SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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
(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...