Richard M. Stallman (placeholder)

During Finncon-Baltcon scifi convention in 14-15.7.2001 in Jyväskylä, Finland. It was interesting to listen his speech about free software. He was also talking about need for open source software for mobile phones and other devices (so users could trust those somewhat more because they would know better what they do).

RMS visited the University of Canterbury sometime around the turn of the century. We invited him to the KAOS 48hr party afterwards, it was pretty raucous and he seemed to have a good time. I apologized for being a spawn of Satan windows programmer, and he said “You are not the spawn of Satan…but you are a Sinner” and someone else said “Yeah, the spawn of Satan’s over there” (pointing at JSR….long story)

He gave a talk at my school – it was pretty interesting, and I agreed with a lot of what he said. He was pretty funny, but also very defensive… or maybe defensive isn’t the right word. Whenever someone questioned or challenged him he became excessively agitated and basically interrupted and argued the person down in an alienating manner that actually made me want to disagree with him. For a cause that needs people united, I think that’s kind of unfortunate.

Uniforum NZ, 1999

In one of his many (and great) talks about GNU/Linux (always remember the GNU!), freedom, life, the universe and NOT saving Bush if he were drowning.

It’s not hard to meet Stallman. He travels around a great deal, and he’s willing to discuss his views with people. I met him when he spoke at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. He is very passionate about free software.

I met RMS when I was in college back in 1993. He was on a tour, talking about patents, and I was one of the people running the ACM chapter at the school, so I was involved in getting everything set up.

The lecture ended up being on the day of my birthday, and after the lecture, we went to lunch at this Tibetan restaurant. A couple of grad students were asking questions about the next version of emacs, and he wasn’t into talking about it at all. But suddenly, I somehow mentioned the fact that you needed an ID card to get into the computer labs, and he went on this huge tirade about how all machines were free, and how we should find a way to disable the lock systems.

He sang happy birthday to me, but made it sound like a funeral dirge. Also, when I paid for lunch, he gave me a zero dollar bill, which I still have.

From my post on the RMS Smellings LiveJournal community:

Two years ago, or so, RMS gave a talk at my university. I had been SPECIFICALLY warned that, if I had the (fantastic) opportunity to talk to him, I should be sure to say “GNU/Linux” and not “Linux”. At the reception afterwards, of course, I forgot, and immediately made some insipid remark about how easy it is to install Linux these days. Need more be said?

After that, my officemate asked him for a job (and was turned down), and after that, he practically got into a fistfight with one of the developers of VideoGIMP over the same GNU/Linux-vs.-Linux issue.

I met him largely because I was pissed off about license changes happening in PHP and was vocal about it. This got me more and more involved with the Free Software Foundation which led to many interactions with Richard. Most recent and memorable was when he came to Phoenix for a week to do a few speaking engagements and we were able to be his host for part of the visit.