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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @01:41PM (14 children)
The majority of coders are not “aspies.” Same as in other fields, they are people capable of focusing on the job at hand for long hours, even death marches, without losing their humanity.
So why is tech so full of the fucked up? Because you don’t have to be mature to write code. Kids can do it. So it has become a retreat for people who are afraid of growing up, end of story. Stupid bro culture, both wanting to like girls but afraid of them. If this sounds like the behaviour of a 10-year-old, it’s because it is. It’s ugly when it’s present in adults, and the high proportion of misogynist males in tech is a direct result of people who want an environment where they can work without having to grow the fuck up.
Case in point - RMS. Usually, you get an education, leave school, get a job and a place of your own, because the world isn’t a scary place for a functioning adult. Stallman? He was crashing in the labs of MIT long after he was finished with his schooling. Unable to get a real job and a place of his own. An adolescent (at best) in an adult body. He then spent the rest of his life until the age of retirement going from one couch or borrowed room to another. His “job” paid $0.
Smelly, disgusting personal hygiene, with a long history of misogyny, he’s the typical incel who still wants what he can’t have (see his personal ad from over a decade ago on gnu.org and you’ll know why).
Tech is full of guys who make all sorts of excuses for their weird ways, to the point where they believe it’s “normal” for people in the field. But it never was. Most of the workers aren’t incels, enjoy going out with friends and family , and talk about the same things as everyone else. In other words, they’re not one-dimensional characters. They did what most people do, learned how to get along in the world instead of hiding from it in a cult-like lifestyle.
And they believe they are better than everyone else because they’re “special.” They are not. They could all have a big get-together and drink the purple floavor-aid and nothing much will change, except that without their toxicity, more women will get into the field.
It’s not a coincidence that Stallman quit around the time he qualified for social security - his first regular income in a lifetime. Let that whole sorry saga sink in and ask yourself - would you want to be associated with such a stupid bum? Would you let him stay at your place for a few months, with all his crazy demands on his hosts? (They are also on gnu.org, and most people would say “fuck you - be happy for what we’re giving you’)
That neither the FSF nor Stallman saw the reaction shows just how cloistered and insular their little world is. The world is better of without the useless PR fundraising campaigns of the FSF, and without Stallman. They should fold up their tents and leave the world to adults.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @02:02PM (3 children)
fakefuck, is that u?
anyways, i do not think they do any of what u say.
they just code, and make fun jokes on occasions, or go into long monologues on random topics.
do not get me wrong, i enjoy programmers, they are rather peaceful and informative poeple.
never the less, they have shortcomings, that makes organisations to densly populated by them easy to infliltrate, and that is one reason many dislike Linus.
he is a military type of guy, with some strength, agression, and fits of rage.
inflitrators hate righteous authority =)
-zug
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @04:12PM (2 children)
Sorry but I’m definitely not fakefuck. Not even dontgiveafuck.
Honestly, this whole thing is just another example of how isolated from reality so many who support Stallman and the FSF are. I’m just watching with my bowl of popcorn, because this whole mess was entirely predictable.
I’m still waiting for anyone to give even a semi coherent answer to the question of exactly what either Stallman or the FSF have done of consequence in years. Every pronouncement from the FSF is accompanied by numerous complaints about what they’re actually DOING aside from raising awareness of the FSF for fundraising purposes.
Advocacy? Well, I’d call that a big fat fail at this point. Stallman, either there or not there, changed nothing whatsoever. So why bring him back? Stallman hasn’t done anything of note in decades. Their bringing him back wasn’t only time-deaf; it shines a light on the FSF, and people are realizing how ineffective and useless it really is.
And that’s absolutely a GOOD THING™
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:34PM (1 child)
what they did was that they were there.
perhaps not the "right people", but in the right place, at right time, with the right philosophy.
personally, i am not in favor of waiting indefinitely for the right leader.
if u cant have the ones u love, love the ones u have =)
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @08:51PM
They failed. Because the GPL is useless. It discourages investment in GPL software. If they had said “only requires divulging the source after X number of years” there would have been huge investment, and the source would have been opened after a few years.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday March 28 2021, @05:04PM (5 children)
Nice narrative you have going on there, but how would RMS qualify for social security if he never worked and paid into it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:14PM (4 children)
So even a bum who never paid into the social security plan can collect at 65.
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/ [ssa.gov]
So yes, a happy ending fucking over taxpayers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:36PM
Beautiful, almost Randian in tragicness.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday March 28 2021, @10:53PM (2 children)
Thanks for responding, I had no idea about that. Rather strange set of incentives where a person can collect it if they live in a mcmansion and drive a Bentley but not if they have a bank account with $2001 in it. Although in the end it's only 800 bucks a month which is like 1/4 the cost of a tent in San Fran.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @11:56PM (1 child)
A Bentley would count as "personal property".
"anything else you own that could be converted to cash and used for food or shelter." cannot exceed $2000 to get on disability.
A guy who can hang around for 50 years at a university without pursuing gainful employment is either happy with being an ascetic, or has a sufficient personal fortune.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Monday March 29 2021, @01:48AM
The list of things that don't get counted says you're allowed one vehicle for transportation though, why not a Bentley? https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-resources-ussi.htm [ssa.gov]
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:46PM (1 child)
>Most of these “aspies” are self-diagnosed
It wasn't your main point, but it deserves to be amplified.
What I've seen from neurodiversity advocates is that they're pissed as hell at self-diagnosed people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @07:54PM
Elite pricks.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 29 2021, @01:42AM (1 child)
RMS created emacs, gcc, the GPL, the free software movement, among many other things. He could have worked anywhere he pleased (and he did).
What have you accomplished besides trolling on the Internet?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 30 2021, @02:47PM
And people were sharing code back in the 70s long before Stallman, so he didn’t “invent” it.
emacs - tried it, found it stupid, went back to vi (vim wasn’t available back then on that architecture, if at all).
The GPL - a license that discourages investment in software under that license, and we’ve seen how that played out. The average distro has repositories filled which abandonware. Way to go.
That last point needs to be emphasized - the GPL leaves software to the not-so-tender mercies of their sponsors. Linux is a great example- now the direction is dictated by IBM/RedHat.
And modified GPL software is running on servers, where there is no obligation to redistribute the modified source , because the GPL foolishly limited itself to being a distribution licence, whereas most copyright software covers both use and distribution. Use, by per-use fees, and by allowing the holder to be the sole decider as to how copies are made.
Copyright was originally of a much shorter term, to allow creators a reasonable timeframe to profit from their work, after which it enters the public domain for the benefit of society. The GPL in effect breaks that model. A license with a shorter term before requiring source distribution (say 5 years) would have been far more intelligent. But Stallman is a libertarian, and was blind to alternatives to his personal agenda.
10 years from now the average distro will still expend mst of its energy tinkering with the desktop, and the repos will be a decade older and even more populated with decrepit software.
Same as the previous two decades. It’s all been downhill since the turn of the century.