The RMS Tour Rider

larry bagina writes "It's no secret that rock stars have riders — provisions on their contractual appearances that require a bowl of brown-free M&Ms or specify the exact brand of bottled water, cocaine purity, etc. Well, Richard Stallman has his own quirky list of provisions." Some of the best stuff is at the end, including: "I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do [for] breakfast. Please just do not bring it up," and "One situation where I do not need help, let alone supervision, is in crossing streets. I grew up in the middle of the world's biggest city, full of cars, and I have crossed streets without assistance even in the chaotic traffic of Bangalore and Delhi. Please just leave me alone when I cross streets."

Comments

You should change RMS's icon

[Anonymous Coward]

To just a stylized version of his giant neckbeard.

Re:You should change RMS's icon

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a proper beard, not a neckbeard. Perhaps you'll learn this for yourself when yours comes in.

Just seems like a well thought out list

[Dr_Barnowl]

It reads like a list of his negative experiences. Especially the bit about parrots.

I found myself identifying with a lot of it - I'm obviously just better socially adjusted than he is when I put up with these things.

It's a lot less ridiculous than some of the riders of celebrities - it actually represents his preferences, mostly his preference to be treated like an independent adult, rather than stupid things that crop up on some peoples riders like a bowl M&Ms with all the green ones picked out.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[merrickm]

The Van Halen M&Ms thing wasn't stupid. It was right in the middle of a bunch of important safety stuff that was particularly important due to the huge crowds Van Halen was drawing. If no M&Ms, they knew the venue hadn't carefully gone through the safety stuff.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understand it, the green M&M thing was a test to make sure the contract had been read. It was a good way to test that the stage was set up to specifications.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[squizzar]

Mod parent up. Everyone whinges about poor specifications: Van Halen had theirs written very clearly, and the M&Ms were a trap to ensure someone had read and paid attention to them...

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[farrellj]

That move by VH was the most brilliant single thing that any band/artist has added to the standard touring contract!!! And probably the most misunderstood!

ttyl
          Farrell

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Just Some Guy]

I'm obviously just better socially adjusted than he is when I put up with these things.

I'm not sure if it's that, or that the minor things add up to a major aggravation if you travel for a living and have to deal with them daily. If you don't like eggs but everyone seems to want to serve you eggs each morning, I could see that wearing thin rather quickly.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Dr_Barnowl]

Aha, thank you for the enlightenment. That's actually not a bad trick.

I should have fallen back on something like Iggy and the Stones who demand that broccoli and cauliflower should be “cut into individual florets and thrown immediately into the garbage” ...

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[ThorGod]

I agree, it reads like a 'road often traveled' list. He's been there, done that, and here's his quality control list.

I'm lucky enough to say I've met him. He really is *very* well thought-out in his ideas. Too bad I was a college sophomore at the time or I would have said more to him.

PS: I find it hilarious that your repliers are defending Van Halen. I'm not saying they're wrong, I just find it hilarious.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[iluvcapra]

Still doesn't explain why they needed two tubes of KY jelly in the dressing room. :)

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Darth_brooks]

Just for good measure:

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp

Brown Out

Claim: Van Halen's standard performance contract contained a provision calling for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown candies removed.

Status: True.

Example: [Harrington, 1981]

Van Halen tends to make the news portion of radio more often than it gets airplay. There was the M&M riot in New Mexico where the band did thousands of dollars of damage to a hall when they were served brown M&Ms — their contract said the brown ones had to be removed.

Origins: Rock concerts have come a long ways since the days when the Beatles performed in boxing rings and hockey rinks, and made no greater demand of Van Halen promoters than they be provided with clean towels and a few bottles of soft drinks. As the audiences grew larger, promoters stood to make more and more money from staging concerts, which meant that not only could rock stars command higher prices for their performances, but they were able to demand other perks as well, such as luxurious accommodations, lavish backstage buffets, and chauffeured transportation. It was inevitable that some high-demand acts, all their financial and pampering whims satisfied, would exercise their power and start making frivolous demands of promoters, simply because they could.

By far the most notorious of these whimsical requests is the legend that Van Halen's standard concert contract called for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms backstage, but with provision that all the brown candies must be removed. The presence of even a single brown M&M in that bowl, rumor had it, was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to peremptorily cancel a scheduled appearance without advance notice (and usually an excuse for them to go on a destructive rampage as well).

The legendary "no brown M&Ms" contract clause was indeed real, but the purported motivation for it was not. The M&Ms provision was included in Van Halen's contracts not as an act of caprice, but because it served a practical purpose: to provide an easy way of determining whether the technical specifications of the contract had been thoroughly read (and complied with). As Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth explained in his autobiography:
Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We'd pull up with
nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn't support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren't big enough to move the gear through.

The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say "Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes . . ." This kind of thing. And article number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation."

So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl . . . well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you're going to arrive at a technical error. They didn't read the contract. Guaranteed you'd run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.
Nonetheless, the media ran exaggerated and inaccurate accounts of Van Halen's using violations of the "no brown M&Ms" clause as justification for engaging in childish, destructive behavior (such as the newspaper article quoted at the top of this page). David Lee Roth's version of such events was decidedly different:
The folks in Pueblo, Colora

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Oswald McWeany]

Aha, thank you for the enlightenment. That's actually not a bad trick.

No, but I really think they should have gone for something more subtle and less "wacky".

It shows they read the rider- but not that they paid attention to it. Something as wacky as no brown M&Ms stands out and is easily remembered.

Yes, they'll remember something as wacky as that - but then they'll forget the mundane details.

They should have used some other less wacky parameter if they wanted to test if attention had been paid.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Just Some Guy]

Some one with a brief case of being open minded to come with a new idea, he grasped onto that idea and then closed his mind shut, because he refuses to be proven wrong.

"All men are created equal." If you grasp that idea and internalize it, it's going to be pretty hard to convince you otherwise. Well, the equivalent for RMS is "software should be Free". If he believes that wholeheartedly, what compromise position would you suggest he reasonably adopt?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[The Creator]

To get into the stage costumes!

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

Still doesn't explain why they needed two tubes of KY jelly in the dressing room. :)

Post-op transsexuals don't lubricate naturally...

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[paiute]

As I understand it, the green M&M thing was a test to make sure the contract had been read. It was a good way to test that the stage was set up to specifications.

You know how I know you didn't read the contract or the article?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

99.99% of what he says boils down to "this is me, and you don't know me, but asking me to come to Bongolopia and give a speech, you should know these things about me". I found it interesting, and personally revealing. RMS is detail oriented, scrupulous, and rather classically nebbish compsci department denizen, of the 1960s/1970s unix-hacker subculture.

W

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[jellomizer]

There is the concept that whatever you bereave in there is a probability that you are wrong.
"All men are created equal" is false, because we are not created equal There are some people who are smarter, stronger and deal with people better. There are some people if you can add up all their strengths and quantify them they are a better person then others. "All men are created equal" is a phrase to make sure we don't quantify a persons values and use the inequity in people to make laws that exclude them from liberties.
The problem with "all software should be Free" is that fact software cannot be free, just as all men cannot be equal. RMS moves software freedom from the developer to the user. Where the Developer Pays to make software for the User.
Being Open minded is realizing that your idea has a flaw, you can still argue that it is better then the alternatives but the fact you are not going to listen to the counter argument is a wast of making an argument to begin with.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anrego]

I’ll admit that I’m generally not a fan of RMS, but I will definitely agree he puts a lot of thought and effort into everything. It comes out in this list... he takes his viewpoint seriously and is very concerned not just with not being a hypocrite, but with not accidently encouraging the stuff he is against.. which I can respect.

And this list actually seems fairly reasonable. We've all got silly things that bug us way more than they should. Most of us just brush it off and not make a big deal, but if we had to deal with these things on a constant basis (RMS travels a lot) it would get pretty bad. I don't like eggs at all.. if I had to politely decline or choke them down to not be rude a few times a week.. I'd be putting it in writing too... NO EGGS DAMNIT!!.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[ArhcAngel]

I was actually listening to Nikki Sixx's radio show about a month ago and he was talking about the fact that at every show they would put a bottle of baby powder in the changing area with Vince Neal's (I believe it was Vince he said) name on it. At one of the venue's Nikki asked Vince about the baby powder and Vince said he thought it was Nikki's. Seems at some point it got put on the list of items that Vince must have. Vince never even knew he asked for it.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

Only on Slashdot would KY Jelly in Van Halen's dressing room need an explanation.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[john82]

I can't say that I agree with all of his positions, but I too will acknowledge that the level of consistency in his various positions points to the amount of thought he has applied to them. I can respect that.

Even so, he still strikes me as an a**. His comments on Steve Jobs are both churlish and ironic. The irony is that I consider them to share a certain single mindedness of purpose and a string of odd personal traits. Somehow, I expect RMS would be insulted at the prospect of having that in common.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[box4831]

As I understand it, the green M&M thing was a test to make sure the contract had been read. It was a good way to test that the stage was set up to specifications.

You know how I know you didn't read the contract or the article?

He's on Slashdot?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[hitmark]

Real life is a downer if one take a good hard look at it.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[geekoid]

"... is that fact software cannot be free, "

based on.. what?

You are using the Special pleading logical fallacy.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[bieber]

To be fair, it was still kind of a dick move. They could just as easily have asked for, say, a hand-written note with some nonsensical but memorable phrase written on it to be stuck to the mirror. There's no reason they had to stick some poor sap at the venue with the job of rooting through a bag of M&Ms and picking out all the brown ones...

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[formfeed]

Well RMS is really just a big downer/complainer anyways. I personally have little respect for him as a person, he isn't someone I would want to work with or even socialize with.

You should invite him over for an oyster breakfast sometimes.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Forbman]

Maybe not so bad for the poor sap (e.g., someone's kid), who promptly ate them as they picked them out.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[cs668]

I worked at a company that shipped hardware, as a part of the contract the customer agreed not to open that hardware. Inside every shipped system there was a rubber chicken, if anyone ever called the support line and asked about the rubber chicken you knew they opened the box.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

...of the 1960s/1970s unix-hacker subculture.

...of the 1960s/1970s MIT AI Lab ITS & Lisp Machine-hacker subculture.

ftfy

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, he's such an ass. I'm surprised I never bumped into him around town. I have a feeling that if I were to, I'd tell him to his face that he's a pompous ass who singlehandedly does more to hurt the open source (er, "free software") movement than any other individual or organization on the planet.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Caerdwyn]

"green"

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[khallow]

To be fair, it was still kind of a dick move. They could just as easily have asked for, say, a hand-written note with some nonsensical but memorable phrase written on it to be stuck to the mirror. There's no reason they had to stick some poor sap at the venue with the job of rooting through a bag of M&Ms and picking out all the brown ones...

It had to be enough work so that they knew you weren't cutting corners. The letter is simply too little work. There were lives and valuable equipment on the line.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[bieber]

There's not necessarily any correlation between the amount of work you're putting in to remove brown M&Ms from a bowl and the amount of work you're putting into safety...or if there is, it may very well be an inverse relationship if you're now short a tech guy because he drew the short straw and had to pick all the brown M&Ms out of the bag. The point of the M&Ms clause was just to make sure that someone had actually read the riders, and you could just as easily accomplish that with any other unique request, there's no need for it to be labor intensive.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, it was still kind of a dick move.

Rip open a bag of M&Ms and dump the contents on a table. Separate the brown ones into one pile (for you to eat), and the rest into another pile (for Van Halen members to eat).

If that process takes you more than about 30 seconds, then you're doing it very, very wrong. Sure, you have to buy the bag of M&Ms first, but you likely have to go out and pick up the rest of the ingredients for their meals anyway, so what's one more item?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Zebedeu]

Not to mention that in order to separate the M&Ms someone would have to put his hands all over said M&Ms.

I'm not paranoid about cleanliness, but I sure wouldn't like some guy touching my food before I eat it (unless he's a cook, which I force myself to blindly assume they're careful with hygiene).

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to put a line in my specifications like "3) Call for free beer"

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[swb]

Considering the amount of pussy that Van Halen probably went through, my sense is that the relative cleanliness of their M&M stash wasn't real high on the list.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[lgw]

This is a rock and roll band - if they were "wacky"-adverse, they wouldn't have been touring in the first place. Plus it checks that the venue wil comply with provisions that seem silly, not just ones they agree with.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[lgw]

That's awesome. Not quite a live bobcat, but still awesome.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Jarik C-Bol]

that...that is brilliant!

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[charlievarrick]

Stooges.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[swb]

I wonder if you could have just called up M&Ms and gotten just brown ones orderd. Get a 10 lb sack of them.

You can do it now, but back then maybe not.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Serious Callers Only]

You are using the Special pleading logical fallacy.

And you are using wikiphilosophy ~

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[geekoid]

wha..?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[farrellj]

No, it was a brilliant move, since it was a signpost showing if the concert promoter/event host had actually read the contract and addressed the safety concerns of the band. If they showed up and saw that the wrong type of M&Ms present it tipped them off that the their host had not read the contract completely.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[blair1q]

Well, no.

So what happens if they get to the venue, get into the dressing room, and there's no M&M's?

Do they walk out on the show, claiming safety issues that they haven't specifically inspected?

At that point it's too late and the M&M's are not probative anyway.

What they should have put in there was a notice that someone would show up a day ahead to double-check that the safety requirements listed on that page were being implemented.

Because if I was a shifty promoter, and I read those requirements, and saw the M&M thing, I'd know just how to get away with not doing the expensive stuff and still make them think I had. What's a bag of M&M's cost again?

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[quetwo]

A tour goes from place to place to place. They may have /hours/ between when the team shows up and the time that they perform. The day before they may have been in another city putting on a show.

The venue/stagehands/etc. were there days before. The band shows up the day of. If the band shows up and that simple request wasn't there, they knew something was up, and the show could be canceled. It is in the band's best interest to cancel the show in that case -- they had lots of pyrotecnics, gear, etc. that all required a certain setup and certain safety measure. If even one thing wasn't adheared to, they could get hurt and they would NOT be able to perform the rest of the show (many bands of that time toured three months at a time, with at most a day off between shows for travel. One injury could put tens, if not hundreds of shows in jepordy. Look at U2 last summer).

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you're one of those fucktards who thinks that the McDonald's coffee lawsuit was just some random kook woman who spilled a little hot coffee on herself too? Read a bit more and type a little bit less. Some of these stories have a really interesting backing to them if you have get your head out of your ass long enough to not just read the headlines and scoff like a bitch.
 
And if you're not going to bother to read past the headlines maybe it's time to shut the fuck up and stop making yourself look like the retard that you are.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[diamondmagic]

Um, that's not what equal means, all you are doing is proving the fact that all men are not identical which is an entirely different notion altogether, so step away from the chalkboard, we aren't in math class here. Jefferson was an agricultural scientist and one of the top scientists of the day, you think when writing that he really couldn't comprehend the notion that people are dissimilar? And what more, at the same time he was writing that, Adam Smith was writing about specialization and how we're all unique, and it's those differences of ours that in fact make a modern economy possible: If we were all identical, there would be no comparative advantage, and no reason to trade. Instead, we are equals, and we all have the same rights that other people have no right to infringe upon.

The problem with RMS is that software is not something that is free or unfree, only people are be free or unfree. He's right that patents and copyright licenses restrict my right to handle software, even if I own it. He's wrong when he thinks he can do the exact same thing and threaten to stop my right to redistribute it just because I don't meet his demands that I include the source code, or nothing at all. Unfortunately, many software developers have to take "nothing at all" because of those demands.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[jht]

The old "digital delivery service" WAM!NET used to stick a rubber chicken in their non-sealed (but still not supposed to be opened normally) box. In the box was a small 19" rack with the router, communications gear (an SGI box), and a rubber chicken.

They didn't mind you seeing it, it was a little joke on their part. Sometimes their techs would tell me to go in the box.

They sold turnkey communications services to ad agencies, print shops, and media companies for file transfer. Back in the days when a T-1 was a couple of thousand per month. They installed their box and all the gear, stuck it on your network, created user accounts, and hooked it up to the T-1 they'd order. And then you'd be billed by the transfer.

They also gave out hundreds of pairs of purple Chuck Taylors at the Seybold conference in Boston where they debuted. Still have mine.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

I should have fallen back on something like Iggy and the Stones...

That would be Iggy and the Stooges.

Re:Just seems like a well thought out list

[Anonymous Coward]

This is, incidentally, the same reason that tech writers like to insert chocolate cake recipes into manuals. I've never heard of one making it all the way to publication, but I strongly suspect it has happened.

Parrots?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

What if we all got him a plush toy parrot? Would he be amused or annoyed?

Re:Parrots?

[Dolphinzilla]

As long as it wasn't made in a third world sweatshop, stuffed with cat hair, or Coca Cola branded you'd probably be OK....

Re:Parrots?

[blowdart]

And the pattern for the parrot must be open and free so others can compile their own parrots from scraps of material and discarded belly button lint.

Re:Parrots?

[BasilBrush]

But is it free? Are you allowed to take the stuffing out, change it and put it back again without voiding the warranty? If not, RMS will refuse to accept it. Although if he's in need of something to cuddle he might borrow yours.

Re:Parrots?

[Vintermann]

Maybe he would them to bits with his katana.

Re:Parrots?

[drinkypoo]

Maybe he would them to bits with his katana.

I see what you there.

Re:Parrots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Free range belly button lint to be precise.

I guess breakfast

[Megaweapon]

is the most proprietary meal of the day.

Re:I guess breakfast

[TWX]

Have you ever tried to make cereal yourself, from scratch?

Re:I guess breakfast

[Sockatume]

He'd farm his own eggs, but then he'd have to distribute the chicken, and the egg, and the chicken...

Re:I guess breakfast

[Megaweapon]

He'd farm his own eggs, but then he'd have to distribute the chicken, and the egg, and the chicken...

All modifications to distributed eggs must include the modified chicken as well.

Re:I guess breakfast

[Anonymous Coward]

Would releasing the chicken genome be sufficient? One foreseeable problem, I don't think anyone has a way to compile it. GDNAC?

Re:I guess breakfast

[NatasRevol]

I've got some modified chicken that I ate last night...

Re:I guess breakfast

[Krishnoid]

But technically, wouldn't breakfast be the first meal of the day? So ... he shouldn't be fed after midnight?

Re:I guess breakfast

[jemtallon]

According to the rider, he doesn't like egg yolks unless they're completely hard-boiled so eggs for breakfast may be a no-go.

Re:I guess breakfast

[sentientbeing]

To make cereal yourself from scratch, one must first create the universe

Re:I guess breakfast

[Anonymous Coward]

No good. Needs to be packaged with source, or have source made available upon request with media costs paid by me. I'll take it on 1.41 MiB floppies.

Re:I guess breakfast

[billstewart]

I make granola occasionally. I don't roll the oats myself, or pick the grapes and dry them into raisins, or scrape the honey out of beehives, etc., but combining them into granola's pretty straightforward.

Re:I guess breakfast

[mattack2]

So he's a Gremlin?

Re:I guess breakfast

[gmhowell]

So he's a Gremlin?

It appears he avoids water (particularly when soap is involved).

cheeses

[chemicaldave]

you need to know what I dislike ...many strong cheeses, especially those with green fungus

He must have very weak toe cheese.

Re:cheeses

[Farmer Tim]

Everyone prefers their own brand...

Primadonna...

[Anonymous Coward]

"A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I
really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar,
any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we
use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar."

Outrageous bastard.

Re:Primadonna...

[Anrego]

I'm not a fan of RMS, but that seemed reasonable enough.

Re:Primadonna...

[Andrewkov]

My favorite part is this:

When you need to tell me about a problem in a plan, please do not start with a long apology. That is unbearably boring, and unnecessary -- conveying useful information is helpful and good, and why apologize for that? So please be practical and go straight to the point.

...Burried around page 50 of a rather long, tedious document...

Re:Primadonna...

[BluBrick]

Boring others is permissible - boring him is not.

Strangely inspirational

[Sockatume]

RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[DrgnDancer]

What about the Pepsi which he may or may not like to be offered depending on if he's sleepy or not? What I took away from this is that he wants to be a spokesman for Free Software, but not if it inconveniences him in any way or requires him to leave his comfort zone. The whole thing with refusing to speak if there are sponsorship banners, or refusing to interviews if the interviewer isn't willing to "properly" refer to GNU/Linux or conflates Free and Open Source Software... Arguably such people are the ones who might most benefit from his message. Appearing on stage next to a banner might produce the opportunity to talk about why he disagrees with such things... talking to a reporter who conflates "Free" and "Open Source" might provide an opportunity to talk about the difference. Both could be done in a non-confrontational way that none the less shows what he believes and why.

Most of this stuff says "I don't want to talk to you if you don't already agree with me almost entirely". What's the point? It's more mutual masturbation at that point than advocacy.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Dr_Barnowl]

For him, it's pragmatic as well. I'm sure that there would be no shortage of parties who'd be happy to stoop to smearing his integrity by claiming that he didn't really believe in what he professed to believe.

Either way, I agree. It must take some serious dedication.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.

I noticed that about the trains, too, and, though I rolled my eyes as soon as I got to the words "Big Brother", I had to admit that sort of thing is exactly what he generally talks about, so I can respect him for that, despite the knee-jerk Big Brother references.

Of course, the part about the the trains came two sections after a part about air travel, and he never mentions anything about not giving his ID to airlines, which I think is somewhat required nowadays. That caused a wee bit of cognitive dissonance to me.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Sockatume]

I'm by no means saying that his rhetorical approach is effective or justified. He's not exactly software freedom's greatest spokesperson. The extremism of his stance is a barrier to the adoption of his ideas. However you can't argue with his consistency. Many of the entries there are clearly the result of him sitting down and thinking about whether action X really fits with the ideals he espouses.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Trolan]

Alas, it's also suitable to modify his moral code when it's convenient.

Big Brother has no right to know where I travel, or where you travel, or where anyone travels. If they arbitrarily demand a name, give a name that does not belong to any person you know of. If they will check my ID before I board the bus or train, then let's look for another way for me to travel. (In the US I never use long-distance trains because of their ID policy.)

And yet he's fine with planes...

Re:Strangely inspirational

[interval1066]

But if he stays with you and you have a friendly parrot he will be very, very glad.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[ObiWanKenblowme]

He also refuses to have a cell phone because "they are tracking and surveillance devices" and "most of them are computers with nonfree software installed". Except if he needs to make a call, he has no problem borrowing someone else's.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[ArAgost]

What about “no trains because they spy me” but he's ok with planes?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[sartin]

How many of us would avoid long-distance trains,

Yet he's perfectly willing to give in to the same requirements in order to fly in a plane. I guess pragmatism wins over principle at some level of inconvenience.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Jose]

refusing to interviews if the interviewer isn't willing to "properly" refer to GNU/Linux or conflates Free and Open Source Software... Arguably such people are the ones who might most benefit from his message. Appearing on stage next to a banner might produce the opportunity to talk about why he disagrees with such things... talking to a reporter who conflates "Free" and "Open Source" might provide an opportunity to talk about the difference. Both could be done in a non-confrontational way that none the less shows what he believes and why.

did you see the part where rms asks that the journalists actually attend his talk? and the references he gives to the GNU website talking about the difference between Free Software and Open Source software?
by the time he finishes his speech, he has spoken at length on the differences. why repeat it to a journalist?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[BasilBrush]

Most of us wouldn't, because we're not insane.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[BasilBrush]

But unfortunately, you'll have to burn the sheets.

http://5by5.tv/talkshow/64-they-had-to-burn-the-sheets

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Just Some Guy]

Yet he's perfectly willing to give in to the same requirements in order to fly in a plane. I guess pragmatism wins over principle at some level of inconvenience.

Well, of course it does. In his own words:

I firmly refuse to install non-free software or tolerate its installed presence on my computer or on computers set up for me to use.

However, if I am visiting somewhere and the machines available nearby happen to contain non-free software, through no doing of mine, I don't refuse to touch them. I will use them briefly for tasks such as browsing. This limited usage doesn't give my assent to the software's license, or make me responsible its being present in the computer, or make me the possessor of a copy of it, so I don't see an ethical obligation to refrain from this. Of course, I explain why they should migrate the machines to free software, but I don't push so hard it would be counterproductive.

Likewise, I don't need to worry about what software is in a kiosk, pay phone, or ATM that I am using. I hope their owners migrate them to free software, for their sake, but there's no need for me to refuse to touch them until then. (I do consider what those machines and their owners might do with my personal data, but that's a different issue. My response to that issue is to minimize those activities which give them any data about me.)

That reasoning is based on the fact that I was not responsible for setting up those machines, or for how that was done. By contrast, if I were to ask or lead someone to set up a computer for me to use, that would make me ethically responsible for its software load. In such a case I insist on free software, just as if the machine were mine.

He'll use non-free systems whenever necessary if there's no alternative. There's not a good non-free alternative to air travel in the US, or to travel abroad in a timely manner.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Sechr Nibw]

I'm guessing this is because there is no practical alternative to planes. To travel overseas, your options are planes and boats. For one who needs to be a lot of places each year, a boat isn't feasible due to travel time.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[nedlohs]

What about the Pepsi which he may or may not like to be offered depending on if he's sleepy or not? What I took away from this is that he wants to be a spokesman for Free Software, but not if it inconveniences him in any way or requires him to leave his comfort zone.

That's your persepective. What I took away was "Please provide two cans of Pepsi (not Coke or diet), but don't be surprised if I don't drink them". And that he is verbose and can't help going off on tangents.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[nabsltd]

But if he stays with you and you have a friendly parrot (if you know what I mean) he will be very, very glad.

FTFY

Re:Strangely inspirational

[icebraining]

He does seem very glad.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Princeofcups]

RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.

Not quite. It shows that he expects other people to go to extreme lengths to provide him with very trivial wants (not needs), things that he should be able to deal with like anyone else in society. People in power get there because they enjoy power, and they enjoy watching other people jump through flaming hoops for them. It's how they show their superiority. Compare this to Woz, who hangs out in line at the Apple store for the new phone just because he prefers to live a normal life, as opposed to pulling strings and having people cater to him.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

However you can't argue with his consistency.

Sure you can. He has made many speeches where he says that pirating copyright software is the right thing to do, because you're sticking it to the evil people who write such software, while he demands that his own copyright license (the GPL) be respected.

He's also a whack-job. His latest "campaign" is brain-dead Who in their right mind would think that writing a letter to, for example, IBM, offering to help them with open source, is anything but an insult and a waste of time? Or mailing it to Best Buy after the lawsuits? What a dope!

The fact is that he hasn't been able to write code in decades (the current gnu emacs is actually an import of the xemacs code, ditto for gcc being an import of egcs, because he totally screwed up both). So of course, he now makes his money bashing those who can.

His Steve Jobs remarks put him on the same level as Fred Phelps (perhaps even lower - I don't think even Phelps is going to eat his boogers and foot cheese in front of people because it's "finger-licking good", or tell women to "remove their spawn").

He's the guy putting "Open Sores" in open source.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Onymous Coward]

Dude's got integrity. Gotta hand him that.

I push my behavior further towards alignment with my principles than I think most people do, but I do it in a way that catches minimal flak from the normal folk around me. Granted, I limit my interactions with people who don't understand. Anyway, I am not even in RMS's ballpark.

Think different. Way, inconveniently different.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect more people could afford to follow their ideals if they were content living like a pauper off a research endowment and free office space provided by a major university (which apparently doubled as a living space for a long time).

The rest of us live in the real world and have to pay for a place to live and support our families, hold down an actual job, and a dozen other things most people do in the course of their lives, and realize having a computer that's actually capable of doing real work has more benefit than one restricted to running software that happens to meet an arbitrary definition of "free" but accomplish things we want to do.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

I absolutely can not speak for RMS, but a possibility is that he has accepted that due to there really being no time efficient alternative to planes for intercontinental travel he must make a sacrifice if he is to spread his message successfully. Realistically, there are very few people who can afford the time or money involved in traveling to the other side of the world in any other manner. I suspect, though, that if he was traveling a fairly short distance, say from NY to Philadelphia or D.C., he'd probably be much happier as a passenger in a compact car driving on I-95 (paying tolls with cash) than on a plane. The difference in time just isn't that great, especially given the airport hassles, and no recording of ID is required. He might even prefer taking the bus (assuming the bus has anonymous WiFi and he can push/pull email over SSH), especially if you will add the difference in cost onto his speaking fee!

Re:Strangely inspirational

[interval1066]

Looks like he ate a few of them before that pic was snapped.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[dex22]

Journalists talk to a lot of people. If you are using a journalist as a proxy to speak to people on your behalf, it might be important to you that they use the same terminology and understand it to have the same meaning as you do. This way, you can minimize the possibility of being misunderstood by the journalist's audience.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[geekoid]

What I took away fro it was 'Aspergers'.

Clearly not enough info, but I see this type of thinking with people who have Aspergers.

Not to be confused with 'Ass Burgers'; which are people who claim they have Aspergers do they can excuse way there rudeness.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[geekoid]

"Who in their right mind would think that writing a letter to, for example, IBM, offering to help them with open source"
A world recognized person who is knowledgeable in open source and wants to help?

They fact that you think someone wanting to help is an insult speaks more to you then RMS.

He things any other type of copyright is immoral. He is logical consistent. He would rather copyright was done away with, but has to have some sort of copyright. The default copyright state isn't to he liking so he has his own.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

I also admire some of his requests, such as his preference for couch-surfing as opposed to being booked into a hotel room, and flying coach instead of business class. He suggests it not only as a way for his hosts to save money on the event, but also because he prefers meeting and socializing with new people. Personally, the next time he's in my state, I'd be honored to have him sleep on one of my spare futons, and then post a sign "RMS Slept Here" afterward.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you misread that. He's not out to meet people that agree with him already. He's trying to spread his message. Some people will want to take it as gospel, but especially then he needs a bit of control over his message, so he wants to see stuff with his name on it before it gets thrown out in the world. That's far from unreasonable.

Personally, if I travel, I count two days recovery afterward, minimum. The guy's a constant traveler and must rely on lots of strangers (to whom he is also a stranger) to take be hospitable to him. No wonder he's written down what he needs to be reasonably comfortable. I skimmed it a bit but there's nothing that really stood out. It's all answers to questions people might have, saving him repeating himself. And why yes, riders are about creature comforts, too. Note that most of the outre stuff is of the "if you have it, it interests me, but don't go out of your way to get it for me" kind. As these things go, he's not asking anything outrageous.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

Again, this is pragmatism at work. You can't take a train from Boston to London, or from Los Angeles to New Delhi. In this case, air travel is just about your only option. RMS had a chance to spread his ideas and educate people about freedom and privacy, and as distasteful as air travel can be, felt it was a net gain for the cause to accept the invitation and reach more people with his message than to decline it and lose that opportunity.

Talk to John Gilmore about the TSA and he'll explain in great detail how the policies of the TSA and the DHS are clearly unconstitutional, and he spent many thousands of dollars fighting them after 9/11/2001. He doesn't get arrested at the airport any longer, but he does continue to fly and refuses to surrender his identification at security screenings because he put his money where his mouth is and made his point to the court. Though we're still not free to travel without restrictions, we are all better off now because of his efforts.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[bonch]

Every time the topic of RMS' eccentricity comes up, people post justifications. "Well, he thinks really hard about what he does!" "Well, I may not agree with him, but I sure am glad he's passionate about what he does!"

No. His eccentricity and paranoia hurts the free software movement and alienates the mainstream.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[bonch]

What an odd response. We are supposed to respect the consistency of an extremist?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Tomato42]

By using someone else phone he didn't have to agree to software licence of the phone to use it.

He has the same policy with PCs running non Free software. He will use them, but tell the owner about Free and Open software.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[jimicus]

by the time he finishes his speech, he has spoken at length on the differences. why repeat it to a journalist?

Most of the media has spent the last twenty years systematically reducing their staff. It's now the case (indeed, has been for some time) that asking a journalist to do much in the way of work in terms of researching and writing articles for anything that isn't really important to their readership is pretty much a waste of time - they've got far too many pages to fill and far too little time to write the content.

This is why so many things you read in the news read like barely warmed-over press releases - because they are barely warmed-over press releases.

And Richard Stallman is expecting journalists to read 10 separate pieces (yes I counted them) and attend a 2.5 hour long lecture before writing an article? It's totally unrealistic.

Seriously, has nobody ever explained this to him?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

First, IBM has has spent several BILLION funding open source, so RMS and the FSF "warning them of the dangers of proprietary software and offering to help" shows he's an idiot. It also says more about you that you would attack me for pointing out the obvious - that RMS is a manipulative liar.

He is a hypocrite, and his "logical consistancy" is the logical consistancy of con artists, liars, and other manipulators.

BTW - he has pretty much destroyed the ability to defend any copyrights assigned to the FSF with his public statements rwt violating copyright being ok providing anyone who infringes with a defense.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[bill_mcgonigle]

That's your persepective. What I took away was "Please provide two cans of Pepsi (not Coke or diet), but don't be surprised if I don't drink them". And that he is verbose and can't help going off on tangents.

