Richard Stallman has always had a strong belief in the human right to freedom. In this increasingly technological world, Richard has always made it a point to work towards providing free software.
His first experience working with computers happened when he was in high school when he spent a summer working at IBM in 1970.
He then attended Harvard and obtained a bachelors degree in physics, he also attended MIT where he focused on computer programming.
Richard's first big undertaking was to create the completely open source operating system called: GNU which means GNU’s not Unix.
He designed it to be similar to Unix, a previously existing operating system, except GNU is completely free software.
This means that it gives the users full control over everything in it. Which is quite the contrast to the other operating systems that the majority of us use today like Microsoft, and Mac OS, where a company controls the software which ultimately controls the users.
VIEW VIDEO HERE^^^^
I found a great interview conducted by David Pakman where Richard explains his views on these types of software programs. I’ll include a link down below and I really encourage you to check it out to get a better sense for Richards passion on this subject.
During this interview he has some great quotes, like:
“We should control the programs we use and not vice versa.”
He explains how every program is either free or proprietary. If a program is proprietary, it is a tool that the proprietor, usually a company, can use to ultimately subjugate its user.
He and his team have worked for decades so that now there are computers you can buy that have free software already installed, you don’t have to be an expert to take part and support the free software movement. You don’t have to be a “slave” to proprietary programs.
Non-free software programs today (Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Adobe…) have intentionally installed malicious functionality and backdoors which let’s them remotely control it whether you like it or not. There's also digital restrictions management (DRM) which means its designed to refuse to do the things you want with the data that you get.
There are all injustices. The Free Software Movement makes it a point to bring these injustices to light.
With free software, the contributors to that free software do not control what they users can and cannot do. Users can always check to see what they’ve done, they can compare the versions, if they don’t like something, they can change it.
I know this latter statement sounds an awful lot like what open source code is all about, but here is how Richard sees a big difference between the free software movement and the open source movement:
According to Richard, this phrase open source, ultimately separates this concept of free software from its philosophical motivations.
It doesn’t bring to light the negatives of proprietary software. It’s more PR friendly for the big companies. It’s a less abrasive way to go about promoting free software.
He calls open source a superficial term that doesn’t raise ethical issues and he even goes so far as to refusing to attending events that use this term.
If you couldn’t get the hint with his views on the phrase open source, Richard places a lot of weight on the specific words used. He recognizes a word’s abilities to imply connotations and how they can place barriers on intelligent conversations on certain topics.
If you think that sounds extreme, welcome to the world of RMS. Whether or not if you agree with his views on the subject, you’ve got to admit that it’s an admirable quality to stay so strongly true to ones beliefs.
If you want to learn more about Richard Stallman or the Free Software Movement or the completely free software operating system that is GNU, please check out the links I’ve posted down below.
Additional Reading/Sources:
About RMS
About GNU
Proprietary Software
Interview
About Free Software Foundation (FSF)
Richard Stallman Quotes
Extremely unique, hard to see such individuals nowadays
Went ahead to check his quote and fell in love with this one
Nice post and love your references
You really studied him
thank you
I like your new style in your videos. I remember when you were a bit shy infront of the camera back in the days when you made the interview with @jeffberwick on anarchast. Keep up the good work @heiditravels, you do a great job
Hi Heidi!
Thanks a lot for the insights about Richard Stallman.
He really seems like an very interesting personality. Thanks a lot for the additional reading sources. I will definitely check them out as well.
Control is the name of the game from the software we use to SMedia platforms to our monetary system..we need more thinking like this. .blockchain and our world will soon change. ..scares those that currently have all the control..
Great post!
Thanks for your meaningful statement @heiditravels..
This great story i appreciate your bitcoin thanks for sharing this crytocurrency news best of luck my dear friends...
Indonesian people are amazed at Richard Matthew Stallman, he is so simple. He is a figure of the present era. Thanks @heiditravels has shared about Richard
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Looking forward for "GNU" i am so much satisfied completely to knew about it.
