PERSON
Richard Stallman
- Richard Matthew Stallman (known as RMS) is a software freedom activist and programmer who founded the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
- He is a passionate advocate for free software as a moral and ethical imperative, and is famous for his colorful alter-ego, Saint IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs.
Key Memories & Stories
- Linux Lunacy Shouting Match (October 2001): During the 4th Linux Lunacy Geek Cruise, RMS got into a spontaneous, passionate shouting match with Eric S Raymond over the ideological difference between "Free Software" and "Open Source". See The Great Shouting Match.
- GNU/Linux Naming Controversy: Reflected in a playful incident on a Geek Cruise where Linus Torvalds put me in a light headlock after being asked about RMS's co-opting of "GNU/Linux". See The GNU Linux Headlock.
- Spanish Software Libre Lecture (November 2004): RMS presented his free software ideology completely in fluent, straightforward Spanish at a Veracruz conference, which I captured in movie mode using my Canon PowerShot S70. See Veracruz Conference and Richard Stallman.
- Emacs Pretty-Printer pp.el (1989): RMS called my Lisp pretty-printing script "brilliant" on an Emacs mailing list and asked me to release it for inclusion in GNU Emacs core. See Creation of Emacs Pretty-Printer pp.el.
What links here
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.