cares what you have to say about Free Software, you fat bolshevik bitch. I'm going to oil my lamps with your tit fat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @01:34AM
How dare you malign soy sauce, female dogs, tofu, people who struggle with their weight, men suffering from gynecomastia, and the Bolshevik Party by comparing them to NCommander!
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @03:26AM (1 child)
One silver lining though - he currently works on Ubuntu. One distro we could simply consign to the memory hole and lose absolutely nothing of value.
I'm still just reeling though. It's still a shocker to see such a longstanding and generally respected member of the community spewing transparent garbage and hatred.
Shame on you, NCommander, shame on you.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @06:55PM
Never knew much about NC, but given how SN is run are you really shocked? Really really?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday March 26 2021, @03:43AM
https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/journal/7354 [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:20PM (4 children)
Fuck all of the CoC assholes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:35PM
And Dr. Mehmet Oz is miles ahead of Katy Couric on Jeopardy, but he's the one they want to lynch. Okay, maybe his hair is too dark for his age, but at least he doesn't call the contestants "brainiacs," like Katy did.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:40PM
CoC's don't have to be a bad thing. Years ago every business in this state had the same CoC: Don't touch the protected categories. That was it. That's sensible, because even Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket did not look down on Niggers, Kikes, Wops, and Greasers; because everybody were all equally worthless.
If a CoC is written such that anybody could be in violation of it at any given moment, then you're creating the same schoolyard bully situation that many of the CoC's supporters claim to be fighting in the name of "justice," where the bullied loser of the week could change with whimsy and peer pressure, making the bullied the same damn bullies they claim to hate, perpetuating the cycle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:22PM (1 child)
No thanks. Unlike you, I’m not into anal.
(Score: 2) by hopdevil on Friday March 26 2021, @01:40AM
Don't knock it 'til you try it. And when I mean try it, once doesn't count.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:21PM (54 children)
Because this sounds like bunch of woke vaguery makes me sympathetic to RMS. I suspect there is a lot of intentional misinterpretation going on here.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:27PM (4 children)
We need to first investigate Neil McGovern, Deb Nicholson, Matthew Garrett, Elana Hashman, Molly de Blanc, and all of the other 2000 for their purity of wokeness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:30PM
Neil McGovern bragged about the judges discriminating against white boys in their contest for school children in the Growing Gnome video from guadec last year. He's a Neo-Bolshevik operative like half of these rats.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:56PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @05:17AM
I don't know about RedHat or OpenSUSE, but Mozilla was taken over by the 'woke' brigade years ago. Developer purges and Firefox Quantum were the result.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @11:39PM
Garrett worked for Red Hat back when the latter bent knee for Microsoft in order to get RHEL to work with UEFI "secure" boot.
Something that Torvalds produced one of his acerbic emails in response to.
Not surprising, later Garrett sided with Sharp when she went on a language crusade against Torvalds.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 26 2021, @12:16AM (48 children)
See, THIS is what I meant a week or so ago on your journal posts when I said your new religion absolves you of thinking.
Stop and ponder this: you have just made a snap judgment based on teh feelz. "This makes me feel bad and looks emotional, so I'm not going to think, I'll just react and pre-judge." Yet, you've dived headfirst into the "facts don't care about your feelings" milieu. So now you have to ask yourself: "do I really believe that, or do I just like shouting the slogan unthinkingly because I can use it as an excuse not to think about my own actions?"
Unlike you, I *have* given this some thought, and came up with roughly this, in no particular order:
- "Why now? Given Stallman's extensive, creeptastic history, why NOW?"
- "Expanding on the above, what precisely is Stallman's role in the FSF, and how well does he fulfill it?"
- "From that second thought, if he does not fulfill it well, how long has this been the case?"
- "If it's been the case for a long time, then, again, why NOW?"
- "Something smells bad here...and it's not just the toejam."
- "I suppose they'll say 'better late than never,' but that rings a bit hollow given the timeframe in question here..."