Good developers appreciate their re-factoring engineers.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Hatta]

So RMS is off the rails because he expects a journalist to do journalism?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

Sure you can. He has made many speeches where he says that pirating copyright software is the right thing to do, because you're sticking it to the evil people who write such software, while he demands that his own copyright license (the GPL) be respected.

That sounds like a fairly consistent stance to me: he believes that copyleft is the only thing that's worth protecting, and everything else can burn in hell.

He's consistent in that, too. When someone asked him whether he supports abolishing copyright, he answered that he'd agree on that, but only if copyleft was mandated by law instead.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen him borrow someone else's? People who have cell phones have fallen so in love with them that they forget that it really is possible to live without them. I've had them, and I've got rid of them (mostly due to the cost of maintaining them). It certainly wasn't something I couldn't live without. Sure it's purely annecdotal but I've never been in a situation where I needed a cell phone. There's been a few times when it would have been really nice, but it's never been an absolute necessity. Perhaps he feels the same

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

For a prime example of hypocrisy, look at the home page of the fsf. The GPL does not conform to a single one of the four freedoms outlined there. The GPL has many more restrictions than the BSD or MIT licenses, imposes restrictions on sharing and copying, as well as on adapting (ex: linkage restrictions), and on your freedom to work with others (ex: non-copyleft licenses, linking, etc).

The guy is a hypocritical lying freeloader. That, his misogyny, his antipathy to children, his foul personal habits - yes, he's been consistent on all that. That's not a "good thing." Its the sign of someone too stupid to learn from either their mistakes or the mistakes of others.

If you want to get your message out, you don't go around grossing people out and acting like the hobo version of Fred Phelps - because then YOU displace the message.

His ego is more important than the message. The whole childish "GNU/Linux" thing is an excellent example - it's no more "GNU/Linux" than it is "Firestone/Ford" ... and we don't really need the GNU toolchain any more.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[hawguy]

What about the Pepsi which he may or may not like to be offered depending on if he's sleepy or not? What I took away from this is that he wants to be a spokesman for Free Software, but not if it inconveniences him in any way or requires him to leave his comfort zone.

What about it? When I travel and go to a conference, I'll drink Coke when I'm sleepy, or not drink it if I'm not. I don't like Pepsi and avoid it when possible, often to the point of not drinking anything if Pepsi is the only drink available.

So whats wrong with saying "Hey, if I'm sleepy, I'd really like a Pepsi, not a Coke?".

There's lots of reasons to not like RMS, but drinking Pepsi as a pick-me-up is not one of them.

Most of this stuff says "I don't want to talk to you if you don't already agree with me almost entirely". What's the point? It's more mutual masturbation at that point than advocacy.

He's fine with giving talks to a wide variety of audiences, he even asks that the audiences be diverse (i.e. don't invite only your department, advertise off-campus, don't charge admission, etc), but when he's dealing with paid professionals, he doesn't want to have to explain his (well known) position on Free vs Open Software again and again to reporters that should already know better if they did a modicum of background research.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Dolphinzilla]

I started to post on a similar vein - couldn't agree more. You couldn't pay me to put this guy up in my house, although I have cats, children and a host of other things that he find displeasure and disdain in - think I'll go out and pick up some diet coke and a couple of pounds of blue cheese.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Fred Ferrigno]

From the article, it's clear that he regards talking to journalists as an effort, something he does only begrudgingly. If the journalist doesn't have the time to do the research, I'm sure he'd be more than happy not to have to talk to them in the first place. They can do their story without him or not do a story at all.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

In that case, you might enjoy this and this.

Make sure you have a baby in the house - he really hates "breeders".

The guy hates programmers. He's jealous because he can't any more (not because of any alleged RSI - he posts a crapflood on a daily basis - but because, like many programmers, he simply "lost the ability"), and even if you contribute to free software in your spare time, you're scum if your day job involves writing closed code, and people should steal from you to "punish" you.

Then again what can you expect from a paranoid sociopath.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[wolrahnaes]

He also refuses to have a cell phone because "they are tracking and surveillance devices" and "most of them are computers with nonfree software installed". Except if he needs to make a call, he has no problem borrowing someone else's.

Using someone else's phone eliminates any legitimate concern about tracking and surveillance, unless those tracking you are tapping every single phone in the area they think you're in and listening for your voice. If that was the case you're stuck if you need to make a call at all, cellular or not.

The second part is true, though that technically can be avoided today if one's willing to put up with a lot of pain to use it through phones like the OpenMoko running OsmocomBB on the cellular baseband processor. OpenMoko's UI is not great and OsmocomBB doesn't have much functionality though, so you end up with a device that has hardware comparable to a first-generation Android device but functionality comparable to early prototype GSM handsets.

I wonder if RMS drives a car with modern fuel injection. Those tend to use proprietary RTOSes, and even the open source Megasquirt is most certainly not Free Software.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[wolrahnaes]

And yet he's fine with planes...

You have another choice when it comes to trains in almost all cases. There are few places you can ride a train to which you can not also drive to. If we limit it just to the US as he does in that statement, I don't believe there is anywhere accessible by train but not car which you would not have to be identified to enter anyways.

There's always a point where moral choices like that run in to practicality. He used non-free software, OSes, and devices until options that suited his desires were available. I read this statement as saying that when available, he will choose the transportation method which does not require identification. I would assume then that he only flies when crossing oceans, in which case he'd almost always need to identify himself at Customs anyways thus defeating the point of caring if he was identified before boarding.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

I didn't say anything about whether I like RMS as a person, or his ideas, or not. However, he definitely is remarkably consistent about them.

Regarding your pointing out his hypocrisy - for RMS, the very word "freedom" has a very narrow and specific definition (his own, of course), so when he says that "GPL is more free", he really means it, and really believes in it - it's just that his definitions are counter to common sense.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

His definition is counter to reality. In other words, he's a nutjob. Paranoid sociopaths can be very consistent - it doesn't mean that their ideas are worth anything. The proof is in the pudding - the average user will never use, and doesn't want, a"GNU/Linux" desktop computer, because:

1. They're garbage. Too many forks, each with brittle customizations. You can depend on something critical breaking on every update (sure, I use it as my default OS, but after almost 15 years, I'm fed up - I'm switching back to BSD);
2. They come with too many restrictions on what you can and can't do, so they'll never attract the critical mass of user programs (and the "free" replacements are only free if you don't count the cost of your time);
3. Freaks and liars like RMS and Bruce Perens have given open source a bad name. The Steve Jobs attack by Stallman the day after he died was the last straw for me. You're known by the company you keep, and F/LOSS needs to clean house, and disavow these counter-productive leeches, because they're making us all look like idiots (and if we don't speak out against them, then we really ARE deserving of the title).

There really is no excuse. He has repeatedly done the indefensible, the unacceptable, and is motivated by a conceit that he is "special". The cure for that is a 55-gallon barrel of Gold Bond Foot Powder and a muzzle.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

I don't disagree that RMS is a nutjob, but what does it all have to do with Linux? His contribution to modern Linux distros is minuscule, and most developers in those communities do not subscribe to his ideology (most notably, Linus himself doesn't do so).

Re:Strangely inspirational

[msobkow]

As eccentric or pedantic as some of his demands might be, his vision and specification of the GPL is still worthy.

Some of the greatest inventions came from people who were labelled as crackpots in their day.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

Knowing RMS, I'm amazed that he wouldn't simply refuse to travel to such places. The dude refuses to use web browsers.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[unrtst]

Nice flaimbait.

He has made many speeches where he says that pirating copyright software is the right thing to do [fsfe.org],...

Nowhere on that page is the string "pirating" or even "copyright software" used, and the only occurrence of "right thing to do" is this:

"However, to be the lesser evil does not mean it is good. It's never good - not entirely - to make some kind of agreement and then break it. It may be the right thing to do, but it's not entirely good."

And if you think there is any implication that he means you should still do it (violate a software license), then just read on just a tad further where he says:

"If you don't use proprietary software, that means you never put yourself at risk of the dilema happening to you. If a friend asks me for a copy of a program, I will never be in that dilema because I can always legally say yes because I only accept copies of Free Software. If someone offers me a program that's attractive to me, on the condition that I not share it with you, I will say no, because I want to be in a condition where I have nothing to be ashamed of."

He's very consistent. Here, he's only saying that if you are not consistent and you get yourself into this situation, then you are in danger of falling into a moral dilema and, if you find yourself having that dilema, you should choose the lesser evil. He believes the lesser evil at that point would be to give your friend a copy and violate the license of the program and goes on to explain that valuation.

He makes it very clear that his actual recommendation is not to get into that situation in the first place.

The rest of your comment is just personal attacks and do not warrant any additional attention :-p

Re:Strangely inspirational

[mapsjanhere]

I only wonder what kind of mental handstand one has to perform to not wanting "Big Brother" to know where he's staying when he travels from advertised (the more the merrier) speech to advertised (and don't exclude anyone) speech. I'm sure if anyone wanted to know what RMS is up to they first tack his credit card spending, and not his calendar of events on the internet.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[jbn-o]

These points are his choices and you're better off knowing his choices so clearly and in advance. Complaining about this level of honesty and clarity only makes you look like you don't understand how beneficial it is to have this information before choosing to do business with rms.

A planned speaking engagement is not like "talking to a reporter" (which is off-the-cuff). Reporters who claim to represent his values in their reportage should be expected to get their facts straight, and the fact is rms talks at length on how free software and open source are not the same. It's right and proper if he doesn't want people conflating his movement with a movement that doesn't share his values. More importantly, it's his choice whether to agree to give a talk at a venue that doesn't display his values and we should relish his honesty.

It's his choice whether he wants to speak at events that misframe his message and his choice if "such people are the ones who might most benefit from his message". Perhaps such people would be better off if they were to visit more talks and read more books, including ones that champion software freedom.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[jimicus]

And this is why F/OSS has a PR problem.

You can either accept that this is the way the world works and deal with it, or you can bury your head in the sand and pretend reality is somehow different.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[jimicus]

"Off the rails" is possibly a slightly strong term - but in essence, yes. It's been fairly obvious for years that RMS not only doesn't really understand how much of the world works, he doesn't care to understand.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Hatta]

I think he understands quite well how the world works. If a journalist doesn't want to do his homework in order to get an interview with Stallman, that's the journalist's loss. He is not hurting for venues to get his ideas across.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[jbn-o]

No, you talk as if someone is forcing rms' talks on us or rms is forced to give these talks. You can't complain about how trivial you think his conditions are without looking foolish for having been given a chance to see those conditions beforehand. Those people are now getting this information in advance of an rms talk and could choose to say to him that they find the terms too "extreme" to agree with and break the agreement. The point here goes to rms for being so straightforward about what he wants.

rms is not putting on a power display, getting "people [to] jump through flaming hoops for [him]", or "show[ing] their superiority" (although some people who ought to know better get his movement wrong so clearly he possesses superior knowledge of his movement). rms disagrees with some of the all-too-often unspoken underlying assumptions behind proprietary software, and he doesn't like the effects it has on the public.

Giving an arranged lecture is not like standing in line, and rms would never have anything to do with buying a computer he couldn't fully control. His dedication to an ethical standard that benefits the public without controlling them, keeping them on a purchasing treadmill, or denying them software freedom is what separates him from Wozniak. And we're all better off for having more people of rms' high ethical standards in our lives. "Normalcy" should be defined by our respect for our mutual freedom, not our subservience.

Therefore you should acknowledge how organized, honest, and complete rms is and thank him for being so clear with everyone he talks with, even if you don't agree with his values.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[NonSequor]

I'm of the opinion that if you've so thoroughly codified your beliefs that you preemptively have an answer to any question, then you're not really living any more. All of the decisions he will ever make are in the past now. Isn't that a sort of living death?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[geekoid]

You show no evidence that RMS is a manipulative liar.

He says people should use X, and he only uses X. Why isn't that logically constant?

I did not attack you, I simply point ed out you seem to think people offering to help is a bad thing and insulting. Like RMS does if someone offers to help him.

Yes, I'm sure his public statements will be what judges and lawyers refer to instead of actual copyright law~

Con artists and liars are not logically constant for any real length of time.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

You say extremism, I say uncompromising principles.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[geekoid]

well, you clearly don't know how to have a discussion. hint:making the same statement over and over agian isn't a discussion.

Good day.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[spells]

Some of the greatest inventions came from people who were labelled as crackpots in their day.

and some of the worst inventions come from crackpots everyday.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't say he would use a cell phone to make the call, just that he would ask someone "nearby" to let him make a call, presumably on a landline phone.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[blair1q]

Well, sorta. But after a couple of speaking trips where shit is just fucked up, you can be expected to want to spell out ways to make them not just fucked up.

At the point where he's about to go on and realizes he's jet-lagged, trying to come up with the right combination of caffeine and sugar could be difficult. And as long as he's asking, and they're probably only too willing to help, he might as well get what he likes beforehand and avoid an explanation or a complaint or a sour mood.

It's not like he's asking for anything exhorbitant there.

But, the thing about wanting a parrot to hang with, but not a brand-new one...that was a little freaky.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[geekoid]

yes, yews, you can make constatant ad hom attacks. well done. However I have to take issue with the oconnor piece:
"extreme form of Asperger’s syndrome, and as such is probably quite unaware of how offensive he is. But seriously people, it’s not hard to treat other people with respect. "

See, that's ignorance. Its hard for people with Aspergers. In fact, some case can be completely 'blind' to the cues need to have social conventions.

He might as well have written:
I know he was born blind and as such is probably quite unaware of what red is. But seriously people, it’s not hard to to know what red is.

And he isn't a paranoid sociopath, it doesn't fit. Please learn what the god damn terms mean before using them.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[blair1q]

I didn't see anything exhorbitant there.

He can't sleep when it's hot (and a lot of places still interested in his brand of technobabble will be sub-tropical) so he needs accomodations with adequate cooling, and he doesn't want to be fawned over (and a lot of places still interested in his brand of technobabble will be staffed by servile cultures who see him as a bigshot deserving of obsequious treatment), and he likes Pepsi, not Coke.

Other than that, he's going into a system that is designed to cater to speakers, and all he's doing is saying how he likes their setup to be set up. He's not piling on features, he's merely switching the existing configuration variables.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'd RTFA you'd see that it's actually quite the opposite.

He mostly says it's OK to leave him by himself, he'll try as much as possible not to inconvinience you as a host, and that his preferences are just that: preferences, not rules.

Also, he's clear about shunning anything that agrides his moral code.

The important thing is that he's clear about what constituess preferences and what agrides his morals.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

Here - the entire quote makes it quite clear:

When your friend says "that's a nice program, could I have a copy?" At that moment, you will have to choose between two evils. One evil is: give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program. The other evil is: deny your friend a copy and comply with the licence of the program.

Once you are in that situation, you should choose the lesser evil. The lesser evil is to give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program.

Now, why is that the lesser evil? The reason is that we can assume that your friend has treated you well and has been a good person and deserves your cooperation. The reason we can assume this is that in the other case, if a nasty person you don't really like asked you for help, of course you can say "Why should I help you?" So that's an easy case. The hard case is the case where that person has been a good person to you and other people and you would want to help him normally.

Whereas, the developer of the program has deliberately attacked the social solidarity of your community. Deliberately tried to separate you from everyone else in the World. So if you can't help doing wrong in some direction or other, better to aim the wrong at somebody who deserves it, who has done something wrong, rather than at somebody who hasn't done anything wrong.

It is abundantly clear that he believes it is better not to respect copyright, and that it pirating copyright software is okay because it is attacking someone "who deserves it."

So, to be perfectly consistent, since the GPL depends on copyright, I should be perfectly okay to violate the GPL because "that evil person who puts restrictions on what I can do with their code deserves it" - which, btw, is now a valid defense to any company that violates any GPL code held by the FSF, since they're entitled to depend on the copyright holders' public statements.

As for the "personal attacks", the wackjob known as Stallman has it coming, since he has engaged, via such statements, in personal attacks on every programmer who has ever written proprietary code for a living. Anything less is not being consistent.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

Well, after reading the whole rider, it may have more to do with tax evasion and the avoidance of declaring as income the value of any benefits he receives, such as the value of meals, etc.

That, or like many paranoiacs, he lacks the ability to put things into perspective, as well as no ability to see anything beyond black and white. Then again combining narcissism and paranoia gives much the same results - someone who is incapable of seeing things from another persons' perspective, and who thus thinks that it's "reasonable" that anyone who disagrees is out to get them.

The good news? There's zero chance of his reproducing.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

Yes, I'm sure his public statements will be what judges and lawyers refer to instead of actual copyright law

His public statements are definitely what a judge would look at if someone brought them up to defend violating the GPL on software that has been assigned to the FSF, of which he is the head.

