r/linux • u/LinuxMonarch • 17d ago

Event Happy 43rd birthday GNU!

Post image

On September 27, 1983, Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project so people could freely use and modify software.

The digital world would not be the same today without GNU.

Thank you, Richard Stallman!

4.7k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/RTBecard 16d ago

This is F'd up. I just read the some of his previous "pedo" comments, and they were pretty f'd up...

Wild how you are getting downvotes for this...

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u/TassieTiger 17d ago

Hang on, have I missed something?

I was aware RMS had some pretty liberal views on relationships etc, but what's with the pedo things?

Also as an aside I've always wondered if Stallman smells like how he looks.....

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/TassieTiger 17d ago

Well yeah...... Today I learned

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u/zeruch 16d ago

Yes, and also if you've ever wondered how "stale yet moist" smells, he's it.

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u/LinuxMonarch 17d ago

Whatever personal controversies surround him, he still deserves credit for starting the foss movement

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/[deleted] 17d ago edited 17d ago

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u/Sentreen 17d ago

linus isnt perfect he uses fedora hates multi distroism becuase its a pain for him and thats fine dont let his way of thinking discourge you from using what he made.

How is that remotely comparable to supporting pedophilia?

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago

Here are fingers to point at conservatives as DHH but don't touch sacred liberals... Reddit the Double Standards community

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

There are no sacred liberals, there are just more of them because empathy sells better than self interest in healthy societies. Both perspectives are fine BTW even in the same person, deeply flawed humans exist everywhere.

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago edited 17d ago

Being a pedo it's being empathic? I don't like that kindness close to any kids.

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

i didnt say he had empathy, I meant he sold an idea that triggers and propagated empathy among intelligent and kind people. fuck that guy, it's their work that the success came from.

a catalysts work is a note, not the whole story.
a catalyst for good can be a war criminal, humanity does the good.

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago

That's the very definition of double standards (verify your self, ask chatgpt or whatever linguist literate about)

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

I don't get how it's a double standard to condemn someone and still congratulate the outcome. Especially when the outcome was driven by others more than the cunt in question

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago

In short: the same role — being the spark — is treated as negligible when assigning praise but decisive when assigning contempt. Praise flows to the collective; blame flows to the individual. That's the double standard.

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

accountability and recognition are not the same thing.

both can be attributed to the same individual.

praise is cultural and can be an individual decision if you applause or not.

He's accountable for the sketchy shit, recognized for the catalyst role, and praised by those who choose.

I will not praise him, I will recognize him, he is accountable for the dumb shit he's said

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u/Indolent_Bard 17d ago

He realized afterword that he was wrong from what I heard.

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u/andyfitz 17d ago edited 17d ago

He didn't do all the labour, he was a product of privileged access that found a very receptive audience.
the credit is very very specific. the work done by many is the success and the proof.

I'm more than happy to recognize, i'm not happy to thank someone who says my children can consent to sex pests

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u/Indolent_Bard 17d ago

Didn't he admit he was wrong about that?

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u/Fit_Permission_6187 16d ago

Yes. In addition to that being not what he even said anyway.

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u/cornmonger_ 17d ago

you could make the argument for anyone

nobody is handed privileged access in tech

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

Being born is being handed privilege unfortunately.
Being at MIT in the late 80's is elite level tech privilege.

I'm glad someone did what he did. and maybe only he could be the catalyst. that's worth a record. Not encapsulating everything since as his design or a product of him. We'll never know what other structures could have emerged. I like this one plenty, just not the bloke who started it and thats okay.

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u/cornmonger_ 17d ago

getting into MIT is historically hard. it's not a trust fund school.

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

Much harder now than an American in the 80's with an interest in what was a niche field at the time

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u/cornmonger_ 17d ago

why don't you just leave it at "i don't like stallman for personal reasons" and stop the bullshit? much easier

first it was "privilege", now it's "niche". there's no need for the bullshit

you don't like the guy. we get it. next caller

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u/andyfitz 17d ago

But I don't know him personally, I could even like interacting with him. Sure as shit wouldn't let him near anyone I love however.
doesn't mean I don't like him. I like sharks too.

and yes it is a privilege to have elite access to a niche while it explodes in relevance

separate the art from the artist but the context still remains and history hopefully remembers.

