
The Shaggy God - Richard Stallman in Boston Magazine - altay
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_shaggy_god/page1
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wallflower
"Strictly speaking, the complete operating system should have been called
GNU/Linux, representing the combined contributions of Stallman and Torvalds.
Stallman always insists on the term, pronouncing it "GNU slash Linux." But in
the popular mind, it came to be known as only Linux. Stallman has never gotten
over that."

The more I read about Stallman the more I find that his extreme stance is just
who he is:

"He's entirely consistent and uncompromising and I think the world needs
someone like that," Perens said.

[http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/sho...](http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175802222&pgno=4&queryText=&isPrev=)

~~~
davidw
I'm glad he exists, though, because he makes me look like a moderate, even
though I'm a pretty dedicated free software fan.

~~~
william42
That's the Overton window and I'm glad he's pushing it.

Without him, we may still be in the world of non-disclosure agreements and
closed Unices.

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mixmax
"The most momentous product of Stallman's genius, Linux, was the first
operating system to feature software that was entirely free."

I believe this is not entirely accurate - I seem to remember someone else
being involved in creating linux...

~~~
gaius
Well, that someone used GCC and the first thing they ran on their new kernel
was Bash ;-)

~~~
narag
:-) It's curious that nobody seems to remember that "that someone" ported GCC
to x86.

~~~
gwniobombux
That credit is probably due to William Schelter.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Schelter>

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robg
Can anyone answer for me how Stallman has influenced the Cambridge tech
community? What was interesting, as the author envisons "Mt. Hackmore", is
that Stallman is the only East Coaster in that circle. Makes me think that in
combining his personality and ethos with the venture community in Boston you
could perhaps explain the very conservative investment environment.

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patrickg-zill
Stallman got trolled (though he realized it) when Philip Greenspun did a
parody page on "Heather Has Two Mommies and they go to the Zoo" :
<http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/>

Stallman's PC response, laying all on the "right wing Christian movement":
<http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/stallman-reaction.text>

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coffeeaddicted
I understand why Stallman wants the GNU in GNU/Linux. But what's always
confusing me is - why the slash? He's a programmer, so he knows that this is
usually used for paths. But that does not seem to make sense if he wants this
as a single name which should always be used. You can't create a single
GNU/Linux folder - at least not in GNU/Linux. So anyone know why he didn't use
another character there?

~~~
mojuba
Probably because GNU Linux without slash would mean there may be another Linux
also that's not GNU.

And yes, GNU/Linux reads like a path: here is the GNU world and here's Linux
subworld.

~~~
huhtenberg
> .. there may be another Linux also that's not GNU

Technically there may be one. While the history of Hurd shows that the
opposite is not quite true. So all things considered it should really be
Linux/GNU :-)

~~~
gaius
There are distros with BSD or Solaris kernels and a GNU userland.

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edw519
_Stallman detests wealth_

 _He travels the world as a free software evangelist_

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Does he detest wealth because he is a free software evangelist?

Or is he a free software evangelist because he never figured out how to become
wealthy himself?

~~~
tjr
He was successfully charging $250/hour as a software consultant prior to
taking up his "evangelist" role full-time. I think he could be quite wealthy
if he were to attempt to be.

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iheartrms
haha...RMS didn't post that ad for himself on craigslist, I posted it on his
behalf! It's so strange to see oneself indirectly referred to in an article
which one otherwise has nothing to do with.

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sophist
He's taking credit for Linux now? wtf?

~~~
Herring
"When I do this, some people think that it's because I want my ego to be fed,
right? Of course, I'm not asking you to call it "Stallmanix"!"

-rms

~~~
mrdorian
why doesn't he call it "ginix"?