The same as if you have a sign in your driveway saying "No Parking' and you've been notorious for declaring in public that people should be allowed to park anywhere they want, no restrictions, no matter what sort of signage is in place. If I then park in your driveway, I can defend against you trying to claim that I am trespassing by pointing to your public declarations saying that doing what I did is fine by you. It's called estoppel. I am allowed to depend on your public representations. That *IS* the law.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

He doesn't have Aspergers. He lets people think he does, because it lets him get away with all sorts of crap. What he has is a form of narcissism. (Hint: see his attack on Jobs - he is VERY much aware of social conventions, and purposefully flouts them to gain attention because he believe that how HE feels about something is more important than anyone else).

As for lies - just look at his attack on linux 2 months ago via the FSF, claiming that it was too risky to use because it was "only" GPL version 2, and urging people to put pressure to get the devs to change to GPLv3, supposedly because the GPLv3 would be better for Android, knowing that any such change would cause the manufacturers to immediately drop linux and swap in bsd as the underlying OS.

"Manipulative bastard" is actually too weak a term for such lies. He's actively undermining F/LOSS for his own ego. That's what narcissists do - after all, its all about them, not reality.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy

Don't you mean so much of a whackjob?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[mattack2]

First, IBM has has spent several BILLION funding open source

Umm, I think he's cuckoo (but not for Cocoa Puffs, since he doesn't eat breakfast), but this part isn't actually making your point, since one of his rants is that the term "open source" is a bad thing.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[drinkypoo]

What about the Pepsi which he may or may not like to be offered depending on if he's sleepy or not?

It's clear that you have never read a rider. I've read a bunch of them for musicians and comedians both nice and douchey and most all of them demand specifically-branded products and so on. It took two women three hours a piece to shop for Willie Nelson and he doesn't even get off the bus except when it's time to perform. Or you'll have a request for this or that brand of organic bread or juice or what have you — in this backwater you're lucky if you get food made out of CHON, let alone certified organic.

Most of this stuff says "I don't want to talk to you if you don't already agree with me almost entirely". What's the point? It's more mutual masturbation at that point than advocacy.

This stuff says "I am fairly reasonable but I do have some quirks and here they are, and if you want me to come to your city and speak at your event you will need to provide me this modicum of comfort." A lot of speakers, or most any entertainer, would have a lot of expensive specific demands, many of which are actually wasted as they never consume them at all, and they sit around thermal cycling in the dressing room. A couple of pepsis, some cream and sugar, and an electric fan if it will be warm is chump change next to the cost of flying him in and putting him up overnight.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[drinkypoo]

His contribution to modern Linux distros is minuscule

[citation needed]

More specifically, Linux continues to be built around GNU tools and software, and continues to be licensed with the GPL. I'd say his influence is strong, and if you believe in Free Software (which you'd better if you believe in Linux) then you've got to appreciate it as being a positive one.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[drinkypoo]

Not quite. It shows that he expects other people to go to extreme lengths to provide him with very trivial wants (not needs),

That you got modded insightful for this shows that there are moderators just frothing at the mouth to insult RMS. But I've just read the whole thing, and there's nothing unreasonable in it. We're talking about a man being asked to come and speak about his ideology, which he will do for little or no money on request so long as his expenses are paid and he can continue to do his work regardless of his location. In exchange he is asking for two cans or bottles of Pepsi-Cola, the loan of an electric fan if temperatures are above 72 degrees, the availability of milk and sugar if he will be expected to drink tea that he might not like, and to not be exposed to allergens (like cats) or to foods which he finds distasteful. Compare this to Woz, who doesn't have to work another day in his life, who can afford to tool around on a Segway and placate the Apple users who keep his stock functioning. Not to take anything away from the Woz, mind you, I grew up with Apple ][s //.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

He says that people should respect HIS copyrights and choice of license, but that nobody should respect mine, or yours, or your employers.

That's the definition of a hypocrite - and it deserves being attacked, because he has continually, and very publicly, called those who disagree with him as "evil" and deserving of being ripped off.

As for IBM, there is no way that they would accept - they have a much better understanding of licensing than he does. Heck, he doesn't even get that the GPL permits someone to resume redistribution after a violation by simply downloading a new copy of the code and conforming to the new license grant because of contra proferentem and clause 6 of the GPLv2 - a position that was ridiculed by some of the freetards when I pointed it out a couple of months ago, but the International Free and Open Source Law Review has just pointed out that contra proferentem applies even to the GPL.

RMS does not offer to "help" unless it benefits him. Look at the lies over the Android GPLv2 termination. Why the lies? Because he wants attention and money! And for him, attention is foremost - it's why he pulled the Steve Jobs slam in the first place. Like many narcissists (and unlike people with Aspergers) he's VERY aware of what people think, and exploits it whenever he can, same as Fred Phelps.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

He doesn't get to define the term "open source" OR the term "free software." Reality disagrees with him, but that's no surprise. Unlike Steve Jobs, the RMS Reality Distortion Field only extends to his outermost dirt layer.

The reality is that the GPL is more restrictive than the BSD, MIT, Apache, or many other licenses, and the financial reality is that successful products (in the sense that you make money selling the software and not a bundle of services) are going to have to either use a GPL exception, multiple licenses for the same code, an LGPL workaround, a different license, or layer a differently-licensed product atop GPL-licensed code.

GPL-licensed code is not free software. THAT is the reality. It's not free as in freedom, and it's only "free as in beer" if your time is worth zero. This doesn't mean it doesn't have value - just that RMS vision failed - miserably. Think of it - Microsoft had a huge problem with Vista, and WalMart, who can sell pretty much anything cheap, couldn't successfully sell a $200 linux pc because the GPL prevents the development of a stable desktop stack. The returns ate them alive. Contrast that with the FreeBSD-based Darwin/OSX, sold by the most valuable company in the world. Apple hired some of the FreeBSD devs, and contributed back a lot of code. Win/win. Now think about this - originally, they were going to use linux, but the GPL killed that idea.

Linux is winning in the mobile world only because it's buried underneath a layer of Android code (with that "nasty" free as in we really mean it you are even free to redistribute without having to give up your source Apache license).

Re:Strangely inspirational

[murdocj]

I had a cell phone for years and never carried it. Then my mom became seriously ill and spent a lot of time in hospitals. At which point I started carrying my cell phone, night and day, because you are never going to reach medical personnel directly. You'll leave a message for them, and if they can't reach you, you are going to play phone tag forever. So yes, in some cases a cell phone is an absolute necessity.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

More specifically, Linux continues to be built around GNU tools and software

Not necessarily - we have plenty of non-FSF-made replacements for all pieces of Linux userland now, but FSF has never made a proper replacement kernel.

and continues to be licensed with the GPL

It does, but e.g. the reasons why Linus are doing that are very different from what RMS envisioned (Linus is in the "open source" camp, not in the "free software" camp).

and if you believe in Free Software (which you'd better if you believe in Linux) then you've got to appreciate it as being a positive one.

As noted above, Linux (and, in practice, vast majority of FOSS software) is made by people who care about "open source" more than "free software", to use Stallman's own terms. The former tends to be much more pragmatic - they don't run around screaming about the evilness of proprietary software and how it's horribly unethical - they just do good shit, and release it under open licenses. No wonder they actually get things done.

And no, I don't "believe" in FOSS - it's not a matter of belief. I just use it, when and where it's convenient to use, and occasionally contribute when I have the time and the inclination.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

He doesn't refuse web browsers on philosophical grounds.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[EdgeCreeper]

Appearing on stage next to a banner might produce the opportunity to talk about why he disagrees with such things...

What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Strangely inspirational

[euroq]

but what does it all have to do with Linux?

He explains his version here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html

tl;dr The percentage of code in a common Linux "distro" is about 3% Linux code and about 25% Gnu code. So, that part makes sense. I do feel for the guy: to him, someone else stole his glory.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

I think that the sheer size of the code is not so important. Source code for something like ls or cp is longer than many kernel drivers, but the former can be written pretty decently by a guy who just finished reading K the latter, not so much. It is also for this reason why other userspaces can (and have been) written, but the only other kernel is BSD - and it was there even before Linux.

By the way, speaking of the percentages - they quote figures of 28% GNU vs 3% Linux, but that is, apparently, an outdated figure, since they immediately give an amended number, 15% for GNU vs 1.5% for Linux in 2008. The catch is that this is for gNewSense - a hardcore "Free Software only" distro that Stallman himself recommends in lieu of mainstream ones like Ubuntu or Fedora, because it has no proprietary (or otherwise "non-free") bits in it by design. In other words, that figure probably doesn't represent the reality on your typical Linux desktop today.

Also, when it comes to ideology, it's worth noting that "free software" camp is pretty much only GNU and their stuff - namely, the compiler and base utils. The rest is what Stallman refers to as "open source" - the folk who care about OSS because of what it gives them pragmatically, not because of Stallman's weird ethics. It's not just Linux, but also both major DEs, and most other userspace (just look at the list of major corporate contributors to GNOME). In a typical modern distro, that's the remaining 80% of software by size.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[drinkypoo]

Not necessarily - we have plenty of non-FSF-made replacements for all pieces of Linux userland now, but FSF has never made a proper replacement kernel.

Replacements may exist (I've made this point numerous times) but they're not used in practice for the majority of distributions.

Linux (and, in practice, vast majority of FOSS software) is made by people who care about "open source" more than "free software", to use Stallman's own terms.

Then why is Linux licensed with the GPL? How do you explain the success of Linux over *BSD, which predates it, except for by the license? GNU is the single most relevant defining factor between Linux and *BSD, especially since these days you can have a BSD kernel with a GNU userland, or Linux with a BSD userland. Or in theory, either one with a busybox userland.

And no, I don't "believe" in FOSS - it's not a matter of belief. I just use it, when and where it's convenient to use, and occasionally contribute when I have the time and the inclination.

Well, *I* believe in FOSS — I believe that more Free Software makes a better world for me to compute in, and Open Source is almost as good though not quite.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[shutdown -p now]

Then why is Linux licensed with the GPL?

Because Linus believes that sharing the code (and making others share their improvements to it) is the best way to get good code, and ultimately, a good product.

Whereas Stallman believes that sharing the code is not necessarily always good, in a sense of leading to a better product, but must be done because not doing so is unethical.

Hence the difference between "free software" and "open source" - it's an ethical dogma versus pragmaticism. Note that it's not a separation invented by me, nor the terms - it's what RMS himself uses in his rhetorics (indeed, if you RTFA, he makes that exact point in his post!).

GNU is the single most relevant defining factor between Linux and *BSD

Not really - IMO, kernel is far more defining, since it's what dictates hardware support, which is, generally speaking, better in Linux, at least for most things of importance on the desktop. Most people who run Linux with KDE or GNOME couldn't care less about any of GNU userland - you could replace it with BSD one, and the only way they'd notice is when the odd shell script that relies on those breaks.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

So you are saying that Linus is like a Democratic Socialist who believes Socialism would bring Paradise on Earth, but that it shouldn't be forced on anybody, while RM (Joseph?) Stallman knows that Socialism doesn't work and yet he condemns everyone who doesn't join his Free Socialist Federation.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[drinkypoo]

IMO, kernel is far more defining, since it's what dictates hardware support,

In an operating system with a modular driver model, this is totally untrue. So isn't it kind of subjective? It's not like you can't add drivers in to either, or indeed, port drivers from one to the other.

which is, generally speaking, better in Linux, at least for most things of importance on the desktop.

The desktop of 1995 maybe. Otherwise, research compatibility before purchase :p

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Anonymous Coward]

Another point is that overseas travel tends to require identification because the country you're travelling to wants to know who's entering, so they can be sure those people are also leaving.

However, none of this crap should be required simply for having the audacity to move around within one's own country of residence.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[DuranDuran]

Well said, DrgnDancer, very well said.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[Walter Carver]

Stallman doesn't like restrictions in softwar. All his actions aim at making the world a place where software restrictions is a thing of the past.

GPL that actually puts *restrictions* on entities who would restrict others wanting to benefit from the software. For example, Apple based OSX on FreeBSD but didn't give back the code because BSDL doesn't require so. Apple benefited from FreeBSD but the subsequent users (OSX users) didn't.

The society we are living has similar restrictions. It ensures your freedom to live by restricting me from killing you.

I should be perfectly okay to violate the GPL because "that evil person who puts restrictions on what I can do with their code deserves it"

If copyright didn't exist, then GPL would not need to exist. If we could all break copyright --if copyright didn't exist-- then you would be free to violate GPL since there would be no point of it existing anymore.

GPL works like a trojan horse: uses copyright to fight it.

Re:Strangely inspirational

[tomhudson]

If copyright didn't exist, I would be free to take gpl code and lock it up in closed applications. So Stallman's position against copyright is a logical fail - like a lot of his other positions, by the way.

His "dream world" will never exist, because the GPL works against people investing in copyleft software. Look no further than the sub-1% of people who use linux on the desktop. The year of the linux desktop will never happen, in part because of the gpl.

The year of the bsd desktop has arrived, thanks to apple. Funny thing, apple chose to use bsd instead of linux early on because of the gpl. And subsequent users certainly did benefit - apple hired freebsd developers to work on it, improve it, and bsd continues to benefit from the relationship. Linux could have had the same benefits, but instead we have an os with a hundred crappy desktops, all of which either lack major features or break on updates, and all of which can't even match creaky old XP.

After 15 years of using linux, I'm looking for alternatives because my time is worth more than dealing with the crap that is KDE, Gnome, E, LXDE, Openbox, etc. Adding more features should take a back seat to stability. Not having sound subsystems that take 100% of core for days on end, or libraries that crap themselves when 2 different applications are open and all of a sudden every keypress results in a 10-second delay because it's corrupted itself AGAIN (kde excels in that respect).

We used to joke about Windows bitrot, but linux desktops have it as well. They are not ready for prime time, and the licensing is preventing anyone from producing a proper one because it costs real money to debug, not the paltry sums Shuttleworth is throwing at his latest piece of trash.

It's significant that the only way that linux is useable by the masses is when it's buried out of sight. And when it's buried out of sight, it can be swapped out if required, so it becomes less and less relevant.

Thank the gpl for screwing everyone over.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Sockatume]

His opposition to breakfast completely bewilders me. How much progress has humanity lost because we didn't have a fully nourished rms?

just a bit too long

[Anonymous Coward]

But nothing unkown

This kinda pissed me off

[Just Some Guy]

I saw a lot of RMS haters posting this and making fun of him for being a demanding ass. In particular, a lot of popular Mac people on Twitter were laughing at him for being a prima donna. I just don't get it. His requests are basically:

1. Don't misrepresent my position by describing me as advocating something I'm not.
2. I'm not rich, so don't make me pay for stuff out of my own pocket because I can't afford to.
3. I'd much rather sleep on someone's couch and hang out with locals than be chauffeured around and entertained constantly.

I don't think any of those are unreasonable at all. And as to the "parrot" part? Dude likes parrots. He goes out of his was to say not to buy one for just for his benefit, but if someone already has one he'd like to talk to it. I can't imagine a personal preference request being more accommodating.

A lot of people disagree with RMS and that's fine. But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision, and I'm not sure why so many people are having fun at his expense when everything he asked for seemed perfectly reasonable.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

RMS has accomplished nothing, he's notoriously an asshole and a misanthrope. People are pointing out his weirdities, get over it. He probably doesnt even want your help defending him :P

--Open source but not 'Free Software' developer

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Stone Rhino]

He goes into a level of needless detail that makes it obvious how he can be obsessive and self-absorbed. He uses paragraphs to say what a sentence could. He focuses on little distractions and loses sight of how people actually work. It reflects a lot of problems with the FSF's approach and RMS's shortcomings as a public face.

This is a man who eats things off of his foot while giving a speech. He's shockingly out of touch with the world and sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Parrots... yeah... I've seen him enter a pet store and ask the manager if she would mind him playing the flute to her parrots. Weird stuff I tell you

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[djsmiley]

He achieved having his rider appear on slashdot infront of hundreds of thousands of geeks... and you achieved a +1 on your Karma.

Congrats, your a true man of the world, you have truely lived and he has not.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[phantomfive]

But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision, and I'm not sure why so many people are having fun at his expense when everything he asked for seemed perfectly reasonable.

It's his tone, not the content. These days, in our times of bully hating, if you 'sound' arrogant, then it is enough for people to not like you, even if you're actually the nicest guy in the world.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Just Some Guy]

I guess you read it the way you want to. I interpreted his tone as "let's get down to business; here's what I need".

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Accomplished nothing? He substantially wrote the first generations of emacs, gcc, and gdb, among many others. Get back to me when you found a software ideology and then write your own editor, compiler, and debugger that go on to be some of the most widely used in the world.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

1) NEEDLESS DETAIL. Where? Which detail was needless? This was a list a A) personal preferences and requirements and B) professional requirements. He was very straightforward and professional about both and did not insists that his personal requirements be met.
2) LENGTH OF WORDS. I assure you that, in sending instructions to someone, more words are better than fewer.
3) HOW PEOPLE ACTUALLY WORK. This is a document about how RMS works, not the rest of the world.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[sunderland56]

But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision

Yeah, there is. RMS doesn't like beer. WTF? First computer geek on the planet who doesn't drink beer.

Maybe that explains his constantly surly attitude.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[evil_aaronm]

He posted AC - not even a karma boost.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[phantomfive]

Maybe you're old. If you talk to teenagers or even college students these days, you can't say, "A, B C." You have to say, "A, and how do you feel about A? B, and what do you want about B? C, and is C alright for you?" If you don't take the other person into consideration, it will often be interpreted as arrogant.

This list is entirely about Richard Stallman. He doesn't apologize, doesn't inquire about the feelings of the other person, he states directly what he needs, and that's it. A lot of people will take that to be self-centered and arrogant.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[demonbug]

1. I'd much rather sleep on someone's couch and hang out with locals than be chauffeured around and entertained constantly.

The temperature must be perfectly modulated. If it climbs so much as 1 degree above 72, you must supply an electric fan. God help you if the temperature reaches 75.

Also, no using any internet access that requires him to log in. His preference is apparently for you to give him your credentials so that he may log in to your account whenever he feels like it.

Those were two that just jumped out at me. Not saying these are entirely unreasonable, he just doesn't sound like someone I would have any interest in dealing with. I'm glad I have absolutely no interest in inviting him to speak anywhere (or listening to him speak), I don't think I'd be able to resist screwing with him and taking his lists of don'ts as a list of to-dos.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[ObiWanKenblowme]

1) and 2) are related - describing how MAYBE he wants a Pepsi and maybe not, but only if he's sleepy, and following with comments on his sugar intake are unnecessary. Just say "have regular Pepsi available in case I would like some" and be done with it. Makes it much easier for those arranging the event to accommodate his requests.

As for 3), well that's the crux of the issue isn't it? It's clear RMS doesn't get how the rest of the world works.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[dyingtolive]

The problem isn't really the 'demands'. At least, not for me. It's the ranty unnecessary amounts of detail. The guy doesn't seem arrogant, necessarily. I mean, he'd rather just bum in on the couch for fuck's sake. He just seems like he has a disturbingly small grip on reality. I didn't need a paragraph on how awesome parrots were. "I like birds, but don't get one on my account, because I don't want you to be responsible for taking care of him for the rest of your life hours later when I leave." Simple.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Captain Spam]

But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision, and I'm not sure why so many people are having fun at his expense when everything he asked for seemed perfectly reasonable.

It's his tone, not the content. These days, in our times of bully hating, if you 'sound' arrogant, then it is enough for people to not like you, even if you're actually the nicest guy in the world.

But Steve Jobs, as we have learned AND as we have known while he was alive, was a grade-A arrogant self-centered narcissistic megalomaniac asshole, straight up, openly and proudly, without any regrets or concern for anyone who wasn't him or — heaven forbid — disagreed with him, and people not only liked him, they worshipped the very ground he walked on. How does that fit in your model?

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[sconeu]

I guess I'm the second, then. I don't drink beer because I don't like the taste.

I'm OK with alcohol (Love me some Jack Daniels), but I can't stand the taste (and aftertaste) of beer.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[PCM2]

This list is entirely about Richard Stallman. He doesn't apologize, doesn't inquire about the feelings of the other person, he states directly what he needs, and that's it. A lot of people will take that to be self-centered and arrogant.

What's arrogant is asking someone to do something for you -- for free -- but not being willing to accommodate what they want in return.

Maybe you're old. If you talk to teenagers or even college students these days, you can't say, "A, B C." You have to say, "A, and how do you feel about A? B, and what do you want about B? C, and is C alright for you?" If you don't take the other person into consideration, it will often be interpreted as arrogant.

Ah, youthful inexperience. What you've mistaken for arrogance is actually contempt. You'll figure it out when you grow up.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Onymous Coward]

What was the performance like? How did the parrots react?

And do you consider yourself observant/aware?

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[phantomfive]

No, he may have ACTUALLY been like that, but when he was on the public stage, he wasn't like that at all. It was all about the user. His attitude was one of, "look at this device I made for you," or at least, it could easily be interpreted that way by a self-centered teenager.

The most obvious example to see this was the keynote when the iphone was announced. Jobs was up there the first half explaining the cool features the device had and why people would like it. Then the CEO of AT&T got up and talked. He talked about what a good deal it was, and how it would make tons of money for AT&T. It was all about him. The contrast couldn't be more obvious.

Really, if you are having trouble with this concept, I strongly suggest you watch that presentation.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[BasilBrush]

His requests are basically:

Don't misrepresent my position by describing me as advocating something I'm not.
I'm not rich, so don't make me pay for stuff out of my own pocket because I can't afford to.
I'd much rather sleep on someone's couch and hang out with locals than be chauffeured around and entertained constantly.

If that's all it was, why does it take 9000 words to say it? The devil is of course in the details. And it's some of the details that he's being ridiculed for.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[phantomfive]

Ah, youthful inexperience. What you've mistaken for arrogance is actually contempt. You'll figure it out when you grow up.

You are saying RMS is contemptuous? Do you have a reason to accuse him of that other than guessing?

What's arrogant is asking someone to do something for you -- for free -- but not being willing to accommodate what they want in return.

Saying what you are willing to do, and not willing to do, upfront, is good policy. If they can't come to an agreement that is satisfactory to both of them, they shouldn't do business. He says what he will do for them, and what he won't do for them. He says what he expects in return. If they are not happy with that, he will find another place to speak, and they can find another speaker. This sort of thing is natural.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[icebraining]

What's arrogant is asking someone to do something for you

That's not what he's doing. People are asking him to speak at conferences and other venues. He's the one being asked a favor, not them.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[BasilBrush]

What's arrogant is asking someone to do something for you -- for free -- but not being willing to accommodate what they want in return.

Two things:
1) The rider is attached to a message to the effect of RMS looking for opportunities to speak in the UK, to promote his message.

That's RMS doing the asking for something for free.

2) In the rider, he does suggest paying a speaking fee. And he certainly doesn't want it going in the FSF account. Oh no. It has to go in his personal account.

That's RMS suggesting that not only might he get an opportunity to proselytize for free, the bigger the audience the better, but he's also like paying for it.

Arrogance you say?

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, I read through the mail and fuck... If any heads of state gave other nations that kind of a list the world would be a better place.

Some of the request were a bit weird, others made me laugh... Yet when you imagine what it must be like to invite him to speak at an event, that list must be god-sent and no doubt refined up through the couple of decades he has spent touring the world.

When he even goes into details about dogs and cats...

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[jjohnson]

When you see a list like RMS's, read it as a list of things that have gone wrong in the past and that he wants to avoid in the future. At some point in the past, someone heard he likes parrots, and bought him one as a gift to give him when he showed up, not knowing what a tremendous responsibility parrots are.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision, and I'm not sure why so many people are having fun at his expense when everything he asked for seemed perfectly reasonable.

It's his tone, not the content. These days, in our times of bully hating, if you 'sound' arrogant, then it is enough for people to not like you, even if you're actually the nicest guy in the world.

Actually, if you consider the audience - people trying to set up a successful event with a guy that is known around the world - it's quite helpful. It's not like he doesn't explain why he needs these things. The explanations actually make sense and are, when taken in context, pretty reasonable. And there was nothing wrong with the tone.

Steve Jobs, asking the President of The United States to invite him to meet with him, was arrogant. And highly disrespectful.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

if there's one thing that deserves derision it's that he wants there to be a maillist signup form readily available.
while going on to paragraph long rants about how he dislikes organizations that make lists of people.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Dragoness Eclectic]

1. I'd much rather sleep on someone's couch and hang out with locals than be chauffeured around and entertained constantly.

The temperature must be perfectly modulated. If it climbs so much as 1 degree above 72, you must supply an electric fan. God help you if the temperature reaches 75.

Also, no using any internet access that requires him to log in. His preference is apparently for you to give him your credentials so that he may log in to your account whenever he feels like it.

Those were two that just jumped out at me. Not saying these are entirely unreasonable, he just doesn't sound like someone I would have any interest in dealing with. I'm glad I have absolutely no interest in inviting him to speak anywhere (or listening to him speak), I don't think I'd be able to resist screwing with him and taking his lists of don'ts as a list of to-dos.

I have a temperature range that I sleep comfortably at. Obviously, RMS has figured out from experience what his is, and would rather not spend his speaking tour feeling and acting like a zombie because he didn't sleep most of the night. This is entirely reasonable.

Then you shouldn't be inviting people for speaking tours and making the arrangements. RMS's list is entirely reasonable, and he even explains why each item is there, for the stupid out there. Any pro who does a lot of speaking & interviews probably has such a list; for another example, go to John Scalzi's blog ("Whatever") and check out his requirements for interviews and suchlike. They are done in a very similar style: firm requirements, plus explanations as to why.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, esr, who knows what he's talking about when it comes to giving speeches thinks rms' requests are reasonable. Who's being out of touch with reality here? You, or those who actually speak of their own experiences? ;)

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounded to me like someone who is used to traveling to international locations and dealing with people who may not be aware of what his normal life is like, or what changes to his environment he can reasonably accept. He has been doing this for a while, and his experience may be that there are plenty of well intentioned people organizing speaking events in tropical locations (e.g. southern India, or Central America) that are completely used to the local climate and forget that for someone from a more temperate climate, it can be very difficult to adjust to, especially if you are there for only a few days. He's got to fly in, get a good night's sleep so he can be prepared for a speaking event, then move on to the next one. If he didn't make these his tolerances clear, his life might be one unpleasant / uncomfortable night after another. I instead noted that he did not insist on being put up at an international chain hotel or anything like that - in fact, he discouraged the idea of a hotel unless it was the only possibility. You read it as "God help you if the temperature reaches 75," and I read it as "as long as I can get a good night's sleep in your guest room, no need to waste money on a hotel. Here's what defines a good night's sleep for me, because understand your definition might be completely different." His way of saying it may seem somewhat peculiar, but I think he is a man that tries to be precise (e.g. using degrees F/C) and avoid misinterpretation, and who favors data over pleasantries.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

The karma that can be given by dweebs who don't know when to use "you're" rather than "your" is not the true karma.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[bonch]

It just paints a picture of RMS, on top of his infamous toe jam eating incident and his various crazy statements over the years.

For crying out loud, the guy doesn't even view webpages. He has a daemon email him a wget version. He is crazy.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[bonch]

He achieved having his rider appear on slashdot infront of hundreds of thousands of geeks...

You consider that an achievement?

He was mocked by many more hundreds of thousands on Twitter and other sites.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Sir Homer]

You are talking about a man who is fundamentally against the way the world works and made it his life mission to change it.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

The man cannot sleep in a room that is above a certain temperature, thus shoots for plans to be made for him to stay in a room that he can sleep in.
 
What an asshole.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Tomato42]

Try something other than lager or pilsner...

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not a fan of RMS.

I read through the tour rider thinking that I would see something humorous. Nope, just a list of well written specifications geared to a very specific audience (perhaps an audience without much experience with bringing in a top tier speaker).

What is wrong with that?

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

While it's full of detail, it's far from needless. People can be amazingly dense in picking up what is obvious to another. He has to cross cultural divides where common sense, if such a thing existed, radically changes. He's had the same questions a million times. So. He. Wrote. Down. The. Answers. With. All. The. Detail. You. Might. Want.

If this sounds repetetive and obsessive to you, you haven't seen his side of things. Everything is an answer to questions he's heard so often he doesn't want to hear them again. Go and tour for a bit, I dare you.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Hatta]

As for 3), well that's the crux of the issue isn't it? It's clear RMS doesn't get how the rest of the world works.

Apparently he does. This list of conditions hasn't prevented him from making a living by speaking.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[shutdown -p now]

I know of surprisingly many IT geeks (myself included) who don't like beer. The usual substitution is good wine, and hard cider can also work for some. More exotic options include mead and a variety of other similar drinks.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, he did do the eating something from his foot, and biting off the tips of his hair at an event in Australia. I wonder if it was the same event...

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Jaysyn]

But there's nothing in his tour rider that deserves derision

Yeah, there is. RMS doesn't like beer. WTF? First computer geek on the planet who doesn't drink beer.

Maybe that explains his constantly surly attitude.

I can't stand the taste of beer either. I'd rather drink liquor.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

RMS doesn't like beer. WTF? First computer geek on the planet who doesn't drink beer.

No. He's not. And he's not the only one either. Plenty of people don't drink. What always boggles my mind is: I'm as private as practicable about not drinking, until someone gets pushy about it. It's a personal decision, I don't proselytize about it (especially considering the positive health benefits of drinking). But when someone get's in my face about it, "you can't trust a man who doesn't drink." Fuck'em. They're not worth my time.

WTF... do you care that someone doesn't drink? Are you one of those people that can't accept that one person's personal decision isn't an all out attack on you and your way of life?

And on the plus side, his friends always have a designated driver.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, he doesn't sound all that much different from Steve Jobs. Recently, a guest on Leo LaPorte's podcast This Week In Tech (http://twit.tv) related a story about a meeting he had with Steve before a MacWorld conference eight or nine years ago where someone in the meeting casually asked Jobs about his weekend, and Steve abruptly suggested "Let's elevate the level of discourse here so we can get more accomplished." Rude? Maybe, but it gives you an idea of how his mind worked; he didn't have time for casual chit-chat that didn't accomplish anything significant.

Yet Jobs is elevated to sainthood by the media and the tech industry while RMS is derided as arrogant and eccentric for behaving in a very similar way. Hmmmmmm.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't read it very carefully. How could he access his personal email if he uses his host's account and password? He'd never ask for such a thing, as doing so would violate his host's privacy. He doesn't use browsers so he can't use webmail; he uses SSH exclusively. He is perfectly okay with using dial-up internet access over a modem, and using his own account with his own ISP, if that's the only way to download his email, but the host must pay for the connection charges.

He is meticulously careful about his privacy and he knows full well how governments often monitor individuals by their internet usage, and government snoops pay particular attention to rabble rousers, dissidents, free thinkers and revolutionaries like himself. If you live in the United States in the 21st century, you might want to take his advice a bit more seriously, particularly if you're involved in online activism like supporting Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, or OWS. The issue isn't whether or not you are paranoid; it is whether you are paranoid ENOUGH. There's a reason I always post as AC here on /. and so should YOU.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[pnot]

Fuck yeah, someone gets it. I'd wager that most of the critics do not spend their lives on the road. If you mostly stay in the same place, you create your own comfort zone: food, sleep schedule, the people you hang out with, every aspect of your daily routine. And of course you take it for granted after a while.

If, as with RMS, your life consists to a significant extent of travelling to strange cities to give speeches to hundreds of strangers at a time, you really don't have much of a comfort zone -- even the bed you sleep in and the food you eat are alien. And interacting with large numbers of strangers is tiring for most of us. Obviously you want to try to streamline the whole process a bit in advance, and maybe expand your mobile comfort zone a few inches... two cans of Pepsi isn't exactly prima-donna territory.

And the "political" riders -- "don't call it Linux" etc. -- anyone is free to take issue with those, but you'd be daft to claim they were born of some "prima-donna mentality" rather than the fact that RMS is an uncompromising political firebrand with very strongly held views.

FFS, he travels economy and brings his own teabags...

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[dkleinsc]

As someone who loves beer, I have to say that mead is also fantastic - Vikings were convinced to go to war by being bribed with the stuff, which should tell you how awesome it is.

Let's just say there's a lot of benefits to being or befriending good brewers.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it's his condescending tone that he uses in it? It would be different if he explained it in the same manner you did but he went out of his way to act like people need to have basic social courtesies explained to them. That's what makes him an ass. It's like the difference between me saying "please shut off the lights when you leave the room" and "Shut off the lights when you leave the room, like any non-retarded first grader would."

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[shutdown -p now]

Let's just say there's a lot of benefits to being or befriending good brewers.

To be honest, it's not all that hard to find a good small-scale brewery selling quality products, if you can be bothered to look. I buy mine from these guys, and they ship anywhere in U.S. It may not be quite as cheap, perhaps, but then most good things generally aren't.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[mapsjanhere]

Sorry, asking for people to go to your hotel and check out the air conditioning and the availability of wired internet connection not requiring a browser handshake falls under "demanding ass", not as reasonable requests. Plus a complete lack of understanding of the technical capabilities of the NSA, in case they're really after him.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Blakey Rat]

I particularly enjoyed the paragraph where he says he enjoys wines, but only particular wines, and he doesn't remember which ones so don't bother asking. But if you order wine, he might taste some and if he likes it he'll drink a glass.

Man. Either memorize a few wine names, or say "don't order wine." Guy has a magical ability to take something simple and make it hugely complex.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[scot4875]

He was mocked by many more hundreds of thousands on Twitter and other sites.

Oh no. Whatever will he do if the Twitterverse is making fun of him?

--Jeremy

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Serious Callers Only]

Where? Which detail was needless?

There are many unintentionally hilarious moments in this long document, but I like this one the best:

So please call this combined operating system "GNU/Linux" in all the publicity, in the titles and description of the session, track,
event, etc., if and when you have reason to refer to it.

Many of these requirements are really of no interest to anyone save the narcissist author of the document.

I assure you that, in sending instructions to someone, more words are better than fewer.

On the contrary, a more succinct document is both are more likely to be read, and far more likely to contain only the information required, and no more. Not bullshit requests for small bottles of pepsi/not coke (really, he defines himself politically by his choice of sugary water, and by choosing a company just as evil?).

This is a document about how RMS works, not the rest of the world.

I'd say it's a better description of how RMS fails to work with or engage with the rest of the world.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

These days, in our times of bully hating, if you 'sound' arrogant, then it is enough for people to not like you

Unless you say "You're holding it wrong!" Then they'll adore you.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[blair1q]

The temperature must be perfectly modulated. If it climbs so much as 1 degree above 72, you must supply an electric fan. God help you if the temperature reaches 75.

That part I totally get. Everyone's got that temperature where their body kicks into cooling mode and it's a bitch to sleep when that's happening because it's wigging-out your whole metabolism.

His just happens to be low, but he's lived in the cold all his life.

It sounds like he may have some other metabolic issues that could exacerbate it.

So if you want him to speak at your location, find him a hotel with enough A/C, but don't go out of your way if ambient is below 72 or if it's a little warmer and you can find a fan. He's actually giving the tropics a leg-up, there.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[drinkypoo]

This may mark me as even more of a tool than some people already think I am :D but I like RMS twice as much after reading his rider... especially the part about parrots. Also, the note about the Coke boycott. Humanity and integrity. Most riders are just shit like such and such brand of bread and whatnot.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[drinkypoo]

Maybe you're old. If you talk to teenagers or even college students these days, you can't say, "A, B C." You have to say, "A, and how do you feel about A? B, and what do you want about B? C, and is C alright for you?" If you don't take the other person into consideration, it will often be interpreted as arrogant.

Yeah, but...

This list is entirely about Richard Stallman. He doesn't apologize, doesn't inquire about the feelings of the other person, he states directly what he needs, and that's it. A lot of people will take that to be self-centered and arrogant.

No wait, let me finish! Yeah, but this is a million times nicer than what you usually get when someone is going to perform or speak for you, which is a big block of legalese constructed by a legal firm. Also, he makes no unreasonable demands (unless you consider dealing with someone who's a little OCD unreasonable, but I grew up with Santa Cruz geeks so maybe I'm not the one to judge) and provides reams of genuinely useful information about his expectations without actually including much more text than the average rider.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[murdocj]

Much of the document was quite reasonable. However, he could simply say "Please have Pepsi available" or "Please have tea with milk and sugar available". When he then spends paragraphs explaining under exactly what circumstances he drinks or when he adds sugar, he's saying way too much. What he wants gets obscured by the mass of words. It also reveals more than most people want to know about how his mind works. It's like there isn't any filter between what he's thinking and what he's writing.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[murdocj]

No, the message is clearly RMS soliciting speaking opportunities.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[euroq]

This is an awesome point.

However, on the contrary, I think that it is equally valid to say that RMS doesn't "get" how the world works. I personally think that is a big part of the picture (A. understanding the way the world works and B. disagreeing and wanting to change it), and likely the reason why there are so many people here on Slashdot (i.e. in the world) who are making fun of him.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

RMS gave us emacs. Of course he has no grip on how normal people work. Bill Joy gave us vi, while that's no better, he doesnt have a list of bizarre demands.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[zakkie]

If I had mod points, I'd mod you up, etc etc etc

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[phantomfive]

Yeah, in other words you are annoyed because of how he says it, not because of what he says. Take a chill pill.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[gmhowell]

Let's just say there's a lot of benefits to being or befriending good brewers.

To be honest, it's not all that hard to find a good small-scale brewery selling quality products, if you can be bothered to look. I buy mine from these guys, and they ship anywhere in U.S.

No, they don't. To be fair, it's not their fault. Each state can set their own laws regarding alcoholic beverage shipments. Many (including mine, Maryland) are bought and paid for by local distributors who don't want the competition.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[dyingtolive]

He's stating facts. He's stating his preferences for the purposes of planning getting him somewhere to talk. I couldn't be annoyed about that if I wanted to, because it's fact. That's how the guy is. Saying that I'm even annoyed is somewhat of a stretch, because I'm not. All I'm saying is that he's not just saying "A, B, and C" because he has long rants injected between each one. I'm simply pointing out the very thing that you're arguing that he's not doing is the very thing that he is. He rambles needlessly like my grandfather would.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

I have, I've tried quite a few beers, my brother-in-law likes his beers and gets various different ones, so I'll often try something different when I have a drink there, but I just don't think any of them taste nice. I'll drink beer if that is what is on offer and there is no cider available and I might prefer a wheat beer, but that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it for more than its alcohol content.

Re:This kinda pissed me off

[Anonymous Coward]

On the subject of the health effects of drinking, studies have shown drinking a small amount, say a small glass of wine or equivalent a day, is better than abstaining. But abstaining is better than drinking to excess.

Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[Le Grande Raoul]

To be fair, the "no brown M&Ms" requirement for Van Halen had a practical purpose. They were finding that a lot of their technical requirements- power supply, lights, venue personnel- were being ignored and problems cropped up when they came to a gig. Sooooo... Near the end of the contract rider- after the technical requirements- they put the 'bowl of M&Ms with no browns' item in as a check. If they found a bowl of M&Ms *with* browns in the dressing room, they directed their guys to go over anything with a fine toothed comb to make sure technical requirements were met because, obviously, the venue setup people did not read the entire rider. And, yes, they found technical problems when they had the "M&Ms with browns" in the dressing room.

Re:Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[FoolishOwl]

Clever. It's like a checksum.

Re:Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[TheSpoom]

Yep. And what are they going to do, tell everyone that it's part of their show technical blueprint and it's a check on the venue management? That would kind of ruin their rock star image.

Re:Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[Krishnoid]

Actually, if snopes is to be trusted, they didn't emphasize the 'blueprint' part as much, but were willing to go along with when the media spun it as part of their rock star image, so they didn't correct people when they assumed that.

Re:Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[bill_mcgonigle]

I seem to recall an EVH interview talking about how the lighting rig or the stage almost collapsed on them at one show. Something like a dozen semis would roll in to set up their stage.

I guess if I were working under 60 tons of glass and metal that was taken down and set up in different locations every few days, I'd want to make sure the details weren't being ignored too.

Re:Van Halen "no browns" explaination

[gmhowell]

According to Snopes, it was DLR. Not sure Eddie would have cared as long as there were clean needles available.

Old news

[Anonymous Coward]

I recall reading this on varlinux many years ago (unfortunately, the internal link is now gone, but Stallman's list was probably pretty similar, maybe a couple pages shorter than it is today).

Please refer to the #1 free software OS as "GNU/Linux", and please don't call it "open source"...

pronounciation

[Anonymous Coward]

> "GNU" is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g,
> like "grew" but with n instead of r.

One syllable? Clever troll.

Love this guy. Better than Comedy Central

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't care what people think of RMS. I love him even when I disagree with him. His quirkiness always makes me laugh:

The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the kernel Linux.

Reference:
https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developers-public/2011-October/007647.html

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Xtravar]

How much have we gained!? Notice how much he talks about "working" when he has time aka "furiously posting on forums and writing emails".

I can't believe I read that overly verbose nonsense. He writes about people wasting his time with formalities, but his rider is a waste of time with all that verbiage.

Free Software

[Jiro]

The whole thing has an excessive amount of "I don't like the open source movement, so even though the GNU stuff satisfies the definition of open source, don't you dare call it that."

Oh, the pronunciation of "GNU" is also stupid. Telling people to not pronounce it like the word reminds me of Raymond Luxury Yacht in Monty Python, whose name is pronounced "Throat Warbler Mangrove".

Re:Free Software

[nabsltd]

Oh, the pronunciation of "GNU" is also stupid.

It's also impossible to do as he says.

A hard "g" is a stop, so there must be a pause (however slight) after it, which means you have to end up with a two-syllable sound "guh-new".

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Sockatume]

Well, maybe if he had more niacin, he wouldn't be spending so much time on email.

I can't decide

[Minter92]

I can't decide if he's awesome or nuts. I am going with awesomely nuts.

Tour riders are fun

[Animats]

That's pretty mild as riders go. I used to have a girlfriend who was a roadie for heavy metal groups, and I've seen far more elaborate tour riders. If you live on the road and don't do that, you will be jerked around. Guaranteed.

The "no brown M&M" thing has a reason. One band did that as a quick check that their requirements were being met. They had a long list of technical requirements regarding stage equipment. If they showed up and there the M&M requirement had been botched, that usually meant something more important had also been botched.

Re:Tour riders are fun

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus christ. Anybody else want to explain what the brown M&M thing was about too? I don't quite feel like I get it after reading about it 27 times in the comments.

Re:Tour riders are fun

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, van Halen used to use that as a way to see if the rest of their requirements had been followed. If they found brown M&Ms in the bowl, it was a pretty safe bet that something else had been ignored too and they could then check over the equipment very carefully to avoid problems during the show.

Re:Tour riders are fun

[dyingtolive]

I think there's an explanation here: http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2498572&cid=37869564

Re:Tour riders are fun

[Krishnoid]

Here's the description with a little bit of accompanying history with attribution.

Re:Tour riders are fun

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, still not understanding the M & M thing. Perhaps if someone could kindly repost it maybe four or five more times, it might sink in.

Re:Tour riders are fun

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I work in entertainment, and find the RMS rider perfectly reasonable!

alot of these can be likened

[nimbius]

to the van-halen-esque"m&m" clauses of large bands or performance artists. some of it may seem pedantic, but its designed to ensure everyone on every level of the event is fully briefed and understands the context of the event. for Van-Halen it was to ensure things as simple as stage security and crowd safety didnt get overlooked. RMS is likely doing this to ensure miscommunications through the chain of event sponsors and organizers dont turn him into billy mayes, alienate his audience, dilute his message, or disappoint his sponsors.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Dunbal]

Most fatties don't eat breakfast. It's one of the first things nutritionists try to fix. I should know - I used to be a fatty 60 lbs ago. Now I eat breakfast.

music tastes

[phantomfive]

I thought this one was interesting:

I tend to like music that has a feeling of dance in it, but I sometimes like other kinds too. However, I usually dislike the various genres that are popular in the US, such as rock, country, rap, reggae, techno, and composed American "folk". Please tell me what unusual music and dance forms are present; I can tell you if I am interested.

Re:music tastes

[demonbug]

I thought this one was interesting:

I tend to like music that has a feeling of dance in it, but I
sometimes like other kinds too. However, I usually dislike the
various genres that are popular in the US, such as rock, country, rap,
reggae, techno, and composed American "folk". Please tell me what
unusual music and dance forms are present; I can tell you if I am
interested.

Polka it is, then.

first rule of breakfast club

[cthlptlk]

1. Do not talk about Breakfast Club.

Re:first rule of breakfast club

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean who doesn't like breakfast?

Re:first rule of breakfast club

[MooseDontBounce]

and if it's your first time at Breakfast Club... you have to eat.

Re:first rule of breakfast club

[Zebedeu]

RMS

The best part for me was

[dyingtolive]

This:

In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which is not a role I like. I start to worry that I might subject them to great burdens without even realizing.

Ironic?

Re:The best part for me was

[Anonymous Coward]

"So please be practical and go straight to the point." is worth a chuckle as well.

GNU/Linux

[MSesow]

I get that it is an important distinction between GNU/Linux and Linux, but there are very few things I find more difficult to pronounce in English than "GNU". I always feel like saying that is like tripping over a slightly raised edge in a sidewalk: moving along quite well until I suddenly stumble and feel like I am making some mistake as if I was just learning to walk (or talk). That is why I tend to just say, "Linux" (additionally, GNU/Linux will confuse a lot of people, and I do not always want to educate someone on the difference).

Re:GNU/Linux

[demonbug]

I get that it is an important distinction between GNU/Linux and Linux, but there are very few things I find more difficult to pronounce in English than "GNU". I always feel like saying that is like tripping over a slightly raised edge in a sidewalk: moving along quite well until I suddenly stumble and feel like I am making some mistake as if I was just learning to walk (or talk). That is why I tend to just say, "Linux" (additionally, GNU/Linux will confuse a lot of people, and I do not always want to educate someone on the difference).

What do you mean, GNU is easy to pronounce. All you have to do is ignore the self-absorbed ramblings of a semi-literate, and say "new".

Not that it is less confusing when pairing it with Linux, but then nobody outside of a dedicated few actually care if you include GNU anyway.

Re:GNU/Linux

[scharkalvin]

"NEW" is how you pronounce the animal.
"Guh NEW" is how you pronounce the name of the FSF organization.
What's so hard about that? Or do you have a problem with ANY word longer than one syllable?

Re:GNU/Linux

[Doctor Faustus]

there are very few things I find more difficult to pronounce in English than "GNU"

Try being a fan of Opeth.

Life on the road

[guanxi]

Traveling is wearing. Every little thing -- finding food to eat, a comfortable place to sleep, privacy, people to talk to -- is difficult. Usually you have to compromise and accept things you wouldn't do at home. If you travel a few times per year, it's no big deal; it's even part of the adventure.

If you travel continuously, and you've been doing it for years and that's all you have to look forward to, you might to try to find a way to obtain some reliable comforts of home while on the road and without the extra effort.

Re:Life on the road

[Anonymous Coward]

If you travel continuously, and you've been doing it for years and that's all you have to look forward to, you might to try to find a way to obtain some reliable comforts of home while on the road and without the extra effort.

Or I might start questioning whether traveling continuously for years on end is really a productive use of my time and lines up both with what I'm trying to accomplish and what I want out of life.

The problem I have with RMS at this point is, all he seems to do is rail against the way he doesn't want things to work. Every time some new commercial software lands on the scene that people flock to, the FSF reaction is the same: "Proprietary $FOO is evil, and you should demand better". What I don't see is any real, meaningful innovation coming from the FSF in software that meets the needs of the real-world users he keeps trying to preach to. Not to denigrate the work the FSF does actually support, but gcc isn't a replacement for a working cell phone, and I'm not about to inflict emacs on my mother. Usability and the ability to actually get work done are real features these days, and the FSF is still stuck in 1982 in a lot of ways.

Lead by example, try to put the resources of the FSF and MIT towards creating the future he wants to see, instead of riding the coat-tails of a few tools he wrote 30 years ago and crossing the world giving stump speeches complaining about people who actually are innovating software for consumers. Or for his less-computer centric problems, figure out how to revolutionize the wireless communication industry or protect common carrier travel infrastructure from legitimate terror threats while protecting the privacy of legitimate users.

The legend of the no-brown-M&Ms

[rudy_wayne]

"It's no secret that rock stars have riders — provisions on their contractual appearances that require a bowl of brown-free M&Ms

In an interview, Eddie Van Halen revealed the story behind the "no brown M&Ms" and it's not "OMG!! Wacky rock stars making crazy demands!!"

While on tour, Van Halen was having a lot of problems with the stage not being setup properly, particularly the electrical wiring, and they were concerned for the safety of their crew. So they put specific instructions in their rider, followed by "bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed". If they got to the venue and there was no bowl of M&Ms in the dressing room, they would know that nobody had bothered to read the stage setup instructions in their rider.

Re:The legend of the no-brown-M&Ms

[BasilBrush]

Wow! If that wasn't the 5th time some-one had posted that on this page, I'd never have known.

Re:The legend of the no-brown-M&Ms

[dex22]

It's widely known to be a little-known fact!

WHAT?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok now I definitively hate that hippie.

Folks seem pretty on board with this, but this one

[spads]

just made me laugh:

"Another method, which works very well in some places, is to allow people to attend gratis but charge for a certificate of attendance. If the certificate is given by an educational institution, many will find it useful for career advancement,..."

