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Red Hat pulls Free Software Foundation funding over Richard Stallman's return:
The chorus of disapproval over Richard M Stallman, founder and former president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), rejoining the organisation has intensified as Linux giant Red Hat confirmed it was pulling funding.
Stallman announced he had returned to the FSF's Board of Directors last weekend – news that has not gone down well with all in the community and Red Hat is the latest to register its dismay.
CTO Chris Wright tweeted overnight: "I am really outraged by FSF's decision to reinstate RMS. At a moment in time where diversity and inclusion awareness is growing, this is a step backwards."
Describing itself as "appalled" at the return of Stallman to the FSF board of directors "considering the circumstances of Richard Stallman's original resignation in 2019," Red Hat said it decided to act.
"We are immediately suspending all Red Hat funding of the FSF and any FSF-hosted events. In addition, many Red Hat contributors have told us they no longer plan to participate in FSF-led or backed events, and we stand behind them," said Red Hat.
[...] Red Hat's step marks an escalation in the war of words over Stallman's return. As both a long-time donor and contributor of code, the IBM-owned company's action might well give the FSF pause for thought in a way that thousands of outraged tweets might not.
FSF president Geoffrey Knauth stated his intention yesterday "to resign as an FSF officer, director, and voting member as soon as there is a clear path for new leadership."
Red Hat statement about Richard Stallman's return to the Free Software Foundation board
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday March 28 2021, @09:39AM (7 children)
Care to explain it, oh, you chief of a library long gone?
I admit that I lost track how FSF is conducting its mission today or indeed what exactly is this mission. Mind you, I'm not saying it doesn't have a mission just that, as a limited human as I find myself, I lost track of it in the practical sense. Like, what has FSF done for us in the last 5 years?
And then, how exactly the entire Stallman brouhaha - quitting, rejoining (and, I suppose, quitting again soonish) - helped or didn't help keeping the proprietary software at bay?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anti-aristarchus on Sunday March 28 2021, @10:45AM (4 children)
The battle has been long. Not so much what FSF has done in the recent past, but the insistence on Free Software. We have seen many, many attempts to destroy that. Novell has been mentioned. COREL? SuSE went to the Dark Side, and Redhat has committed sins against free software that are questionable, if not unforgiveable. Not to mention systemd. SCO, Linux Foundation. "Open Source". DRM in WWW3 standards. Creeping attempts to confuse the issues, confuse the public, and ultimately destroy free software as a concept, and as a GPL. Those are the stakes. Also why I cringe when ever I hear "public-private partnership."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday March 28 2021, @11:43AM
Those I know about. What happened to them lately? Are we better or are we worse in this regard?
If we aren't better, what was FSF doing to at least try to make them better?
I heard nothing of "yet another city/county/state going open source", nothing about "open standards", nothing about "Social Media with privacy", nothing about many things, only about RMS pro and against.
So... what else?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @01:03PM (2 children)
Take a chill pill already and try to leave your reality distortion field for a moment. There’s no attempt to confuse the public because the public has never heard of RMS, the FSF, or the GPL, and doesn’t give a shit. If, after all these years, that’s still the case, then it’s all been a miserable failure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 29 2021, @12:05AM (1 child)
So, who cares about the public? Really. This isn't a popularity contest where it matters how big the Kardassians asses are. The public may not care about free software, but nerds don't care about the public. Stop trying to push your normie social standards onto other groups you bigot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 29 2021, @10:45PM
You say nerds don’t care about the public, but you complain when anyone calls out your bullshit. Nice.
Fucking hypocrite.
(Score: 2) by Eratosthenes on Monday March 29 2021, @12:28AM (1 child)
Doesn't help, at all. In fact, a distraction? A manufactured, intentional distraction? This is really my point, and I do not mean to engage in the details of the "brouhaha", but this is an attack on free software. Post-conventional warfare is like this. The players are often not clear, the attacks are oblique, and the game is a long one.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 29 2021, @04:26AM
Safe to say, then, that either:
Coming to TFA,
Well, Geoffrey mate, just don't waste your time, the sooner you find a new (and proper) leadership, the better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford