
Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman [pdf] - justinzollars
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/rms-essays.pdf
======
jrauser
Wow, the close of Lessig's introduction is powerful. We have indeed not earned
that freedom yet.

> I don’t know Stallman well. I know him well enough to know he is a hard man
> to like. He is driven, often impatient. His anger can flare at friend as
> easily as foe.

> He is uncompromising and persistent; patient in both. Yet when our world
> finally comes to understand the power and danger of code — when it finally
> sees that code, like laws, or like government, must be transparent to be
> free—then we will look back at this uncompromising and persistent programmer
> and recognize the vision he has fought to make real: the vision of a world
> where freedom and knowledge survives the compiler. And we will come to see
> that no man, through his deeds or words, has done as much to make possible
> the freedom that this next society could have.

> We have not earned that freedom yet. We may well fail in securing it. But
> whether we succeed or fail, in these essays is a picture of what that
> freedom could be. And in the life that produced these words and works, there
> is inspiration for anyone who would, like Stallman, fight to create this
> freedom.

~~~
jimmies
Everyone knows Stallman is very hard to work with. But not everyone knows he
is also one of the nicest, most honest, down-to-earth people ever.

He actually spent time to read and answer every single email I sent to him
despite me being a little no one. I know he couldn't possibly have hired a
person who pretends to be him -- he _corrected_ the lingo of the sender. Ah,
such a Stallman thing :).

I don't have much to say to Stallman most of the times. So I just sent him
notes thanking him for GNU on GNU anniversary and wishing him a happy birthday
on his birthday. Last time I sent him a happy birthday note, he replied
something like he will not live forever. We need more people who stand up and
fight for software freedom. Are you ready to become one?

I wonder if he will actually be the last person who is a genius and willing to
set aside personal financial interests and live humbly, or maybe he will be
the last person that has the balls to actually do it.

BTW - Normally I don't care what people call anything. But Stallman wanted to
call desktop distros GNU/Linux. So when I created a distro, I call my distro
Crankshaft GNU slash Linux. I use his software everyday to get things done. It
has never asked me to activate, never asked me to patreon him, never asked me
to pay, never asked me to like and subscribe. It never betrays me and I know
it never will, it just works. If he just asks me to call his software in a
funny way, I am happy to call it GNU slash Linux out of respect for him.

~~~
kashyapc
Very much agree with the point about how _accessible_ (especially via email)
RMS is. A month ago I too have exchanged some email with him about license
clarification of some slides he's worked on in the past. He responded within a
day with precise details. (From my exchange I was again reminded of his funny
auto-responder email.)

And not to mention how unfailingly honest he is, which is impossible to miss
when you read and listen to him. Say what you want about the man and his
idiosyncrasies, but I am yet to see another high-profile Person in Tech come
close to match Stallman's integrity.

~~~
DonHopkins

        [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
        [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
        [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

~~~
kashyapc
That's the header you get when he himself replies. But his auto-responder has:

 _I am not on vacation, but I am at the end of a long time delay. I am located
somewhere on Earth, but as far as responding to email is concerned, I appear
to be at the edge of the solar system. [...]_

------
hoistbypetard
It's got _The Right to Read_. I think that does a better job explaining why we
should care about the freedoms he's spent his life trying to advance than
perhaps the entire collection of his other writings.

I just re-read it, and for some reason it made me think of this old science
fiction story from some 1950s pulp zine that I only learned about because of a
Neil Gaiman essay: _Business As Usual, During Alterations_[1]. The story made
my bookmarks. The Gaiman essay did not :-)

[1]([http://www.vb-
tech.co.za/ebooks/Williams%20Ralph%20-%20Busin...](http://www.vb-
tech.co.za/ebooks/Williams%20Ralph%20-%20Business%20as%20Usual%20During%20Alterations%20-%20SF.txt))

~~~
rbanffy
Someone should adapt it for TV. It'd be a great episode for a Black Mirror or
something similar (and, at least, it'd have a happy ending, which is rare in
BM)

------
e19293001
One of the things that free software lacks strength is in EDA tools. There
were people who created free software for hardware guys but with the lack of
fund and volunteers, the development deteriorates. While hardware development
is not easy compared to software development, I hope there will be a strong
move in EDA tool development.

Free software deserves the praise for saving everyone's ass.

~~~
anjbe
The FSF claims to care about EDA, but contributes to the problem by pushing
strong copyleft at any cost. Like the time Stallman refused to relicense
LibreDWG (GPLv3) so that LibreCAD (GPLv2) could add support for Autodesk DWG
files. ([http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/whats-up-with-
dwg-a...](http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/whats-up-with-dwg-adoption-
in-free-software), [http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/libredwg-drama-
the-...](http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/libredwg-drama-the-end-or-
the-new-beginning))