Wow, I would just love to find me one of those careers that would be helped by this RMS certificate THAT I HAD TO PAY FOR!!! lol

trolldot

[Beelzebud]

This site is becoming little more than flamebait. I have an idea, how about we post a story about RMS's views on climate change! That should really get some informed discussion going!

Sorry, you can go back to hippie-punching now.

Re:trolldot

[Anonymous Coward]

Leftist politics. That's where a lot of this derision stems from, but his detractors don't have the balls to admit that's the reason for their attacks, so they try to ridicule and discredit RMS over every trivial bit of bullshit they can dig up.

it's not a rider.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's a gig offer.

Benign psychological disorder ?

[perpenso]

RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.

I'm sorry but all this sounds more like a benign psychological disorder than some sort of moral code. Perhaps a little mania exists in many uncompromising crusaders.

The M&M's weren't about being quirky

[griff199]

In an interview on This American Life, John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants explained how the brown M&M's that Van Halen famously forbid were more like a "canary in a coal mine" - to ensure that all the stuff that *really* mattered had been read and taken seriously. If they screwed up something that simple - who knows what they had botched.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=386&act=0

sounds kinda like a DIA

[Anonymous Coward]

u can be picky, like things ur own way, but dont be a dick about it, especially before u even get there.
RMS = DIA (dick in advance)

Stallman Dialogues

[mhocker]

This is truly hilarious... http://thestallmandialogues.com/

Re:You misunderstand

[b4dc0d3r]

You misunderstand his position. He does not want to be the guy who goes around rehashing all of his ideas and convincing people of the same things over and over. He would prefer other people do that, and leave him time to think about and respond to new situations.

He is a trailblazer, and wants to dedicate his time towards new trails, not old ones. Have the same argument with different people over 20 years, and you'll tire of it too.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Anrego]

Yup!

When I made a serious effort to lose some poundage, this was something I fought against.. but once I got into it I noticed a definite difference (and also had a lot more energy).

(also cutting out the habitual daily pepsi was huge..)

Re:Folks seem pretty on board with this, but this

[Sir_Sri]

seems silly but it 'proves' you did at least spend a couple of hours listening to this guy talk, which can be enough to distinguish you from the other grad student who didn't bother to show.

Would this be inspirational to my SO?

[SpaghettiPattern]

I'm right now toying with the idea to show RMS' list to my SO.

Wouldn't it be nice to know exactly how to butter her parsnips? Knowing the right door to her boudoir? The precise combination to her highly sophisticated lock?

My love, stroke my left under arm (and not anything else.) Then proceed with a dignifying Riverdance-like performance (But be certain to either stamp with your right heel or your left toe. The left heel and right toe make me loose my appetite, so to speak.) Perform then as a medieval minstrel a raunchy song (But avoid any references to the Can Can. Regardless how witty these may be, they always make me have goose bumps.) Then you may proceed with the first part of undressing me and take off my left shoe while kissing me and cupping my right breast (indeed, refrain from anything else.) Etc... etc...

Maybe it's a cryptographic signature

[0x15e]

Has anyone considered this? Maybe this list of requirements is taken from a much larger list and different for every contract. Which requirements are chosen could basically be a generated signature so he could track if someone broke an NDA about his contract. I mean, it seems logical enough, given who we're talking about here.

who's the bully?

[Onymous Coward]

These days, in our times of bully hating, if you 'sound' arrogant, then it is enough for people to not like you, even if you're actually the nicest guy in the world.

Wow, that's really ironic, assuming you mean that RMS comes across as a bully for seeming arrogant.

Disdaining his weirdness and being mean towards him is bullying. Letting your fear and contempt of difference make you mock someone? That is bullying.

And arrogant? Nah, he's just rough around the edges. Veritably angular. He's further along the autie spectrum than most of we Slashdotters.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call the brother arrogant, I mean he got a social problem. What's the nigger gonna do? He's a nerd."

I'm sure this will offend you but

[jgotts]

...the more I read about Mr. Stallman the more I feel that he's a stand up guy.

I didn't read the whole rider (only about half) but everything there looked absolutely fine to me.

When you plan a conference, you really do want this kind of detail. The rider is a declarative statement. The intended audience doesn't care whether it seems rude or fails to use the word please. That's not the point. Think of it like software documentation. You want facts and thoroughness, not opinion.

Richard has selected a noble area of human endeavor to pursue, supporting openness in computer science. In order to make change in this society you have to offend people, and so his presentation is effective, if not necessarily deliberately so.

Discussing his personal habits or grooming habits is inappropriate. Software is supposed to be about the best ideas winning. And frankly, over time, virtually everything Richard Stallman has said, however disturbing to some people, has proven to be correct. This man is not affiliated with MIT for no reason.

Re:I'm sure this will offend you but

[Anonymous Coward]

And frankly, over time, virtually everything Richard Stallman has said, however disturbing to some people, has proven to be correct. This man is not affiliated with MIT for no reason.

Then why doesn't the FSF put more effort into promoting and proving *modern* free software as a workable solution to enable people who aren't RMS to live decent lives, and less time railing against people in the industry who actually build things other people want to use?

Don't run around the globe telling me my iPhone is evil, or that nobody should use a smart phone because a real "free" one doesn't exist. Take some of the resources of the FSF and MIT, and design an Open, Free OS that supports things real people want to do in their lives. Realize that Usability is an actual feature people expect of software these days, and computers aren't simply a toy provided by the CS department for nerds to play with and do their classwork on. Design a Free OS and software I can let my mother who doesn't have a degree in Computer Science use for the things she wants to use a computer for. Model an industry where I can spend my days writing free software and still feed my family, pay my rent, and buy the toys I want to play with when I'm not working. An economy where RMS writes free software and lives rent free in an office provided by MIT doesn't exactly scale to the rest of the world, nor do I have any interest in living like a poor graduate student for the entirety of my life.

Re:I'm sure this will offend you but

[jampola]

Backed. Couldn't have put it better myself.

You know what's uncanny?

[Anonymous Coward]

I just read the entire rider. Siri does a better job of simulating a human.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[tomhudson]

He lost his coding chops a couple of decades ago. The current emacs is a rebranded xemacs. The current gcc is a rebranded egcs. He also plays fast and loose with the facts. Contrary to his assertion that he grew up in the worlds' biggest city, he did not grow up in Tokyo, or Yokohama, or even Jakarta.

It's the same with his FUD against linux and android a couple of months ago, saying that they were risky for manufacturers because they weren't GPL3. Totally unfounded (and if linux were to switch to the gplv3, android would have to dump it for a bsd kernel).

With "friends" like that, ready to stab you in the back just to get some attention, who needs enemies?

Not so bad

[Mr. McGibby]

Not all of it is negative:

"But please DON'T make a hotel reservation until we have fully explored
other options. If there is anyone who wants to offer a spare couch, I
would much rather stay there than in a hotel (provided I have a door I
can close, in order to have some privacy). Staying with someone is
more fun for me than a hotel, and it would also save you money.

"My distaste for a hotel is less if it does not know my name, but
staying in a house with people is normally more enjoyable than staying
alone."

What a Tool

[mholve]

'Nuf said.

Totally false

[Pausanias]

He will gladly speak with you if you think free software is bad for society or ruins capitalism and that patents are necessary for innovation. What he *doesn't* want to do is re-argue useless conversations like free vs. open source, GNU/Linux vs. just Linux. Those points are not the points of his speeches and he doesn't want to rehash them during his species, hence asking that the events and reporters move beyond those particular issues. He's interested in the broader ethics, and nothing in the runner says that you should disinvite disagreers.

That having been said, I'm not letting him sleep on my couch.

Ummm, what's so special about this?

[jampola]

What's the fuss about? Seriously, who approves this hog wash?? TBH, I think it's quite inspiring. It's a well thought out list and if I were in that position, I would probably request a lot of what RMS did. I mean, he's allergic to cats, that's fine, he can't sleep if it's hotter than 23c, that's fine! He's normal. and sounds a lot more normal than the likes of SJ! Nothing is out of the ordinary and I found it quite funny that he would refuse using a non-free driver to operate a wireless card! All in all, RMS is quite normal stand up guy!

Re:Ummm, what's so special about this?

[KozmoStevnNaut]

It could have been much much worse. The Smoking Gun have posted some real horrorshow pop/rap star riders. The sense of entitlement those people have is absoutely mindboggling.

RMS comes off quite reasonable in comparison, if a little overspecific, quirky and dare I say it, mildly autistic?

Re:Ummm, what's so special about this?

[jampola]

I get the whole Autistic quip since, you know, he did eat a bit of junk off his foot once - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

Van Halen rider

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure wish someone would post something about the similar Van Halen rider and why it included a prohibition on brown M&Ms. I don't know why no one's mentioned that yet.

reading the article (I know, I know...)

[KingAlanI]

Can't really fault him for no-nonsense upfront detailed planning. A lot of it is garden-variety logistics, but even when he's discussing issues related to his ideological zealotry, at least he's being clear what he expects.

I liked it

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just RMS.

His important points are very important, and he's unwilling to compromise.

He doesn't want to waste his time, and he makes that very clear.

Otherwise it's a reasonable, logical list of requests, and he offers guidance on the more difficult aspects. All while politely, if stubbornly, stating why he has these goals, and why they are important details to what he stands for.

I use free software, open software, and closed proprietary software (but nothing from Apple).

I really like and respect RMS.

Even Keeled

[Gyorg_Lavode]

Seems pretty even keeled to me. It's not demanding a lot. It simply reflects a few things he's passionate about and then helps people understand him. Can't fault a guy for saying he gets hot at night and is alergic to cat.

The man is trouble

[Anonymous Coward]

When RMS came to give a talk to my friends computer society he ended up wanting to stay at my friends house instead of the hotel room that was booked for him. He got wrecked drunk and vomited on my friends couch and then tried to blame someone else. Guy was a mess.

Re:The man is trouble

[madprof]

When RMS came to talk in Oxford way way back he was staying in the house of one of the OxLUG people. I remember him giving me advice on how to avoid my housemates' very loud party by hiding in a library.
Obviously he was his own unique character, and I've never met anyone quite like him, but the world needs people like him as much as other kinds of people.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Anonymous Coward]

None.

noise filter

[meeotch]

Please don't be surprised if I pull out my computer at dinner and
begin handling some of my email. I have difficulty hearing when there
is noise; at dinner, when people are speaking to each other, I usually
cannot hear their words.

Isn't this a symptom of autistic spectrum disorders? I know it's trendy for everyone in the geek world to claim Asperger's these days... But I know that I personally can have trouble filtering signal from noise in crowded environments, and that such environments make me particularly anxious.

Re:noise filter

[KozmoStevnNaut]

It happens to me sometimes as well, and I've never been diagnosed with any sort of autistic disorder. However, I am a loner and don't mind it, so I may be an extremely mild case.

There is no doubt in my mind that RMS is quite autistic, though. Read the rider, even small things like compulsively describing his likes and dislikes in surprising detail scream "autism!" to me.

Re:noise filter

[bjourne]

It is, and the rest of the specification points in that direction too although it is very eloquently written. I'd be more surprised if rms wasn't atleast somewhat autistic than if he weren't.

Re:noise filter

[qxcv]

Please don't be surprised if I pull out my computer at dinner and
begin handling some of my email. I have difficulty hearing when there
is noise; at dinner, when people are speaking to each other, I usually
cannot hear their words.

Hearing difficulty of this sort is actually quite common, Wikipedia even has a page on "King-Kopetzky syndrome" which seems to describe it perfectly.

Re:noise filter

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife after four ear surgeries has trouble distinguishing noise when it gets at all moderately noisy. As a general rule more then 5 or 6 people even if they are all trying to be considerate and speak one at a time is hard for her to distinguish over the background noise of people eating. We over the years have found options to mitigate the problems if we have to but still it's just easier to avoid large dinner parties if we can.

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My interpretation

[lengel]

How I read the VERY long post:

Free, free, free (keep repeating over and over again, the "postercomments" compression filter does not allow me to produce the visual effect)

Buy my book.

Free, free, free (keep repeating over and over again, the "postercomments" compression filter does not allow me to produce the visual effect)

Are you kidding me?

[Brannon]

The unfaltering adolation of the smug technorati has destroyed any sense of shame or social awareness Stallman ever had; what's left is a barely functional self-absorbed idealogue.

Re:Are you kidding me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are we back on Steve Jobs again? Dude, let it go.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[clampolo]

I lost 60 lb as well. Did it without eating breakfast. From what I've read all that matters is daily caloric intake, not when you take in your calories.

It's not just what you say, but how

[SuperBanana]

It reads like a list of his negative experiences. Especially the bit about parrots.

The document shows an unbelievably narcissistic man-child with grandiosity problems who is a technological dinosaur, has no social skills, and fails to recognize that he is an ambassador, not a king.

It's long since been time that the FSF found a new ambassador - someone who doesn't, for example, consider themselves to be hassled by having dinner with 'more than four people'.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[hazah]

I've actually met a "narcissistic man-child with grandiosity problems". RMS is not one. Not even close. Perhaps you should read up about the definition of the word before you start foaming at the mouth.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[tomhudson]

I've actually met a "narcissistic man-child with grandiosity problems". RMS is not one. Not even close. Perhaps you should read up about the definition of the word before you start foaming at the mouth.

The OP was actually being nice compared to the reality that is RMS. "Narcissistic man-child with basic lapses of hygiene that even a 6-year-old "gets" (like picking his boogers or toe jam and eating it in public is a "no-no") who lost his ability to code more than a decade ago, and as a result is doing everything he can to demean programmers, even those who contribute to F/LOSS, if they don't slavishly accept his now-failed idea that "the GPL is the only acceptable license" is more like it.

The GPL has failed. It has created software that is LESS, not more, free. Most of the really useful stuff (apache, firefox, php, mysql, android, chrome, openoffice, qt) either uses a different license, or a license exception that doesn't require copyleft redistribution of the source code of modifications.

The two successful consumer OSes? Windows and OSX (derived from FreeBSD). Even WalMart, who can sell pretty much ANYTHING, couldn't sell a discount $200 Linux PC - the returns ate any profit. But they can sure move a wad of 64gig iPad2s at $829 and even gaming laptops running Windows at $1,500.00.

Heck, the GPL doesn't even conform to the requirements of free software listed on the FSF home page.

Smart people learn from their mistakes. REALLY smart people learn from other people's mistakes. RMS? He's the #1 example of "open source for closed minds."

The GPL removes the financial incentives, and that's why we've never had a year of the linux desktop, and never will.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[Anonymous Coward]

Smart people learn from their mistakes. REALLY smart people learn from other people's mistakes. RMS? He's the #1 example of "open source for closed minds."

Stallman hates open-source, if you said that in front of him he'd bit off your head. Read this https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

The GPL removes the financial incentives, and that's why we've never had a year of the linux desktop, and never will.

And that's why Red Hat is broke. Oh, wait, they aren't.

The two successful consumer OSes?

Their success is more because of marketing than anything else (Apple's OS at least doesn't look painful to use, I'll give you that, something that can't be said of #1). Or you really think the average person would find it difficult to read their emails in Ubuntu?

But, hey, it's cool to hate on Stallman so feel free to go on.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[tomhudson]

First, like I said, Stallman doesn't get to control the definition of "open source". And he's welcome to try to "bite my head off" - except that he's afraid of dogs that are too big to kill with one good kick, and mine are big enough to bite *his* head off.

The GPL removes the financial incentives, and that's why we've never had a year of the linux desktop, and never will.

And that's why Red Hat is broke. Oh, wait, they aren't.

I guess you forgot that RedHat got out of the consumer desktop market years ago They make (some of) their money selling a support package with their "enterprise desktop", but most of it is support contracts for servers and middleware. So thanks for proving my point that even the #1 player in linux can't figure out how to make money selling GPL software all by itsself, and especially not linux desktops.

Linux on the desktop is dead. Even the holdouts (I've been using it since slackware 3.1 or 3.2 - 12 floppies) are facing the fact that it's a dead end on the consumer front because of the hundreds of forks and the constant breakage and the poor licensing scheme.

Or you really think the average person would find it difficult to read their emails in Ubuntu?

The "average person" wants to do more than read emails. For that, and surfing the web, they have their iPhone and iPad. The vast majority of people still using desktops and laptops have at least one "must-have" or "really really wanna have" program that just will NOT run under linux. For them, linux is a non-starter.

Linux on the desktop is the guy on star trek with the red shirt. At some point, you know what McCoy is going to say. And a large part of that is because the GPL discourages profit from "pure software plays."