And ending on
- "When you think about it, does it really matter? What *has* Stallman done recently?"
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:50AM
> "Why now? Given Stallman's extensive, creeptastic history, why NOW?"
Who knows? [techrights.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @01:19AM (12 children)
Stallman is a philosophical and ideological anchor. There is a constant pressure from large, well-funded organisations towards "pragmatism" and "open source" and "developers developers developers" (rather than "users users users"). Without Stallman's influence I could see the FSF gradually softening their stance on contentious issues and compromising some freedom in the name of pragmatism.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:37AM (10 children)
Why is the FSF so closely aligned with the GPL instead of with ALL open source licenses? Because of Stallman. And giving undue consideration to the GPL shows they are biased, same as their campaign to open source Windows, knowing ahead of time that it’s legally impossible because of 3rd party code licensed to Microsoft, shows they really don’t give a shit about copyright law.
It’s a chummy club that, like Stallman, needs to go away. Anyone supporting them is a useful idiot.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @05:25AM (6 children)
Because the GPL was specifically written, at considerable expense, by some of the best lawyers available, directly in return for payment from the Foundation; specifically to make sure that it was the most pro-freedom license that our legal system would permit.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:01AM (5 children)
Anyway, it’s irrelevant. Stallman is now toast, and the FSF has ended up as collateral damage. Not too smart for a bunch of pseudo intellectual fools who just self-destructed without any outside pressure.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/26/redhat_fsf_funding_richard_stallman/ [theregister.com]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:21AM (4 children)
That depends on *whose* freedom it is intended to preserve:
BSD license is to preserve the developer's freedom. ("Anybody can take this code base and start developing it without questions, and even relicense it if they want.")
GPL license is to preserve the user's freedom. ("You can take this and use it yourself, and nobody is allowed to change the license to something more restrictive and sue you for using it.")
There is some assumption in the GPL that the end user may also be a programmer, so they're allowed to modify it for their own purposes, but that's more of a side effect of the intended goal.
Unless by "BSD is pro-freedom; GPL isn't" you mean "BSD makes it easier for companies to steal your work and sell it", which is true.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by ThatIrritatingGuy on Saturday March 27 2021, @11:55AM (2 children)
(following is nitpicking on details while agreeing with your post as a whole)
I always thought that GPL is preserving the freedom of software, not any person. Note that GPL does not guarantee that a user will be able to take such a program. Developer is obligated to give the same rights along with source to anyone they distribute the software to, but they are not compelled to distribute the software to anyone to begin with.
If you were to take a GPL program and modify it, you have the right to use it as you see fit. If you were to give the compiled program (modified or not) to a third party, you are obligated to provide them with the same license and source code. While having the same rights as you, this third party is not obligated to provide you with any derivative work they did based on the program. Original program developer cannot demand the changed versions to be shared by either you, the third party or anyone else down the line.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday March 27 2021, @03:40PM (1 child)
You can use your modified version in-house but you aren't required to give anybody the code if you don't distribute that version, yes.
I'm not quite sure how Party A finds out about Party B's modified version if Party B never distributes it, though...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by ThatIrritatingGuy on Monday March 29 2021, @08:56PM
Party A could hear about it from Party C that got a copy from Party B. Of course in this case Party C can give it to Party A and Party B can do nothing to stop that from happening.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday March 29 2021, @11:47PM
That's the only part I disagree with. That wasn't a side-effect, but an integral part of the better future we imagined computers could be harnessed to produce. Of course every user would know how to program. What's the point in having a computer if you can't program it? Just to run some opaque blob from an unknown source?
