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1. Embed this notice
   Alfred M. Szmidt (amszmidt@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 06:20:37 JST Alfred M. Szmidt

   in reply to

   • Mike Taylor 🦕
   • John Mark Ockerbloom
   • Chris Adams
   • FIZ

   @JMarkOckerbloom @mike @acdha That is why @FSF and the GNU project exists.n

   • Embed this notice
     John Mark Ockerbloom (jmarkockerbloom@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 06:20:38 JST John Mark Ockerbloom

     in reply to

     • Mike Taylor 🦕
     • Chris Adams

     @mike @acdha But it he's really defending a "philosophy" and not a "philosopher", then why does his headline, and much of his article, focus on the "philosopher"? Why can't the "philosophy", which as far as I can tell has no defendable reason to be dependent on any particular person, be championed and defended in its own right? (And if it can't, or hasn't, is the philosophy really as sound as claimed?)

   • Embed this notice
     Mike Taylor 🦕 (mike@sauropods.win)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 06:20:39 JST Mike Taylor 🦕

     in reply to

     • Chris Adams

     @acdha See the opening of the quoted article:

     "Disclaimer: Lot have been said about the fact that Richard Stallman had some questionable or inadequate behaviours. I’m not discussing those nor defending the man himself. I’m not in favour of blindly following that particular human (nor any particular human). I’m defending a philosophy, not the philosopher. I claim that his historical vision and his original ideas are still adequate today. Maybe more than ever."

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Adams (acdha@code4lib.social)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 06:20:41 JST Chris Adams

     in reply to

     • Mike Taylor 🦕

     @mike I have complicated feelings about that. Thinking about why I stopped donating to the FSF, it wasn't because I disagreed with a lot of the bigger picture but because it was kind of run as a lark for RMS which didn't seem to be focused on actually getting results. RMS felt like kind of a tragic figure even before the skeevy behaviour came to light.

   • Embed this notice
     Mike Taylor 🦕 (mike@sauropods.win)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 06:20:42 JST Mike Taylor 🦕

     "I’ve read many historical books on the subject [of Open Source], including [Richard M Stallman]’s biography and many older writings.

     And something struck me.

     RMS was right since the very beginning. Every warning, every prophecy realised. And, worst of all, he had the solution since the start. The problem is not RMS or FSF. The problem is us. The problem is that we didn’t listen."

     https://ploum.net/2023-06-19-more-rms.html