Re: Will RMS be back to Programming now?

[Nala Ginrut]

Hi Jean!

Yes, I totally agreed. And I actually meant "RMS's health status",
personally I don't think the fame was hurt by the recent comments
misinterpretation or even the previous personal activity years ago.
If his health status is permitted, then maybe he can do some advocating
work by simple coding work, it's kind of advertisement. ;-)

At least in China, RMS is still greatly respected by technical people. Of
course, there're proprietory supporters don't like him. Maybe it's
because it is a different culture, when I told the so-called "RMS
scandal" to my Chinese friends, they thought it's a joke. Since in our
culture, one should be judged by the contributions that one ever
made. After experenced the Cultural Revolution [0], Chinese people are
utterly cautious about the judgement to personal life and
opinions. Because these are used for politically attacking to individuals.

BTW, Cultural Revolution caused over million people died or suicide by
ethical pressure, but the indirect killers thought they were doing
ethical correction, and in the beginning, people thought it was funny.

Frankly, I felt funny when I first heard RMS stepped down by those comments.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution

Best regards.


Jean Louis writes:

> Nala, how are you?
>
> In my opinion, RMS's most important work are speeches and relations.


> Today, when GNU systems already exist in the world, general software
> is not any more priority. There are priorities for specific software
> like those for video communication or liberating BIOSes, or liberating
> phones with free systems and so on.
>
> I see it most important to spread free software philosophy. Now is not
> that much of fight to make free operating system, but there is still a
> work to enlighten those areas of the world where free software is not
> known. Where people need to understand about users' rights and
> freedom.
>
> Stallman is respected world wide. Nothing of those comments and media
> rumors is changing it. Majority of people of today are finally not
> that stupid, celebrities are always targets of rumors, it does not
> change anything. Who said what... who cares really.
>
> Most important work for Stallman now are his connections to various
> opinion leaders and closing (in sales terminology) parties to more
> freedom for users.
>
> Dr. Richard Stallman contacts opinion leaders and forwards free software:
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-software-advocate-richard-stallman-spoke-at-microsoft-research-this-week/
>
> In that case, he did advocacy to Microsoft to teach him to straighten
> policies on licenses in Github.com -- makes sense, many developers are
> placing vague licenses, or missing a license, or release it as
> apparently free software but restrict it to religious sense to use it
> only for "good purposes" as given by God, thus rendering it
> non-free. There are many issues with the Github, so his points were
> totally valid. That is advocacy for free software.
>
> He starts from the head, not from the tail.
>
> Now you can imagine, not everybody can walk into Microsoft and speak
> about free software. Stallman can do that. That is position of power
> and position of a lot of connection, respect and honor, it is all
> based on previous work.
>
> He teaches the world on free software:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCh8EcBrptA
>
> Dr. Richard Stallman provides policies and planning for GNU project,
> and he has done so successfuly for many years, and he still does,
> nothing changed. His status or position did not change.
>
> Not being president of the FSF in my opinion does not change anything,
> FSF is loyal to free software philosophy and continues its work just
> as usual.
>
> No strategy changed neither for FSF nor GNU. There is nothing that
> changed direction of the FSF or its purposes or goals.
>
> RMS did not change his attitude not even towards those few people from
> Guix leadership and other members of their Thoughtpolice Squad[1] who
> did everything possible to defame and slander him.
>
> RMS makes advocacy on much higher level and he always did so, since
> the inception of the GNU project. He need not advocate a simple piece
> of software. Creation of GPL caused whole range of free software to
> existence. At the time it was not possible for Stallman to know that
> could or would happen. But effect is more than good. Now people and
> companies are releasing software under the GPL license without even
> knowing who is Stallman or what was his fundamental work.
>
> I hope you got the idea of the type of the fundamental work that RMS
> have always been doing and is still doing today.
>
> Jean
>
> Footnotes:
> [1]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtpolice


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