
ACM 2015 Technical Award Recipients - spetschu
http://www.acm.org/awards/2015-technical-awards
======
_RPM
I know some people on HN do not have respect for RMS, but lest we forget he is
a true Hacker who built very useful pieces of software, GCC, ls, GNU Emacs,
GNU Bison, just to name a few pieces of code that I almost use everyday. Some
interesting facts about him are that he has been awarded 15 honorary doctorate
degrees.

~~~
lettergram
Honestly, GCC and the GPL are probably the largest contributions of all time
to software development. Although GCC has waned in popularity of late, at the
time it truly is what sparked the "Open Source" and "Free Software" movements.

Without those, I couldn't imagine the world progressing as fast as it did.
Especially, without someone like Stallman behind it, almost completely devoid
of social understanding, he was able to stand up to virtually unlimited
pressure and keep to his values.

I agree some people on HN don't respect him, or just generally dislike him.
They claim he hurt GCC or Emacs, and to an extent he did through the GPL
and/or his lack of technical guidance. However, without him, they wouldn't
have existed at all. GCC is still pretty competitive, and at one point was the
most competitive free compiler - which is why both movements gained so much
momentum.

RMS' fervent defense of freedom has been both his greatest asset, and his
greatest weakness. I find it hard to criticize the man who literally dedicated
(and in a sense sacrificed) his life to ensure humanity doesn't have to pay
for every single piece of software.

Hell, would we still have to pay for web browsers?

~~~
riyadparvez
> ensure humanity doesn't have to pay for every single piece of software

It is nothing to do with money, it is the freedom to have access to the source
code of softwares.

~~~
alphapapa
It's not merely having access; even the source code to Windows is available to
those who "need" it. It's about users having the freedom to copy, modify, and
distribute modifications to software they receive, and ensuring that users
further downstream have the same freedoms. Or for more detailed info, read
about the Four Freedoms on the FSF site.

------
curiousgal
To save everyone the time, here's a typical Internet thread about Stallman:

\- He's crazy!

\- But he's right!

\- Right? He's just been stating the obvious all this time!

\- NSA surveillance!

\- Hadn't anyone heard about Echelon?

\- He stands for freedom of users!

\- But users don't care about those freedoms, they just want something that
works!

\- He's antisocial and extremely rude!

\- Autism spectrum.

\- But he's not diplomatic at all, we don't want him as a spokesperson for
Open Source!

\- It's GNU/Linux, not Linux.

\- See? It's nitpicking things like GNU/Linux that make even open source
enthusiasts hate him!

\- Only the userland is GNU anyway.

\- GPL!

\- Emacs!

\- GCC!

\- HURD!

\- Toejam.

~~~
dorfsmay
You missed ad hominem attacks about hygiene etc... When people run out of
arguments.

~~~
srl
I believe that was "toejam".

------
zeeshanm
So good to see RMS being recognized for his work. A lot of my interest in
computers is due to being inspired by RMS. stallman.org is a good resource for
anyone wanting to learn more. Stallman's commentary on politics is also second
to none.

_Revolution OS_ is a really good documentary that goes over the genesis of FSF
and how Stallman played an in important role:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8K460vx1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8K460vx1c)

------
amelius
Well deserved.

I sometimes wonder if the Googles and Facebooks of today would have existed if
Stallman didn't have started the GNU movement with their excellent developer
tools. In a way, he has created his own demons.

~~~
schoen
CompuServe and AOL both predated the GNU Project (!), while Prodigy was nearly
contemporaneous with it, and I could imagine these becoming or evolving into
centralized social media services and huge-scale communications intermediaries
-- maybe with or without the web -- if they hadn't encountered the competition
that they did. And they were able to make a lot of progress, in their way,
without the GNU toolchain.

On the other hand, the ease with which startups could enter this world from
the 1990s onward owes a huge amount to GNU and to languages and tools that owe
a huge amount to GNU.

------
lifeisstillgood
It's probably the primaries, but I am reminded of one of the best and worst
times in recent American politics; John McCain deflected a woman calling Obama
an Arab by explaining "he [Obama] is a good man with whom I happen to
disagree".[#]

Stallman is the prime mover behind the Free/Open movement from which we all
benefit, and has a coherent and credible world view - with which I may
occasionally disagree, but which I cannot dismiss or ignore.

He has stuck to his principles and deserves his recognition. And surprisingly,
like McCain, He is never going to "win" \- but the game is better for people
like him in it.

[#]([http://www.politico.com/story/2008/10/mccain-obama-not-an-
ar...](http://www.politico.com/story/2008/10/mccain-obama-not-an-arab-crowd-
boos-014479))

Ps - that may come across as troll bait but the McCain comparison seems apt -
from the UK at least.

~~~
matt4077
Thanks for reminding me. That was indeed an incredibly emotional moment for
some reason – I remember it almost like a jolt of empathy.

(and now we shall drink and forget the present)

------
supernintendo
Love him or hate him, Stallman's contributions have been instrumental in
shaping the landscape of technology as we know it today. I have nothing but
respect for him and the Free Software Foundation.

And now for a song,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJUDx7iEJw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJUDx7iEJw)

------
orsenthil
DRM is a concept to be taken seriously, and I often wonder who is the
equivalent of RMS in the literature world (?).

Imagine for a moment. Kindle books cost 57.59 dollars, only a few dollars
cheaper than Hardcopy books. Along with hardcopy books, Kindle books have a
concept of "renting", "monthly membership" to read it on your device at your
home.

And at any moment, the document in the cloud can be wiped out with you
knowing.

Writing software is a similar challenging task as writing a book and
Fortunately, we do not face this problem in Software world, where high-quality
software under various Free and Open Source licenses are available at all
times.

RMS ensured that anything under GPL cannot be taken away in any form from the
users.

We need an equivalent of RMS in the literature world so that we can have
freedom to read anything, at any time, while at the same time, while ensuring
the protection and credit for the author of the original work.

