
GNU Founder Richard Stallman Resigns from MIT, Free Software Foundation - saint-loup
https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/17/rms-fsf-mit-epstein/
======
wallacoloo
In case of doubt, here's the announcement on fsf.org:
[https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-
resigns](https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns)

Vice published info about this earlier [1], including the actual email chain
[2]

[1] [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke3ke/famed-computer-
sci...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke3ke/famed-computer-scientist-
richard-stallman-described-epstein-victims-as-entirely-willing)

[2]
[https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6405929/091320191...](https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6405929/09132019142056-0001.pdf)

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hudsonwillis
To be honest I don't know what attitude should I hold towards this news. On
the one hand Richard's initial words didn't sound proper in that context, on
the other hand as mentioned in the report this is a dangerous precedence that
is against my belief of absolute freedom, which also reminds me of those
protests against Linus Torvalds.

The whole thing only makes me recall good 'n' old 80s when everything is
simple.

~~~
kaens
Friend, the only reason things seemed simple in the 80s is because the people
on the receiving end of the "absolute freedom" stick, regardless of whether or
not the people swinging it were aware of their swings, didn't have means to be
heard by hundreds of thousands of people easily.

For computing specifically, you can add in that you basically had to be an
economically privileged person who was likely on the spectrum to get really
into it -- in an era where ASD and related disorders were not as well
understood or diagnosed. You can also add it just being a smaller community.

Both RMS and linus had years and years of people expressing that they were
acting in a problematic ways. Linus owned up to it eventually, even though
there are arguments to be made for the utility of brashness.

RMS is mostly getting stuck in hyperfocused linguistic semantics, and probably
doesn't really get how to not do that. Whether or not people making such a
screech about this particular instance is appropriate is it's own question,
but to me it is very much a "throwing up of hands" for a lot of people
involved with the FSF.

~~~
hudsonwillis
Yeah the Internet changed everything. I just hope Linus could stick to his
style without being stuck in these things, but if that really becomes the case
I would seriously consider retiring from my job on kernel.

~~~
kaens
I am, no lie, quite concerned about the future of linux without someone really
willing to be very stern (even cuss up a storm sometimes) about issues like
pushing patches that break userspace or just quite bad code in general once
linus is gone.

I'm fine with people telling him to stop being super harsh on the semi-reg,
but there are actually gates that need kept in kernelland and one of the jobs
of a gatekeeper is to tell people "no", sternly sometimes, and with
explanation sometimes.

