Richard Stallman

If you are a programmer, or remotely relate to the field of computers, you should know Richard Stallman. And even if you aren’t a programmer, there are good reasons to know him.

Richard Stallman is the man behind GNU project and FSF foundation, and worked on creating gcc compiler, Emacs editor, GPL license. His contributions were major driving force behind what we today know as Linux OS (essentially GNU/Linux OS), and the culture of free and open source software.

Much of the computing done in the world today, like Android, and Cloud infrastructure run almost entirely on Linux. Google, Facebook, Intel, even Microsoft make open source contributions and believe in the open source nature of producing software. This would not have been possible without the dedicated effort of giants like Stallman, Linus Torvalds, whose shoulders these corporations stand on.

While tech corporations have recognized the open source process as the only really effective means to ensure less bugs in their software, this does ensure that they respect the freedom and privacy of end users. And this is the distinction between Open source software and free software, and exactly why we need Richard Stallman. He has been the champion of Free Software, and advocates for technology that respects its users freedom. Freedom from surveillance, from pervasive agreements, EULAs, DRMs, copyrights.

If this piqued your interest(I hope it did), here’s a very interesting article

If you want to know about the core of Free software - 4 essential freedoms

Here’s a fascinating interview , where he goes in depth about technology, freedom and politics.

Now that you are familiar with his philosophy, let’s analyze what to get out of it.

What to do about it

I like Stallman, and I respect him. He is an inspiration. Advocating for Freedom and Human rights is a moral cause everyone should be devoted to.

He also advocates pretty extreme positions(like not using a credit card/not using a cellphone). But they make sense, if you think about them. Veganism is something, where people abstain from animal products as a way to protest against the massive industry build around exploiting animals. I totally agree with that stance. As the saying goes, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Hence for the past year or so, I decided to abstain as much as possible from proprietary software, to see whether I could do it, and what change it brings in my life. I invested a good amount of time researching alternatives, assessing and curtailing my needs. It was hard, but it was not new for me.

In the end, I do not think that telling people to and completely abstaining yourself from the (non-free)world around you, is the most effective way to bring in more freedom. I realize there’s a balance to be made, to not your idealogy bog you down in the details. Because a side-effect of being ideologically stubborn is it oftens in the end goes on to alienate you from the people around you.

I believe if we are to change the system, it’s to be done from the inside, by educating, convincing people around you, and possibly organizing; and not by letting ideologies easily divide us.

Every movement needs a strong leader, and therefore Stallman can still be ideologically stubborn, and inspire millions; and certainly we need people like him.

Meanwhile, I still use Google, and Uber, while I do not have any practical alternatives (and I’ll happily switch if I find them). And I work on a Linux distro, and prefer free and open source software, when I get to make the choice. I also donate to free software foundation, and other open source projects. