Richard M. Stallman's 60th birthday

Still quirky after all these years. :P

This is so obviously a troll article. Obviously, someone who "is a frequent speaker at corporate and industry events" does not take a liking to Stallman, nor do the commenters on the article.

This man deserves all the respect for what he has done and what he still can do despite his age and his poor media coverage (we all know why and that is not the point).

If any one is interested I strongly recommend reading this biography about his life and work : http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/

It's just a wonderful book (that could have been wrote a few years latter but that's another story).

I didn't had the chance to meet him when he was here in Lisbon for a conference (I only knew the same hour the conference started). Maybe there will be a "next time".

I recently re-read Free Software, Free Society, and immensely enjoyed it.

I feel like if Stallman made simple adjustments like not berating people for asking the question in a somewhat ignorant way, or just grooming (there, I said it), the message would come across better.

Honestly, Richard Stallman won me over to the free software philosophy, partly with his writing and partly with his talks (I don't remember the details), though it was this community that got me to actually start using only free software. One particular talk I saw was this one: http://archive.org/details/20090203-Richard-Stallman-UofC-01

Honestly and respecfully

In certain aspects Mr.Richard public display and behavior is "quite rough in the edges", For me as a Proffesional, Public image(representation), good dress code and conduct manners is very important. Obviously this gentlemen dresses and sometimes, hes behavior is like a hippie of the 60's era.Specially when eating his toe nails in public view in a conference. I wonder, If he eats his own nose buggers? Does he ever bath regularly? Sadly,hE DOES NOT SUPPORT THE HARD WORKING BLUE COLLAR WORKERS OF THE vocational TRADE OF Hair stylist.

Please STOP CALLING HIM A "God", he is a just sinner, just like you and me. We should call him a "founder of GNU/Linux" nothing more, nothing less.

Open Source advocate Eric Raymond has criticized RMS for using language that "simply doesn't persuade anybody" (though he doesn't think RMS' principles are wrong). I beg to differ: I am a person that he has persuaded, because he helped me make the connection between the ability to use, study, modify, and share copies of the software, and personal freedom in all other things. Maybe having Windows on a computer isn't the worst thing in the world, but in the aggregate, and on the societal level, this needs to change. Software, which is a set of logical machine instructions, needs to be free. Community, which is increasingly based upon or supplemented by software, needs to have autonomy. I hope for the end of the era of "all your data are belong to us." My recent reading of Orwell's 1984 only strengthened my conviction, since in that book an almighty managerial autocracy used technology to finally gain total surveillance and control over the masses.

But I have a rare ability to look past the face value. Most people are probably not persuaded by RMS, but perplexed. Digital technology is still a very new frontier, and it's hard for casual users to take its ethics seriously in the way they take ethics seriously in other matters (e.g. business, government corruption). Heck, it took thousands of years of society for the idea of human rights to gain the upper hand. So I am patient.

I thought Stallman was a "hippy" too at first, but that's another example of taking things at face value. He doesn't have a spiritual bone in his body, and a hippy is hardly concerned about tech. Rather, his look is that of a hacker who dwells in a basement. The fact that he looked much better when he was actually hacking to develop GNU in the 1980s is a great irony.

Another great irony is that his ideal of software is all about cooperation and sharing, but he doesn't seem to be much of a people person at all. Aspie? Yeah, probably.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday Old HIPPIE!

Gladly, I would pay from my own pocket, just to see this old hippie, with a good old haircut, a clean shave, and a good looking white Guayabera (Cuban Shirt) wearing a nice panama straw hat made of (Mimbre).

Hi all,

[EN] I take this opportunity to thank on behalf of my community S. Richard M. Stallman, unanimously, considered as a marker for all those who takes the extent and scope of Free Foftware.

/*---*/

[FR] Je profite de cette occasion pour remercier au nom de ma communauté S. Richard M. Stallman, qui à l'unanimité, est considéré comme un marqueur pour tous ceux qui prennent la mesure et la portée du Logiciel Libre.

Librement.