He cares about his copyleft philosophy and GPL dogma more than the ability of
free software to use free software.

~~~
CaptainZapp
Well, as somebody put it extremely succinctly in his /. sig:

    
    
      If you don't like the GPL write your own damn software.
    

I agree.

------
cocacola1
Well this is going to be a fun read.

For anyone that wants a physical copy. Not from Amazon, of course:
[https://shop.fsf.org/books-docs/free-software-free-
society-s...](https://shop.fsf.org/books-docs/free-software-free-society-
selected-essays-richard-m-stallman-3rd-edition)

------
throw2016
Most people don't believe in idealism but the open source movement is living
proof of it. This is a society that worships 'wealth creators' and is
skeptical of altruism and has no way to understand or value their work.

Stallman, Torvalds and thousands of others have undeniably added immeasurable
value to society and have directly and indirectly enabled thousands of
startups and tons of jobs. Yet they are not thought of as 'wealth creators'
and 'job creators' and its those who use their work for profit who get these
self-congratulatory titles.

Stallman was particularly prescient but it does not look like the values that
powered the generation that created and grew the open source movement will
persist. Those who work for and defend the surveillance economy can hardly
claim them.

The communities that were more open source focused have more of less died and
a lot of that tech traffic spills here but HN itself is not focused on open
source but how best to use it for profit - not that that is a bad thing. But
now its a side effect of efforts to make money.

------
DonHopkins
[http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/emacs/rms-came-to-
tow...](http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/emacs/rms-came-to-town.txt)

>So, what is this thing called Richard Stallman? Quirky, yes. Dedicated, yes.
How much fun can it be to tell the same story hundreds of times, and get the
same old questions hundreds of times. Is he arrogant or paranoid? No.
Everything he said was warmly said, and said to motivate. He spreads a message
he deeply believes in, and encourages others to believe just as deeply.

>Richard Stallman is not a madman. He is not the enemy. He has a simple and
logical story to tell, about individual and collective freedom, and
communities of cooperating individuals. You might conclude that his dream can
never be fulfilled, but I believe that you should listen to his message, and
consider how you can improve your own life by improving everyone's life. I
respect him, and I respect what he has to say.

>Stephen McKay 1999-05-11

------
wiz21c
Stallman has been my man for more than twenty years (the first time I heard
him). I still 100% agree with his core values. But a while ago, he explained
that mobile phones were closed/proprietary/spying and, in the very same talk,
explained that if he had to give a call, then he'd use someone else's phone.
That sounded wrong to me. I told it to him but the answer was not clear... So
to me, he's mostly perfect, but that makes him a bit more of a human being,
which I like too :-)

~~~
Digital-Citizen
I doubt he explained anything proprietary as being "closed". He spends
considerable time correcting people when they summarize his views and use that
term because (as he also explains) that's a reference to open source, a group
founded over a decade after the free software movement which ostensibly
promotes a development methodology purpose-built to remove the ethical
underpinning of free software. See [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-
avoid.html#Closed](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Closed)
for more on this. In practice, open source philosophy is disposed of in the
face of powerful, reliable proprietary software ("How can I get a copy [of
that proprietary program]?") and that's why proprietary software businesses
like open source and don't care to discuss anything in terms of software
freedom. But software freedom is far better for computer users in cases where
the two philosophies conflict or diverge. See the section named "Different
Values Can Lead to Similar Conclusions…but Not Always" of
[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-
point....](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html)
for how this plays out in practice.

As to using someone else's tracker (tracking is what those devices do most of
the time, so why not acknowledge that's what they chiefly are by calling them
by their rightful name?): this is right in line with understanding that
software freedom concerns control of one's own computer. Remote services (such
as /., Hacker News, Google mail, and more) might run on nonfree software.
That's a bad choice for the computer owner (all computer owners deserve
software freedom) but it doesn't say much about use of the service because
service users don't have a say about someone else's computer. By the same
token, those that choose to own and keep trackers on their person have already
divulged the location of the tracker (and thus themselves), and that choice
was never Stallman's to make. So the choice for Stallman (or someone using
someone else's tracker) comes down to making the call or not.

~~~
wiz21c
>> service users don't have a say about someone else's computer

yep, except when you spend 2 hours in a conference explaining why people
should use free software. At that point, as a service user, RMS says something
about someone else's computer.

I agree with the logic of your argument, but it sounds like a lawyer's
argument : it's ok by the law eventhough i'ts not super "ethical".

Be reassured, I support free software, specifically on the political side.

~~~
Digital-Citizen
"except when you spend 2 hours in a conference explaining why people should
use free software. At that point, as a service user, RMS says something about
someone else's computer."

As to "spend[ing] 2 hours in a conference explaining why people should use
free software": Be careful about the trap of concision as explained by Herman
and Chomsky in "Manufacturing Consent". It takes time to lay out new ideas,
ideas which mainstream media never discuss. Software freedom is still (even
30+ years after the fact) regarded as a new idea.

Regarding saying something about someone else's computer: I don't clearly
understand your point. Are you sure this isn't giving someone convincing
reasons to favor free software? Can you point to an example of where RMS is a
service user and makes demands of that service beyond recommending what they
ought to do to get the software freedom they deserve?

"I agree with the logic of your argument, but it sounds like a lawyer's
argument : it's ok by the law eventhough i'ts not super "ethical"."

