The Great Shouting Match (Event)

Type: event

Date: 2001-10-01

Location: Geek Cruises

Participants: Randal Schwartz, Richard Stallman, Eric S Raymond, Jon Hall

During the 4th Linux Lunacy Geek Cruises voyage, a spontaneous, high-decibel yelling match erupted between Richard Stallman (RMS) and Eric S Raymond (ESR) as people were filing into one of the ship's sessions.
The Ideological Clash: The argument was over the foundational divide between "Free Software" (software freedom as an ethical imperative) and "Open Source" (development collaboration as a pragmatic benefit).
The Mediator: Jon "maddog" Hall stood physically between RMS and ESR, attempting to Restate, moderate, and translate their arguments to de-escalate the conflict.
The Prophet's Prop: RMS was completely "halo-less" (not wearing his signature computer disk platter or performing his comedy "Saint IGNUcius" routine)—the argument was completely unshielded, raw, and passionate.

🔗Eric S Raymond 🔗Geek Cruises 🔗Jon Hall 🔗Randal Schwartz 🔗Richard Stallman

These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.