Of course not everyone was expected to program with the same facility, but we naturally expected that when everyone used computers it would mean that everyone had a basic understanding of what they were and how to use them. That's not *all* that source rights were about but that was certainly one of the motivations. We could see even then that the greedy bean counters would absolutely reduce everyone to serfdom through ignorance if allowed to do so.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday March 26 2021, @08:48PM
You say that like it is a bad thing! I haven't given a shit about copyright law for quite some time.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:35PM (1 child)
"Why is the FSF so closely aligned with the GPL instead of with ALL open source licenses? Because of Stallman."
yes, because he's not a basic bitch like you. he created copyleft for a fucking reason, you dumb windows/mac-using whore.
"And giving undue consideration to the GPL shows they are biased, same as their campaign to open source Windows"
of course they're biased, you fucking retard.
"knowing ahead of time that it’s legally impossible because of 3rd party code licensed to Microsoft"
oh cry me a river. anything that hurts MS is good for the world. they're lucky people don't attack the headquarters every day.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:06AM
(Score: 0) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday March 26 2021, @06:38AM
OMG, and becoming Bruce Perens? Open-source, instead of Freedom! Yes, many of us appreciate Stallman's hard stance, and principled position, and how he saved free software from the corporate zombies. No matter how he smells.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 26 2021, @02:11AM (4 children)
The thing is, a number of claims in the open letter seem to be taken for true with no substantiation. I have no doubts that rms is well described as eccentric, but I'm not so sure of the rest. Doubly so when the attempts I HAVE seen to justify the claims against him have fallen short. For example, the attacks on what he supposedly said about Minsky and Epstein that misquote him in ways that actually reverses some of what he actually said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:43PM (3 children)
yes, the cultural marxists who lead the charge know they are full of shit, but they don't care. they have no integrity, and it's a tactic. it works well much of the time. they know that suited whores will avoid him just at the first appearance of impropriety, and that's all they are after; the ostracization.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:33AM (2 children)
That he’s a fat smelly guy is beyond dispute. That he has spent decades couch surfing rather than paying for a place to live is also well known, and acknowledged on his web site with the recurring requests for a free room and board for a few months at a time. Ditto his misogyny and transphobia. His sole purpose is PR, one which he is unsuited for.
They would have been better off with William Shatner. At least he doesn’t look and smell like a homeless Santa Claus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @12:09AM (1 child)
What are his finances anyways?
His position at MIT was honorary, allowing him to claim a office there but nothing more.
The guy may well be effectively broke for all we know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @02:42AM
If he can hang around a university for 40 years, not pursuing a career and salary, he's probably well off personally.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Friday March 26 2021, @03:41AM (28 children)
I don't understand your problem with my post. I expressed my opinion without directing ire at anybody. I clicked the links several layers down starting at TFA and one of the most "horrible" things he said seemed logical to me, i.e., if the definition of rape is dependent on GPS location and varies by minor age differences between coordinates, that suggests there's a problem with the rape definition. Frankly, that criticism makes a lot of sense to me and so why that should be a basis to boot him leads me back to one of the problems with woke culture: its vague standards of righteousness which conveniently often align with certain economic interests.
Anyway, perhaps you object to my characterization of "woke vaguery", but you can just object and explain how it isn't vague and more to the point, you could provide a link to evidence that RMS fucks puppies or whatever, but to shift the burden of research to others after making vague accusations is actually one of the odious hallmarks of woke culture. A second is to attack those who point out the vaguery as you did here, but I am not the story. I am irrelevant here. The story appears to be one of powerful interests with various economic interests, dogpiling on one nutty dude who gave the world something of great value but who is easily maligned.
This is why RMS has my sympathies unless proven unworthy of them by having personally committed some heinous act.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by akai.tsubasa on Friday March 26 2021, @05:47AM (4 children)
Modded this insightful.
I want to see specifically the evidence for transphobia. I want to evaluate it myself. What horrific things did RMS say that would make me choose a license friendlier to corporate exploitation of my software, such an MIT or BSD style license, for my next project?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DECbot on Friday March 26 2021, @07:43PM (3 children)
I respect that you want to make your own judgement on RMS. I think your right on to ask why would you adopt a license that offers less protection to you, the developer, because of the actions of a eccentric old dude that thinks (1) source code should be accessible to developers and users freely and (2) open source software should not be used to make corporations rich at the developer's expense (3) rape might not be rape depending on what part of the world you might happen to be in at that moment. This is the specific problem I have with woke culture to disregard the advancement of society because of the faults of the individuals invoking the change. GPL is good for protecting open source and making sure the license is enforceable and keeping the open source code open. It is like raising a child--you can love your kid but hate that he is cheating on tests. Isolate the vision and the contribution from the faults of the induvial. Use the licenses that best protects the vision you have for your code. You are protecting your interests. Now, if there is a similar license that provides equal protection but is not FSF, use it to protest the council/RMS. Yes, this might be pragmatic way of looking at it--but as the old saying goes, don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Also, the GPL may have been a vision from RMS, but he did not create and enforce the GPL by himself. A lot of resources were put into the GPL to ensure it is enforceable and respected by the industry. RMS might be a liability to the FSF but that doesn't make other people's contributions to the GPL any less important.
The point being, hypothetically, even if all the slurs are true and RMS is a dirtbag in a degree we never considered and the FSF is propping him up for whatever reason they have, does that make the GPL a less effective license? Nope. However, it may result in less contributions to the FSF which reduces access to competent lawyers able to provide successful protection of the GPL in court. Allowing corporations to chip away at the GPL's protection is one reason why you might want to shop around for a different FOSS/FLOSS license.
My personal opinion RMS is a details oriented guy that makes him perfect to discuss the minutiae of a code implementation or legal technicalities but not suitable for the mouthpiece directed towards main stream media or even to be a target for MSM to eavesdrop on. Case in point, the Epstein discussions. The media is looking for 30-second sound bites to attract eyeballs and clicks, not a lecture on why it is wrong but in this case it might be right because it depends type of arguments. So why would the FSF ask RMS to come back? FSF may still need RMS to look critically at proposals from large corporations to ensure the goals and ideals of the FSF are protected and to articulate why and take the heat for when a proposal is rejected. Apparently when he left the FSF, they did not have a replacement ready and no volunteers to take it. He might have done creepy things, and it might have been more acceptable back in the day. I have no clue, but that has no specific bearing on my project's software license. However, there are several cases where the GPL was protected in a courtroom, which does have merit to why I might consider the GPL. I haven't read the history to determine if RMS was directly involved in license enforcement or if he just built the foundation that made it possible to defend the license. Though the actions of the FSF makes it appear the FSF still needs RMS to advocate the GPL. That makes me question what will happen to the FSF and the GPL when RMS is done with the FSF for one reason or another and does having RMS back in the FSF reduce the ability of the FSF to protect the GPL? Hopefully the FSF has a fall back plan like the Linux Foundation has with Linus, and it is all figured out--but who knows since I haven't seen an "RMS got hit by a bus" plan like what the Linux Foundation has with Linus. Though realistically, their plan might be more appropriately named "The media found RMS saying something indefensible" plan. That all said, if you are shopping for a FLOSS license for your code, is there a license and foundation that protects FLOSS projects as well as the GPL and FSF does with success track record of license enforcement? I'll be blunt, I'm ignorant in this matter, so I don't know of one. Thus I question the motives of people who are advocating a different license because of the out of context and weird inappropriate statements made by RMS.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:13AM
The FSF has been without RMS for more than a year. They did survive, and they eventually appointed a boss, though as a donor, I refrained from my usual levels of support, in anticipation that the Woke Mob were about to get their filthy hands on the precious.
So they were operating without RMS, but they got him back on the board of directors. Usually, one appoints board members that can bring in donations, either directly or through connections. With RMS' history as founder, there is a chance that 1) he personally, or through GNU Inc., controlled trademarks that required the FSF to stay on good terms with him or 2) has good friends on the BoD that wanted him back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @10:18PM (1 child)
A license that you need lawyers to defend, like the GPL, or a license that you don’t need to deft, like BSD or MIT?
