[Cialug] OT: Richard Stallman's list of requests when speaking

[Eric Junker]

On 10/27/2011 10:22 PM, Todd Walton wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 3:06 PM, Matthew Steven<matthew at geniusweb.com>  wrote:
>> Thanks for the link, I enjoyed reading it!
>>
>> He's a man who knows exactly what he wants, and balks at anything that might
>> soften his impact.
>
> I like RMS, and I like his obstinacy.  Nothing I read in his list of
> speaking requirements seemed out of line to me.  It's certainly more
> specific than the average, but all of that stuff either makes complete
> sense (wanting to know how your participation will be perceived, not
> wanting to inadvertently support something bad) or is trivial stuff
> that would come out anyway, if not in the initial negotiating phase.
>
> And as far as the former, the "complete sense", this is something we
> should all be taking an interest in.  We should all have the moral
> courage to fight for a better world in every detail.
>
> And one should make no mistake that Linux would not exist without
> Richard Stallman.

I admire RMS for sticking to his principles but I do think he could be a 
bit more pragmatic. I think he is jealous of Linus and that Linux became 
popular instead of GNU Hurd.

Here is what Linus Torvalds had to say about RMS:

"I love seeing people who are really passionate about what they do, and 
many people have something they really care about. It’s just that when 
that becomes something exclusionary, it often gets ugly. It’s not 
passion for something, it becomes passion against something else."

Eric