Richard Stallman

Richard Matthew Stallman, a.k.a. RMS, (born March 16, 1953) is the founder of the free software movement, the GNU project, and the Free Software Foundation. He is also a renowned hacker, whose major accomplishments include GNU Emacs, the GNU C Compiler, and the GNU Debugger. He is also the author of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL), the most widely-used free software license, which pioneered the concept of the copyleft.

Criticism

Stallman is characterized by some as being extremely difficult to work with. The XEmacs team, in particular, has catalogued a list of specific complaints about working with RMS that led them to fork off their project. http://www.xemacs.org/Documentation/21.5/html/internals_4.html These complaints include both technical critiques and interpersonal ones, specifically the allegation that Stallman's attitude towards compromise is motivated primarily by politics rather than by the desire to reach the best technical solution. Jamie Zawinski released an archive of email messages detailing the history of the FSF Emacs/XEmacs split.http://www.jwz.org/doc/lemacs.html He discusses specific shortcomings of the FSF Emacs design, but at a high level attributes the problems with FSF Emacs not simply to technology, but to Stallman's perceived inability to work with others. Stallman's own view of the XEmacs split differs considerably, and describes the XEmacs team as being uncooperative.http://stallman.org/articles/xemacs.origin.

Related Topics:
XEmacs - Jamie Zawinski

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Stallman's insistence on using the term "GNU/Linux" to describe Linux-based operating systems is perceived as high-handed by some; Larry McVoy, author of Bitkeeper characterized this as "foolish and greedy".http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9904.0/0301.html. Linus Torvalds has opined that while GNU/Linux may be an appropriate name for a GNU-based distribution, using that name for Linux in general is "just ridiculous." Others believe that Stallman is trying to coopt the hard work of others to compensate for the failure of the HURD.http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0301.1/1883.html. RMS's rejoinder to this is that "the GNU Project is the principle developer" of "the system", and that other elements of the system (including the kernel) are "secondary contributions."http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html. Still others point out that the demand to prepend the "GNU" name onto Linux gives short shrift to other software projects, such as the X Window System, that are arguably just as important as GNU.http://www.ties.org/deven/gnu-linux.html http://www.usermode.org/docs/gnulinux.html. Stallman responds that this is illogical, as X11 gets no less credit from the name "GNU/Linux" than it gets from "Linux" alone.http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html#many.

Related Topics:
Larry McVoy - Bitkeeper - Linus Torvalds - HURD - X Window System

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Stallman's relatively small circle of exposure, chiefly the free software and open source communities, provide the cover that allows him to be an iconoclast. His antics include the so-called sobriquet "St. Ignucius" / "St. IGNUcius" (of the Church of Emacs).

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