~~~
igravious
Totally agree.

Well I would say that Alexandra Elbakyan of Sci-Hub fame is in the vanguard in
this respect. I'm not making an equivalence here because Stallman repurposed
the tool that is copyright to make copyleft to underpin free software legally
whereas Elbakyan is an out and out pirate as far as the law goes.

I have used Sci-Hub and gen.lib.rus.ec countless times already even though I
attend a "developed-world" academic institution and have access to a lot of
the material that is shared on those sites. Sometimes it's a simple matter of
convenience, sometimes I my institution does not have the required
subscription.

I suppose the Open Access model in the academic publishing world is the
ideological equivalent to what Stallman was a part of building in the software
world but it seems to be playing out a lot differently. In the wider world of
literature I couldn't say.

------
partycoder
I've mentioned this before here at HN and I will do it again. I think Stallman
contributed a lot.

Licensing such as GPL has been instrumental for the expansion of open source.
That is what helped open source to expand and become integral part of
everyone's lives.

~~~
orsenthil
partycoder, I share the same view as you.

------
dave2000
Actually the correct name is the GNU/ACM Software System Award.

~~~
marchelzo
Or as I've recently taken to calling it, the GNU+ACM Software System Award.

------
ryanlm
The title was changed from:

    
    
        Stallman Recipient of 2015 ACM Software System Award
    

To:

    
    
        ACM 2015 Technical Award Recipients

~~~
kiloreux
I wonder what is the motivation behind such thing ?

~~~
lorenzhs
HN doesn't take kindly to editorializing titles unless the original title is
either misleading or linkbait.

------
justjico
I was also surprised to see Michael Luby there. I know he's a brilliant guy
and I'm appreciative for his contributions to Fountain and LT codes, however
the old debate of software patents come to mind. I wish we had a better system
in place.

------
spenrose
Two awards of $35,000 and two of $10,000, which combined are a few months of
salary to employ one of those engineers.

~~~
Ar-Curunir
Pretty much none of these are engineers; most are in academia or on the
research side of things.

------
mappy
Congrats, rms!

Those pictures on the page are horrible, though. Really bad photoshopping.

------
eternalban
Congratulations to RMS (and ACM for that matter ..)

------
justinlardinois
> I know people on HN do not have respect for RMS

What? That's one hell of a strawman if I ever saw one.

And there's no need to list off software. I'm not sure it's possible to be in
this site's target demographic and not know who he is.

~~~
the_af
I might be wrong, but I think I've sometimes seen it here; in any case it
definitely happens in many "programmer" online circles (say,
programmers.stackexchange: search for questions about the GPL or GNU or open
source software): RMS is sometimes disparaged as a loon and an extremist. The
Free Software movement as a whole is often disparaged as impractical and out
of touch with reality. I cannot say these people self-describe as hackers
but... I dunno... they _are_ asking and answering questions in a stackexchange
community about programmers...

I do remember this also happened in Slashdot occasionally. People using free
software criticizing RMS as an extremist.

Which is pretty disappointing, given that many of the people doing the
disparaging are using software borne out of the efforts of said free software
/ hacker movements.

~~~
golergka
> RMS is sometimes disparaged as a loon and an extremist. The Free Software
> movement as a whole is often disparaged as impractical and out of touch with
> reality.

> People using free software criticizing RMS as an extremist.

I agree with these views, but it doesn't mean that I don't respect him.

~~~
the_af
I don't know about you, but I consider it pretty hard to hold both views
simultaneously: to respect someone and consider him/her an extremist loon who
is out of touch with reality.

"I respect this lunatic whose views are divorced from reality"... isn't this
damning him with faint praise, and therefore confirming user _RPM's first
sentence?

~~~
forthefuture
I think it's a matter of scope. You can respect Stallmans contributions to
technology and "no thank you" his views on politics and society.

~~~
CuriousSkeptic
I don't think you can. Some (most?) of those contributions were made exactly
to promote those views on politics and society. To separate those
contributions from that is disrespect in and of itself, almost by definition.

~~~
twr
It's quite possible to comprehend, admire, and appreciate the labor and
discoveries of renowned scientists and technologists, without sharing in the
motivations and beliefs they possessed.

Science is intertwined with the accomplished legacies of hated figures whose
beliefs were shaped by prejudice, yet whose works became recognized and
included in established theory.

Computing fields tend to venerate their idols with a religious-like fervor,
unfortunately.

~~~
CuriousSkeptic
I dont dispute that. Comprehend, admire and appreciate are all words that
would fit in the paragraph I objected to. It was precisely the word respect I
objected to.

------
privong
According to the ACM website, it is the 2015 Award, not the 2016 award (as the
HN title currently states).

~~~
spetschu
Fixed.

------
a13n
Four white men.

~~~
angersock
Sure, I'll take the bait: what women or people of color have done as much for
the field as, say, Stallman? Exclude folks that have already gotten
recognition (like Hopper).

~~~
empthought
That's easy: Pat Selinger. Oh wait, she won this very same award in 1988 for
much more important work, and yet you've never even heard of her.

~~~
angersock
For those that are curious, she did some very important work in the
development of relational database technology--specifically, on query
optimization (
[http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~coms4111/docs/selinger.pdf](http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~coms4111/docs/selinger.pdf)
).

------
TheGrassyKnoll
(long time Emacs user here)

He probably could have made a lot of money if he was more of a 'capitalist'. I
think he's a <bleeeeping> _superstar_.

~~~
jff
You're allowed to say "fucking" on HN.