Code you have to consult a lawyer for before and after using, or code that you can just use?
Gee, that’s an easy one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @03:06AM
Waaa! Waaaaah! Legal told me I couldn't use this awesome code because it had a stinking GPL! Instead we have to negotiate a proper site license so the author gets paid what her code is worth! Waaaah!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 26 2021, @07:02AM (4 children)
I wonder how many signatiories signed because they believe Stallman must be cancelled and how many signed more as a way of saying "please don't hurt me!". That's the thing with the more extreme side of cancel culture. If you disagree with a cancellation, you must be cancelled.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @01:50PM
I wonder how many signed because their cool, socially just friends did. Signers who would have suffered no loss if they had just abstained.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @05:41PM (1 child)
"If you disagree with a cancellation, you must be cancelled."
This is exactly what brought the mob down on Stallman. He disagreed with Minsky's cancellation. Worse, he was correct to disagree, which is an unforgivable sin.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday March 26 2021, @06:52PM
And in turn, the FSF board disagreed with canceling the guy who disagreed with a cancellation, so they too must be canceled.
Meanwhile, off to the side, MS Palpatine cackles gleefully "YES! Let the anger make you powerful!!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:47PM
i don't know about other countries, but the US is like 95% Suited Whore these days, so to answer your question: plenty.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 26 2021, @12:12PM (17 children)
Don't misunderstand me, this whole thing icks me out from both sides. The timing is bizarre, and there are waaaaaaay too many "interested parties" here that are dead-set against the kind of freedom the GPL provides. I personally think they're using the complainants as useful idiots, and that their end goal is to cripple the GPL specifically.
If the FSF is smart, they'll put this internal squabbling on hold and lawyer up right now, making sure the GPL is bulletproof and remains so, before figuring out what their corporate/nonprofit/whatever culture looks like.
See, there's a false dichotomy at work here. It's entirely possible for Stallman to be fatally encumbered with organization-killing baggage AND completely correct in his core principles about software and software freedom. People don't seem able to step back and assess the situation calmly and rationally.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Friday March 26 2021, @04:38PM (7 children)
I don't like the passive voice in phrases like this. Who made the baggage? "Baggage" is a derivative of popular culture -- it's the CDO of the social milieu -- rarely productive, often destructive, frequently wrong. Galileo's culture gave him baggage -- that baggage wasn't Galileo's creation or fault, rather, it was chained to him against his will, against reality, and demonstrated only the idiocy of his culture. In the same way, RMS is not responsible for the baggage our present culture is bestowing on him merely because he doesn't fit in with the going social narrative.
So, unless we are talking about RMS being convicted by direct evidence of a provable crime that caused actual real world harm to a real world person (*), I don't care about the culturally manufactured garbage. Such irrelevancies say nothing about the person being dogpiled but are instead, informative about the toxicity level of current culture.
(*) Cultural crimes are also irrelevancies. See Galileo.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:50PM
yes, i've seen twats on social media arguing that since people are upset it's his burden. That's ridiculous. Just like these mask/"vaccine" cowards freaking out like you killed their kids just because they feel scared. your feelings are not my problem. if you try to make it my problem i will crack your faced up like a old porcelain doll.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 27 2021, @01:45AM (5 children)
You...ignored literally 90-95% of that post to piss and moan about this. This, Hemo, is why you aren't relevant any longer; you've been reduced to "oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg."
This may surprise, anger, and upset you, but you're not saying anything either original or useful here. If you want to contribute, join me in pointing out that what's at stake here is *the GPL itself,* and with it, the Zeroth Law and possibly the very concept of copyleft licensing per se. Microsoft, Google, etc. can't beat Linux on its own merits, nor can they destroy open-source coding on a program for program basis as to which is better. So they're trying to make it illegal. Stallman presents himself as a gigantic, unfortunate ring target.