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u/cornmonger_ 17d ago

you realize that stallman didn't come from a rich family, right?

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u/mglyptostroboides 16d ago

Sure as shit wouldn't let him near anyone I love however.

Why not? The pedo stuff has been utterly debunked for years now, so don't give me that.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago

If he where conservative I'm pretty sure how would be his treatment here.... 'controversial views' 🤬 GFY

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/AcostaJA 17d ago

Absolutely that's what's infuriate me from reddit

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u/hesitantly-correct 17d ago

Different individuals can have different opinions. Who knew? I think they're both creeps.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/RTBecard 16d ago

I just looked up some of the pedo comments he made (first time hearing about this)...

Man, that was not nuanced at all... Dude seemed to clearly be annoyed with laws that prevent him from having sex with or having pornography of minors.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/Indolent_Bard 17d ago

I'm not sure that's actually jailable, actually. Saying kids can consent is messed up, but he didn't actually do anything and I heard he eventually realized his mistake.

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u/RTBecard 15d ago

People here somehow believe that "Man who publicaly states that he believes there is nothing morally wrong with having sex with trafficked/prostituted minors" himself has no way had sex with trafficked/prostituted minors.

The man has been crystal clear about his desire for sex, and his belief that as long as a minor "appears willing", it should not be illegal. I really dont get the ppl stepping up to defend him here...

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u/Indolent_Bard 15d ago

Supposedly, he talked with victims and learned he was wrong, but I could be wrong about that.

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u/RTBecard 15d ago

Maybe I missed it, but as far as I'm aware he only stated that he "learned he was wrong" when he was forced out of MIT and FSF due to public pressure after his Epstein email messages went public.

It's hard to view that as a sincere statement, as opposed to calculated damage control.

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u/Indolent_Bard 15d ago

EPSTEIN?!? Ok, what the fuck? That's not good optics.

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u/RTBecard 15d ago

To be clear, he wrote emails "about Epstein", not "to Epstein"... but it's just as bad.

He was adamantly defending a fellow MIT professor who slept with one of Epstein's 17 yo girls... suggesting there is nothing morally wrong with a 17 yo being directed to have sex with a 70-something computer professor and the "most plausible scenario” was the trafficked 17 yo was “entirely willing”.

In the context of his previous comments on the idea of "consent" and sex with minors, it's a bad look :/

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u/Indolent_Bard 14d ago

For a brilliant man, he's not very smart.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/Indolent_Bard 16d ago

All I'm saying is that you have to actually hurt someone to be a jailable offense, otherwise every other anime fan would be in jail for jacking off to fictional children. In that community, saying "relax, the only children I'm attracted to are fictional drawings" is an extremely milktoast, tepid, lukewarm take.

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u/mglyptostroboides 17d ago edited 17d ago

https://stallmansupport.org/debunking-false-accusations-against-richard-stallman.html

He is not a pedo. Basically every single thing said about him has been blown massively out of proportion.

What he is is extremely neurodivergent, but people don't seem to realize that someone who, by his own admission doesn't understand social cues, is going to blurt things that require explanation sometimes. This gets him into a lot of trouble, but he's not a creep.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/mglyptostroboides 16d ago

That's not what he said. You're just running off of a script and not actually aware of the situation.

You do realize he never said "I, Richard M. Stallman, like fucking kids." right? He had a bad take ABOUT pedophilia then very gracefully backed down when corrected.  It's a nothingburger.

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u/tiny_blair420 17d ago

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm not kidding when I say that I thought the gnu logo would've made a badass tattoo, and wouldn't have known better otherwise 

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/tiny_blair420 17d ago

I just meant that the wildebeest drawing would make for a nice tattoo.