What's not ethical about not having control over someone else's computer?

~~~
wiz21c
ah, I like your arguments because I agree with them. But somehow I'm unable to
drive my point home (so your arguments, while right, are not aimed at what I
try to say :-)) :-(

let's just say that what you say is logical but sounds a bit incoherent to me.
I expect coherency at the level of one's choice : if I complain about a tool
because it's non free, because it's spying, then I do my best to not use it,
be it mine or someone else's.

RMS says : "proprietary software represents an unacceptable danger to a free
society" (citation from [https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-
software](https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software) ), but somehow
proprietary software is acceptable when one needs to make a phone call...

I'm not trying to nitpick about what RMS says ('cos I totally agree with him,
and I perfectly understand what the whole thing is about), it's just that, on
that occasion, I found the argument weak.

I'll stop the argument here 'cos my english is not good enough to convey my
idea precisely (and it's late) :-(

------
walkingolof
From the first essay, a word that should be reclaimed.

"The use of “hacker” to mean “security breaker” is a confusion on the part of
the mass media. We hackers refuse to recognize that meaning, and continue
using the word to mean, “Someone who loves to program and enjoys being clever
about it

~~~
piahoo
I would say that hacker is a person, who enjoy doing hard and complex stuff
just for fun. Spending hundreds of hours, just to tune your car engine a
little bit, is pretty close to hacking for me. I think that hacker is a
curious person with deep knowledge in some areas, more or less involved in DIY
projects

------
tjpnz
Join us now and share the software....

------
acehw
Is this the first edition? There is a third edition, so why not post it
instead?

[https://www.gnu.org/doc/fsfs3-hardcover.pdf](https://www.gnu.org/doc/fsfs3-hardcover.pdf)

~~~
confounded
One guess might be that the forward for the third edition was provided by
Jacob Appelbaum, who turned out to be not such a cool guy.

I’m glad the version with the Lessig forward was posted (though I should
probably read the new essays, too).

~~~
thecatspaw
> who turned out to be not such a cool guy

all I could find was allegations of sexual assault which could not be proven?
Or was that comment about something else?

~~~
sincerely
Without talking about this specific case (I've never heard of that guy) sexual
assault is basically impossible to "prove" without clear video recordings. :/

~~~
adrianN
So guilty until proven innocent?

~~~
794CD01
It's better than "never guilty because proof is impossible".

------
danShumway
Greedy question, is this available (for purchase or otherwise) as an epub? The
FSF only seems to carry it physically.

Essay collections are great to carry around on an e-reader and bust out
whenever I have a tiny bit of free time, but my device really doesn't handle
PDFs very well.

 _Edit: I 'm going to assume that the source is available online in some kind
of pure-text format, although I'm having trouble locating it. I'm also going
to go out on a limb and assume that this is permissively licensed. Assuming
there's not an epub available, would there be any interest in me making one?_

~~~
OskarS
I hope you're not reading this on a Kindle (or any other proprietary
e-reader)! That would be some kind of insult to the great man, to read his
selected papers on the most locked down and proprietary device imaginable!

Buy a physical copy, support the FSF and then buy another copy for a library!

~~~
danShumway
DRM-free epubs only, but unfortunately I can't do much about the hardware
right now other than avoid Kindle like the plague. I really wish a company
like Purism would make a good e-reader.

You're not wrong though; I'll take the criticism. The e-reader ecosystem right
now is complete crap, the proprietary hardware/software/formats are almost
completely to blame, and I do regularly feel pretty guilty that I might be
contributing to it.

------
gsich
[https://rms.sexy](https://rms.sexy)

~~~
booleandilemma
Whoa, NSFW warning please! ;)

~~~
jasonkostempski
At least he's wearing a laptop in all the pictures.

------
buttholesurfer
Stallman is my man.

~~~
DonHopkins
RMS is the Root Mean Square: always positive! ;)

Have you installed VMRS?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrms)

vrms (Virtual Richard M. Stallman) is a program that analyzes the set of
currently-installed packages on a Debian-based system, and reports all of the
packages from the non-free tree which are currently installed. Software gets
placed in the non-free tree when it is agreed not to be too problematic for
Debian to distribute but does not meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines and
therefore cannot be included in their official distribution. For each program
from "non-free" installed, vrms displays an explanation of why it is non-free,
if one is available.

------
mark_l_watson
Thanks for posting this, just added to my digital library. Like many others
here, I am a huge fan and his work positively impacts me every day.

------
severine
There's a very good spanish translation of the same 2002 edition here:
[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/free_software2.es.pdf](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/free_software2.es.pdf)

------
nvr219
I love rms

------
_zachs
Reading this seems like a big undertaking, can someone here recommend specific
essays for me to read, or are they all compelling enough for me to read them
all?

------
stiangrindvoll
Decided to buy a copy, plus some other cool stuff!

------
PaulHoule
and they publish it as a PDF file?

~~~
LukeShu
The PDF is output from Texinfo (the GNU documentation system), which the book
was typeset in. The .texi source files are also published.

Plus, it is primarily known as a dead-tree book, not as something published
digitially.

