Nov 11, 2026, 10:12 AMrms is a software industry plant to discredit the free software movement
- Nov 11, 2026, 10:12 AM
Replies
- Nov 11, 2026, 10:14 AM
think about it: if you're a huge software company, who do you want leading your opposition? somebody charismatic and effective, or somebody who eats things off his foot? it's easy to dismiss the fsf as a bunch of radical, out-of-touch hippies when they keep reinstating an ineffectual out-of-touch hippie as their figurehead
- Nov 11, 2026, 10:16 AM
even aside from the creep shit that made him step down the first time (which should be disqualifying imo), i cannot figure out why his fans continue to support him when he's been asleep at the wheel for the last 20 years
Nov 11, 2026, 11:36 PM@wrl 2002: RMS? More like GNOME Chomsky
2026: RMS? More like GNOME Chomsky
Keen Graspkeengrasp@layer8.spaceNov 11, 2026, 2:27 PM@wrl but since he also hates plants, he must hate himself. So I’m par for the course of having to reluctantly acknowledge I occasionally agree with rms
DRMRdreamer@mastodon.worldNov 11, 2026, 4:24 PM@keengrasp @wrl Even broken clock is right twice a day.
- Nov 11, 2026, 5:58 PM
@dreamer @keengrasp it's not even that I disagree with him on anything major (software/law related, at least). but there's a world of difference between being right and being an effective leader, and I do not feel rms is the latter by any stretch.
- DRMRdreamer@mastodon.worldNov 11, 2026, 7:40 PM
@wrl @keengrasp Yeah exactly. He is the opposite of what the FSF and a community should look for in a leader figure. Doesn't matter that he has some good ideas and did a lot of the hard work. No need to have him in a position where he's least effective.
Nov 11, 2026, 11:49 PM@wrl TBH I think this is the case where you shouldn't assign malice to what's adequately explained by... maybe not stupidity/incompetence, but personal weirdness?
- Nov 11, 2026, 11:50 PM
@art_codesmith to be clear, whether i actually believe he's some sort of industry plant at this point, ehh. i mean it's a bit jokey to make a post like this in the first place.
"personal weirdness", though... i mean, at some point, somebody from the fsf should have stepped in and said "alright we need to separate the mission from the person who started it" but instead they have repeatedly done exactly the opposite of that.
- Nov 11, 2026, 11:56 PM
@wrl I think it depends to how you define "the mission".
IMO Stallman's mission has been less of "advance free and open source software" and more of "advocate for everyone to stop using anything we deem non-free, ever." - Nov 11, 2026, 11:58 PM
@art_codesmith sure, i can understand that. but firstly: is that stallman's mission or the fsf's?
and secondly: how effectual is stallman in that? i maintain that regardless of the mission, stallman is not the person to advance it, and hasn't been for decades.