If its so great, why didn't it take hold when you could buy a $200 linux desktop machine from WallyWorld during the Vista days? Fact: It died because of the inability to run most software. Why aren't online vendors like Dell really pushing their Linux offerings, instead of burying them? Because of it's inability to run most software.

In both cases, the cost of returns kills it for them. You *literally* cannot give a linux computer away nowadays. Don't believe it? Take that tired Windows XP machine, throw a desktop distro on it to "give it new life", and try to give it away. Nobody wants it after you tell them that it won't run most of their programs. "Well, you can use it to read email and surf the web - IF you can get it to connect. But forget about your multi-function printer, even if it says that it supports linux on the box, because it probably doesn't".

Linux is great for infrastructure, but as a consumer OS, it's not gonna happen. Instead, someone will either throw a layer of proprietary stuff atop it, or do like Apple did, build atop BSD. Then they can actually make money on sales of the package itself, instead of just support, which consumers won't pay for.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[drinkypoo]

The GPL has failed. It has created software that is LESS, not more, free.

and yet it has created more software. Perhaps the GPL has not failed.

The two successful consumer OSes? Windows and OSX (derived from FreeBSD).

Android is rapidly gaining ground; it's not threatening either of those operating systems yet but it has the potential to do so because of the candy coating. And while it's not mostly GPL, it's still built on a GPL base. That's actually the most important part, because if you can get the Linux kernel running on the hardware, the hardest part has been done for you — by definition you're going to be able to get enough information about the hardware to boot the kernel, in the form of source code, which is a great basis for reverse-engineering of the rest of the system.

The GPL removes the financial incentives, and that's why we've never had a year of the linux desktop, and never will.

Desktops are going away more and more rapidly. Less and less people are interested in owning one. As more people begin to carry around dual- and quad-core cellphones with video outputs, they're going to want to use those more of the time, and as most people spend most of their time consuming rather than producing media, it's turning out that tablets are rather popular and applicable after all now that the interface technology is satisfactory, unlike the days of tethered pens. And of the contenders in mobile computing, the field is being divided between the camps of BSD, GPL (kernel anyway) and closed source just as everything else has.

Re:It's not just what you say, but how

[tomhudson]

Android can run atop BSD with a bit of work (after all, if you can boot linux on it, you can get the info you need to boot another OS). You can be sure that Google has that as a "Plan B" (one of many - another one being to allow .java source files (as opposed to java .class files) to be converted to run under the dalvek VM). The switch is always just one lawsuit / injunction away.

In fact, doing so (and dumping the dalvek VM for java source being translated into c source) would allow for a few things:

1. The use of position-independent binary code would eliminate a whole family of malware exploits;
2. The speedup of using native code would allow for parallel execution of the same instructions on two independent cores - if the results differ at any sequence point, you either have a hardware failure or you've been p0wned. It's been done by mainframes for quite some time;
3. It would allow for languages other than java to be used;
4. Compilation of the source on servers run by the marketplace would allow for the application of more heuristics, for example, to detect when a program contains code that wants to ask for privileges it shouldn't by some round-about technique. It would also allow for automatic updates when a bug is found, rather than the developer having to push them out. And code would be signed as known-good.
5. The same techniques would allow the same source to be cross-compiled for other markets/devices, such as Apple's iOS and WP7 (one source to rule them all!), encouraging jailbreaking and side-loading on those devices :-)

In the long run, it's not about the underlying operating system - not even the underlying hardware, past a certain point. It's about running programs people want to run - and they don't care if part of the underlying technology is linux or bsd or darwin or integrity or microware os-9 or qnx or whatever.

Also, your chart is misleading - it fails to include *any* count of closed-source / non-free programs, which greatly outnumber "free" programs. And you missed my point - that software licensed under the GPL is less free than, for example, software licensed under the BSD or MIT or Apache licenses. The GPL doesn't meet any of the 4 freedoms listed on the home page of the fsf (fsf.org). It contains restrictions (first freedom listed), including restrictions on sharing (second freedom listed - "you must provide yadda yadda yadda "), restrictions on adaptation (third freedom listed ex: linking) and restrictions on working with others (fourth freedom listed ex: linking, distribution, combining with non-copyleft software).

If it's so successful, why is it that even Walmart failed with their $200 linux PC when everyone was fed up with Vista? It's because the linux desktop is a real mess. On this laptop, which worked fine on a fresh install, sound regularly goes to 100% of one core and requires me to kill the process and delete a few files, wireless was nuked by 2 separate upgrades and is no longer recoverable, programs that use the QT libraries will sometimes go into an infinite loop and have to be killed, it keeps telling me that my battery is broken (even though it works just fine and gives hours of use when I forget to plug it in, same as when it was new), and I had to kill off and delete both the "display notifications in the panel" and "indexing dis-service" because they ended up also being total cpu hogs.

Couple that with random times where X goes to 100%, random 5-second pauses where everything just stops (but top doesn't show why), random failures in other desktops that I have to use until a new patch comes out that fixes some of the worst behaviours, frequent failures on calls to painting the window client area on many apps, despite disabling compositing, and the linux desktop is definitely not ready for consumer use, never mind that it can't even run most of the programs that people want to use.

Heck, just go look at all the "features" that the l

Hey, that guy smells funny! Let's get him!

[mike260]

The guy wrote emacs and gcc and created GNU against all odds out of pure bloody-minded stubbornness. You really think he deserves to be ridiculed for whatever social weirdness you wankers ascribe to him?

Like, when the f**k did Slashdot become "News for Jocks"?

Re:Hey, that guy smells funny! Let's get him!

[voidptr]

Umm, yes. When the only notable accomplishments he's done are 30 years old at this point, and all he does now is go on tour telling people that anything anyone's done with computers since then, that actually enable the common person to use them and do things they enjoy, are evil?

emacs and gcc aren't a usable computer system for 99.9999% of the population. Stop telling me my iPhone is evil, and go find an actual productive way to create a world where free software is just as usable for the day-to-day tasks commercial authors have figured out how to provide, and can be an innovative force in the future. Just doing a half-assed job copying Apple and Microsoft 5 - 10 years after they ship isn't useful to the rest of us.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[Anrego]

Like everything else in health, there seems to be no concensus, so I can only go on my own personal experience ..

Whether or not it made a serious difference in weight loss directly, I can't say.

The increase in energy though.. maybe placebo effect.. or maybe I falsely attributed the effects of the other stuff I was doing (excersize, eating a little better, trying to get more sleep) ..

At the very least I think it's definitely hyped up more than it should be. I'll admit I bought into the hype at the time (everyone was saying it.. ). If it makes any difference, it's probably not as dramatic as it's been made out to be.

Interestingly though, while the thought of food used to turn me right off in the morning.. I've come to very much enjoy it now.

The brain is weird..

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[lgw]

The human body is not a furnace - how and what you eat matters a lot. Once you've eliminated snacks, and are eating only to sate hunger, how and what you eat probably matters more than calorie count. You burn a lot of calories just sitting around, and that burn rate changes a lot with eating habits. Starve-and-binge is particularly bad, but in general working things out so that you don't feel loggy after meals, or have other low-energy times, is pretty important. Or you can just excercise a lot, which trumps all that jazz.

Why the Ubuntu hate?

[Clueless Moron]

"Please do not mention non-free GNU/Linux distros (for instance, Ubuntu) in the publicity for the event."

What's behind this? What's non-free about Ubuntu?

Re:Why the Ubuntu hate?

[mapsjanhere]

They bundle drivers with the distro that are not free (in his mind, they don't cost anything, but that's not free). Which is why you can use your wireless on Ubuntu, and RMS can not.

Re:Why the Ubuntu hate?

[Nemo137]

Ubuntu provides support for non-free software (proprietary drivers, and the like). Stallman has views on this.

Re:Why the Ubuntu hate?

[AdamWill]

It's not really Ubuntu specific; I suspect they use Ubuntu as the example just because it's the one most organizations are actually likely to want to mention.

The FSF's list of free Linux distros - https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html - is pretty short and, well, not comprised of the distros that first spring to your mind, probably.

FSF does have a well-maintained and reasonably phrased listing of why they don't consider most major distros free:

https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html

Biggest City?

[TaBuNiW]

Mr. Stallman grew up in Tokyo (biggest city in all categories except...) or Shanghai (..proper)? Somehow I doubt this...

Linguistics disagree, so does western Europe

[Anonymous Coward]

A hard "g" does not imply a stop in most western European languages (English excluded).

For example, Dutch is full of "gn" sounds and it is hard to imagine a harder "g" than that. No stop, however, just a fluid transition from "g" to "n".

OK I'll bite.....

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

What makes him think he's important enough to need a rider? He's not David Lee Roth.

Re:OK I'll bite.....

[Dzimas]

It isn't a legal contract rider. It's an email that he asks people who hire him as a speaker to read, and most of the stuff in it is entirely reasonable. He likes good tea (but travels with his own, too), is mildly allergic to cats, doesn't mind well-behaved small dogs, doesn't eat breakfast, is fine flying economy class, doesn't enjoy going out for dinner with large groups of people, likes well-cared for parrots and prefers to stay with locals rather than hotels. These are all good things to know.

Re:OK I'll bite.....

[murdocj]

It's great to know he prefers Pepsi over coke, but he makes it sound like you have to judge exactly how tired he is, because he doesn't want the Pepsi around if he isn't tired because he doesn't want to consume the extra sugar, but if he is tired, you better have it available, and god forbid you would offer him a different soft drink, or a diet soda. Basically he could just say "have a couple of cans of Pepsi available" but apparently his mind just doesn't work that way.

This is small time ...

[Anonymous Coward]

If any of you have any experience in concert promoting, I've been backstage with guys who are less known then RMS who asked for more extravagant things for their rider. When I read this, I was actually a bit surprised how low key it was. It reads like a diary of "awkward experiences".

Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Imagine that you stayed with new people every night of the week. And let's say, twice a week, at the dinner table, someone made something for you that you absolutely despise, or even worse, are allergic to. Now, imagine the emotion you feel after telling the cook, who word slavishly on the dinner for the honored guest, that their food isn't what you want to eat. To make the odd exception here and there is common courtesy, but to do this everyday, that can be emotionally detrimental.

I think RMS posting his boundaries might be bad for the reputation a bit (most people will take it out of context) but it's actually really smart that he does this for his own sake.

crossing streats

[Anonymous Coward]

Please just leave me alone when I cross streets.

I'm sorry, but as someone who has showed americans around parts of Ireland and the UK, I have severe doubts there - most countries drive on the right, and so americans tend look in the wrong direction when crossing the road (we drive on the left) and often have near misses. Of course similar applies when we visit other countries.

"Busy" traffic in third world countries may look chaotic, but is typically very slow moving traffic, too. If you get "hit", you get a bruise. Cross the motorway feeder from a deserted-looking northern english estate looking the wrong way, and you might suddenly get splatted by a speeding heavy goods vehicle.

I'm still confused...

[Jack Fat]

Why did Van Halen insist that RMS wear brown when he sat on the bowl?

Ignatius Reilly

[Anonymous Coward]

Please note that my pyloric valve will shut should I be subjected to any improper geometry and theology.

Wow

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

$: wc stallman.txt
1161 9089 51706 stallman.txt

And that was an edited version that removed the other email and some useless footers.

Some of it is just him being picky (does he have Aspergers too?); some is nice (prefers to couch surf than hit hotels).
Some is dickish - can we just drop the GNU/Linux thing? Linux is Linux, there's so much software in there now that's non-FSF that the original justification for it is gone. And him clinging to this so much looks petty.

Re:Wow

[drinkypoo]

If you performed the same analysis on the average entertainment rider, it'd be in about four lines, because it's in legalese and they may or may not break lines for new sections.

I've also seen some that are just a bullet list, but only from really old people.

On Food and touching...

[MarcQuadra]

> I sure wouldn't like some guy touching my food before I eat it

I love this idea that people seem to have that food is somehow at all 'clean'. Everything about food except for the part when the server brings it to you or the stockboy puts it on the shelf is hands-on and 'unsanitary' by most people's understanding.

I've fished commercially before. Do you know what the back-end of that market is like? Imagine a football-field sized warehouse with two or three inches of fish-gut water flowing by while strange-looking dudes poke and prod your fish and offer prices.

Those bags of chickpeas at the falafel place are sitting on the sidewalk for a good fifteen minutes, where thousands of people walk, hundreds spit, and several piss or vomit every day.

It's not a big deal, the world is awash with benign germs, they're not going to kill you. The stuff that will make you sick is the real nasty germs found in spoiled meats and such, not the harmless stuff on all of our hands.

In reality, someone picking through a bag of M&Ms isn't at all unsanitary or unsettling.

Re:On Food and touching...

[Zebedeu]

Don't get me wrong. I lived in Asia for 1/3rd of my life, so I developed two things: a strong resistance to germs, and a strong sense of not wanting to know what's in my food.

If I can't see it, it won't hurt me. Doesn't mean I want to see it (or want to know about it) though :-)

Re:On Food and touching...

[tomhudson]

In reality, someone picking through a bag of M&Ms isn't at all unsanitary or unsettling.

It depends on who's doing the picking. What if it was RMS after he finished eating his boogers or his toe cheese?

Re:On Food and touching...

[kmoser]

Depending on where he was picking the M&Ms out of, all of them could have been brown.

My favorite video of RMS talk is this one:

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow... looks tasty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

How anyone can take seriously anything this guy says is beyond me!

Better if they constantly changed the colors

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure it's purely a no-browns rule? Then it would be easy for organizers to simply take note of that little quirk. It would be better if the color of the "banned" M&Ms varied randomly by contract, that is, one contract would forbid green M&Ms, another blue M&Ms. That way, they can catch if the "cheating" organizer was merely told by a third party that Van Halen "hated" brown M&Ms or the organizer read the entire contract to find out that for that particular concert no yellow M&Ms are to be served

The Man Behind the Legend

[jmhysong]

I really enjoyed reading his message.

I have been familiar with the free software movement and have heard about RMS for a long time but I never really knew much about the man himself. I mean we all know about his work and his ideology but what is the guy really like?

I think this email gives us a good peek into who RMS is as a person. I think it really shows him in a good light as a genuine, generous, and down to earth guy who really believes in his cause. I respect and like him more after having read this email.

Molehill - Mountain

[EdgeCreeper]

The amount of passion that such an unimportant thing to others not directly involved with RMS talks is just amazing. The old phrase "making a mountain out of a molehill" is completely apt here.

Folk Dancing

[shking]

I read the rider years ago, when he spoke to our unix users group... and had to check and see if the folk dancing clause is still there. It is.

Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once

[euroq]

That is incorrect.

If you ate the same amount of calories in one meal for breakfast instead of the same amount of calories spread out over the day, you would lose weight. Google metabolism.

Agreed

[Anonymous Coward]

His list very exacting and funny, but not necessarily demanding. "Tea would be nice. Milk and sugar would be nice. I don't require business class."

It is a bit demanding to expect people to read that whole list, but if he's giving a talk for you, it really isn't too much to ask for.

Strange

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know Stallman was born in Tokyo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_by_population)

Nothing objectionable here. . .

[dogsbreath]

The RMS list is quite reasonable. He explains what he does and doesn't do and gives succinct explanations. His demands are easy to provide for.

Overall, RMS is a bit specific but nothing onerous and nothing particularly weird. Just reads to me like he has done so many talks and travelled to so many places that he has it all down pat and would prefer that whoever happens to be the host does not foist their own experience or desires onto RMS.

I can speak in English, French, and Spanish.

[Pascal Sartoretti]

From TFA :

I can speak in English, French, and Spanish.

I saw RMS at my alma mater for a speech in French, and I am sorry to have to say that, although his command of the French language is good, it is not good enough for the complexity of the subjects that he talks about. His speech was useless.

you're right.. and wrong.

[gosand]

I saw a lot of RMS haters posting this and making fun of him for being a demanding ass. In particular, a lot of popular Mac people on Twitter were laughing at him for being a prima donna. I just don't get it. His requests are basically:

1. 
       Don't misrepresent my position by describing me as advocating something I'm not
       I'm not rich, so don't make me pay for stuff out of my own pocket because I can't afford to.
       I'd much rather sleep on someone's couch and hang out with locals than be chauffeured around and entertained constantly.

I don't think any of those are unreasonable at all.

You're right. But he didn't say those things. He said a lot more than that, in bizarre and excruciating detail. This isn't some off-the-cuff email he sent, this was his official communication! Is anyone supposed to seriously remember all of that stuff? It is funny and ridiculous. Don't think so? Check this out and see if you get a chuckle: http://thestallmandialogues.com/ . RMS basically needs to lighten up. I feel bad for the guy, sounds like he's incapable of enjoying himself.