A conversation with Richard M Stallman

In the early and initial days (when open source, free software, and Linux were the same for me), I used to think of Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( STAWL-mən; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software which ensures these freedoms is termed free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote all versions of the GNU General Public License. , known as RMS, in comparison with Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled, or venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world. . One math professor there (at Cochin University of Science and Technology) gave a brief introduction and said that he feels RMS is comparable to Mahatma Gandhi.

RMS closed his eyes with shyness.Then he came to the microphone and said, "Well, I and my movement cannot be compared with Gandhi's because I do not have the courage that Gandhi had {I clapped here}, and the free software movement is not yet as successful as Gandhi's movement was."

Then it started with an explanation of the Free Software Movement and the GNU GNU ( GNOO) is an extensive collection of free software (394 packages as of June 2024), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux. Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL). operating system. There was a lot of hackerish humor in between. For example: RMS said, "If you know how to swim, and you see a person drowning in a pool, and it is not Bush, wouldn't you save him?" This was in reference to helping your neighbor by sharing software, which is one of the freedoms provided by free software.

Moving on to serious issues, RMS said, "Idealism is practical. The people who say that idealism is not possible are wrong. If you have a long-range goal, you either need to have an ideal or lots of money. It is because of idealism that nations like India and the US exist."

The Q/A session followed. I had noted a few points to be asked/discussed:

  • About Don Hopkins.
  • About the MIT lab allowing RMS to program and start GNU after he had quit MIT.
  • About the teaching profession instead of being a waiter (as he mentioned in his speech).
  • Thanks for GNU Emacs GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU project and a flagship project of the free software movement. .
  • About Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( kə-NOOTH; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer science. Knuth has been called the "father of the analysis of algorithms". and his perception of computer science, which is different.
  • Why not GNU Hurd GNU Hurd is a collection of microkernel servers written as part of GNU, for the GNU Mach microkernel. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation, designed as a replacement for the Unix kernel, and released as free software under the GNU General Public License. When the Linux kernel proved to be a viable solution, development of GNU Hurd slowed, at times alternating between stasis and renewed activity and interest. ? Why is it still not happening?
  • Argentina and Germany, where lots of politics have crept into software.
  • Free software having a free market.
  • Bash (Unix shell) In computing, Bash (short for "Bourne Again SHell,") is an interactive command interpreter and command programming language developed for UNIX-like operating systems. Created in 1989 by Brian Fox for the GNU Project, it is supported by the Free Software Foundation and designed as a 100% free alternative for the Bourne shell (sh) and other proprietary Unix shells. - the best shell.
  • The GNU C library was developed by a 17-year-old - RMS didn't name him in the speech; I need to find links on it.
  • Which search engine do you use?
  • The fun of computer science is lost in the preaching and politics of free software. - Read this thought, and so on.

I started by asking, "Which search engine do you use?"

RMS replied: "None."

I could not proceed further, so I elaborated,

"When on cyberspace and you want to find something, which search engine do you use?"

He said: "I don't use any search engine because it is software running on their computer on their server, and I do not have any control over that."

I responded, "But many people, including me, use a search engine."

RMS replied: "It's up to you. I have chosen not to use any proprietary software and only use free software."

"By using search and the internet, I could locate information like OpenCourseWare provided by MIT."

RMS replied: "OpenCourseWare is not under a free license."

"But it improves the life of humanity."

RMS responded: "Yes, it improves the life of humanity, but it is not under a free license."

Later on, it became apparent that many more questions were to be asked by the audience. Questions about HURD followed, and he said that they are technical questions and that you should solve them. After having gotten an autograph in the GNU GPL and Free Software, Free Society book,

Do you still have contact with Don Hopkins?

RMS: At times.

What is he doing now? RMS: I don't know.

Do you think that things like WSF (I think, World Social Forum) will be able to combat Bush's policies? RMS: I don't know, but I am just doing it.

According to Indian philosophy, you need strength to combat strength.

RMS: (Agreeing to Indian thought) Yes, there should be more people. Why not you join in?

Hope you do more programming this year. Have fun with programming.

RMS: I need to talk about the free software philosophy. I don't get time to program these days.

But you are a guru, a master programmer.

RMS: (Nodding) Yes, but there are a lot of people programming, and very few talking about these matters.

  • Happy hacking.

RMS does not use anything other than free software. I do not know much about myself. I am not completely aligned with his views, but I respect RMS a lot.

There were newspaper articles regarding the Malayalam font released on that day. I just had a brief talk with the person. This Hindu article is about Maddog visiting India at SGI premises, Matthew Scheulk having a phone conversation with President APJ Abdul Kalam, and visiting India and RMS at WSF and Kerala.