Scary stuff 😱
Might just have to look into some open source software!
that's great. carry on
nice
Hey Heidi,
Liking the content! I'm recruiting content creators to bring on the team for sponsorship by my company if you're interested feel free to reach out to me at: [email protected]
Thanks and keep up the good work.
“OG’s of open source” I really like this idea!
This is a great read, @heiditravels!
I've known about Richard Stillman ever since I started using open-source software back in 2006.
Check out my intro post. I wrote something in it about open-source software, and how I used it in a big name animation production.
I watch your videos and feel so mind blown you know so much about so many different things
Muy cierto, jaja. Los usuarios deberíamos tener el control y ademas usar un sistema estable y no algo creado para estropearse con facilidad como win. Excelente post.
Thanks Heidi for reminding us all about RMS; I first saw him at a conference on GNU/free software in my home town around 15 years ago, and he made a lasting impression.
He & Linus are pretty much the reason why I've been using Linux since 1994, when I used some free radio astronomy software (called AIPS & AIPS++) to analyse incoming solar flare data from a radio interferometer that was picking up solar flare radio waves.
Back then, installing Linux on an HP machine (I used an early version of Slackware) was a massive learning curve which took best part of a week, as there were a lot of hardware compatibility issues...
...it was that at time that I began to see that hardware vendors have exclusivity contracts with Microsoft that prevented them from allowing other operating systems from talking to their firmware, and so I made a commitment back then never to run any Microsoft products at home.
Richard's talk was all about how some day, giant monopolies would swallow up books into digital form, and make it illegal to share through DRM.
And here we are.
But - the free software movement is running in parallel to the draconian monopolies, giving those who choose to discover, the choice about how they use the hardware & tools they use.
Interesting times.
I'm interested in the distinction between Free software (think freedom, not beer) and Open Source software. Is it correct to say that all Free software is also Open Source, but not all Open Source software is Free? How can you tell what is Free and what is just Open Source? Is it the license?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/78958/is-there-a-difference-between-free-software-and-open-source-software
Heidi,
i'm happy for you to be discovering and writing about Free Software and RMS. It's way more important than many people realize. Parents should all be demanding that their kids learn about (and with) Free Software in "school" and that the percent that want to learn about programming learn in that ecosystem. Why should taxpayers pay (for the sake of argument) for software and hardware that the people won't even have rights to? Do we pay taxes so that kids learn how to be mindless consuming victims instead of innovative free thinkers and creators?
When software is deciding whether you can eat, drive or how long your son has to go to jail/ODD re-education camp or how much BrainNeuter brand Chemfix the robo nurse shoots him up with, it might be good to know if the software even works as advertised, amoungst other concerns. IOW, AI powered "human management systems" are being built. The only question is whether The People will have any control of them or not? If we continue to blindly fund the digital slave trade and sabotage the trusting youth with our ignorance, we will be needlessly sealing the fate of our progeny.
keep up the good work, Heidi! Your bright light was a welcome relief today.
Your post is very good!
Now look me in the eye and Follow Me @cryptopay-blogThanks. You are one of the great steemers with your works, and i enjoyed reading this posts.
miss-tagged it has nothing to do with crypto hype
How would you have preferred me to tag this post?
I met Stallman a long time ago in Florida where i was doing my masters. He gave us a lecture on the free software foundation and boy was that good. He was a strange guy though rubbing a cold coke can under his shirt because he was constantly perspiring!
I think open source has changed the world. Originally he wanted all software to be free so that monopolistic companies like Microsoft would not be so successful. But the same companies have appropriated open source software in all their solutions and are literally cocking a snook at the FSF community. They also contribute heavily to making open source compatible with their own products.
However there is a silver lining and that is because of linux (and other free software) 1000s of small companies have sprung up offering solutions that would have been impossible for them earlier. The cloud today is built on open source. I am sure steemit itself is using open source in some form or the other. I think FSF and Stallman deserve a huge round of applause for their dedication and passion