@ariadne If you want a really different future, imagine that Free Jobs came out as trans relatively early, say the year 2000, and not long after that also came out as a furry. RMS comes around to support her; he publishes rants in favor of trans and furry rights, instead of arguing for sexual assault & child abuse.
The GNU project becomes an early center of trans and furry culture, and as we know these subcultures are the cutting edge of tech, GNU sees a renaissance and free software explodes.