Whatever happens now, the FSF needs to lawyer the hell up like yesterday and make the GPL immortal and bulletproof. Ideally, Stallman (and any other single person, or even organization) should be *irrelevant* to copyleft.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:44AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday March 27 2021, @06:57AM (2 children)
FSF has encouraged transfer of copyright to it on quite a bit of software pretty central to the stack. Just sayin'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @10:29PM (1 child)
Of course they have. It’s a make-work project for FSF lawyers. And “the stack” is being replaced. Major pieces like gcc, which is now replaced by clang/LLVM, to the point some distros don’t even ship gcc.
What happens when the only part of a Linux distro under the GPL is the kernel? No gnu programs. No more stupid “gnu/Linux” arguments? Because it’s coming to that. The gnu toolchain is long in the tooth, and it’s not getting any prettier with age. And Stallman is too burned out after living his life as a vagabond to button down and do anything about it (plus nobody who’s tried working with him before wants to go through that experience again).
Gnu was already dying. This just accelerated the process.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday March 28 2021, @01:48AM
So long as the kernel itself stays GPL, I am okay with this. This is Linux functioning as intended; the "hurr hurr ganoo-linnix derp-a-derr" mockery you're putting out is the entire *point.* Linux *is* nothing more than the kernel, and is basically userland-agnostic as it should be.
That said, unless and until we get as-good-or-better (and ideally backwards-compatible...) replacements for the entire GNU toolchain, we shouldn't be so sanguine about the idea of it all disappearing. We can of course steal the BSD toolchain (and hopefully not give Theo a fit of apoplexy) if it comes to that, but if it does, it will happen for political reasons rather than anything meritocratic or based on code quality.
LLVM and Clang are not there yet. I don't see GCC going away any time soon. Let's see what things look like in 5 years' time.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday March 28 2021, @01:57AM
And you expect a single coder working out of his or her basement on weekends and nights to have the wherewithal to challenge $BIGCORP over ownership of their code? That's the real problem here...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @06:06PM (7 children)
Maybe that's what this is about?
How much software is written declaring that "any later version" of the GPL can apply to it? If the entire FSF board is replaced, could a future board spearhead the production of a later watered-down or easily circumvented version?
Hard to not be too conspiracy-theory minded with the open letter hosted on Microsoft-owned Github; perhaps they feel they're done with the embrace and wish to move on to extend...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:47AM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday March 27 2021, @07:50AM (2 children)
Look up "Why the FSF gets copyright assignments from contributors" on their site. The FSF has copyrights on quite a bit of software quite central to the stack.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @10:41PM (1 child)
With major parts like gcc already being replaced by software that doesn’t use the GPL, it’s only a matter of time before the only essential GPL software is the kernel, and that already has its own lawyers. So the FSF and gnu will be irrelevant. And seriously, who gives a shit about busybox nowadays when even a cheapie router has more than enough ram to do without it? The FSF “major victory “ was rendered obsolete by advances in hardware.
Seriously, what have either Stallman or the FSF done in the last 20 years that matters any more? The FSF is now best known for lame attempts at generating self-serving publicity that just raises e awareness of their bad publicity campaigns. Stallman? Now that he’s old enough to collect Social Security, who knows - maybe he got himself a permanent address? That may be why he felt he could quit the FSF and not have to mooch for shelter any more.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 29 2021, @11:43PM
I really, really hope you're right about that. Because we can survive so long as the kernel is safe; as mentioned above it's more or less userland-agnostic. I just hate that it could come to this, uuuugh.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @02:49AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @10:52AM
It's mirrored. The canonical source for linux kernel is kernel.org.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @03:34AM
You're a funny man, NCommander! Where do you get your material?
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Monday March 29 2021, @05:02PM
Damn it, that was already at +5 when I saw it so I could not mod it up.
I love reasoned insightful thoughts.