The Stallman Factor

An anonymous reader sent us linkage to a LinuxWorld story about Stallman's Position in the Linux World. Talks a lot about RMS's tacticts for getting his acronym included with the kernel's name. This has been a long-running debate, but personally I just don't care. I respect the GNU Project's involvement. But I'm not gonna spit out extra syllables and keystrokes just to appease anyone.

Comments

I see

[Lord Omlette]

I respect this artist's skill, but I'm not gonna pay for a painting because I can just download this jpeg.

I respect this musician's lyrical ability, but I'm not gonna buy their album because I can download their MP3z.

I respect these actors, actresses, and the director who made them do their thing, but I'm not gonna pay for a movie ticket because I'm sticking it to the man with DivX.

Stallman isn't asking you to pay jack shit, he's asking for a freaking single syllable! 4 bytes! G N U /! He doesn't want to molest your daughter, rape your wife, or take away your rights, he just wants recognition for a freaking foundation that just happens to have these high fucking ideals, ideals which you hold dearly! WTF?

Give it up, Stallman

[msuzio]

He just needs to give it up (but he never will). No one but him likes the assinine name, and it isn't neccessary to mangle a perfectly good name just to suit an agenda.

Maybe that's what bugs me... it seems so arbitrary to push this position. It just never seemed like anything worthy of his time, and it makes him look even more like a raving loonie than he really is (but hey, it takes raving loonies to change the world sometimes).

Re:A Story that this reminds me of

[gdeciantis]

Don't assume I am a Microsoft hater because I read Slashdot.

The reason I made the comment was that I have witnessed the worst hygene at the Computer Science Club at my school. You would walk by that room and fall over due to the stench. When Stallman came to my school he looked almost exactly like some of the people who produced those foul oders. Now, I don't really care about weight or looks or anything. But hygene is one thing that everyone can maintain without help from of a 12 step program or a doctor.

BOOO Re:The real difference

[donfede]

None of these men evoke the same response as Stallman. Mention RMS in a Linux crowd and you'll find people who love him, hate him, and those who simply roll their eyes

Mentioning ESR's name will get the those responses too. The only real difference is that if you call ESR and RMS whacko s to their faces, Stallman isn't likely to shoot you.

BOOO Very tastless.

donfede

Re:You cannot deny GCC is the heart of free softwa

[scrytch]

Yunno ... I don't see Ken Thompson going around and demanding fealty from everyone for having written Unix. Welcome to the world of technology -- scratch that, welcome to the real world, where people have natural tendencies to push away people who demand gratitude. My mother doesn't claim credit for all my accomplishments, and she did a whole lot more than just provide half the chromosones...

GCC was not the first freely available compiler, nor is it the only one out there. Compiler hackers could have just as easily worked on lcc and shut RMS up for good.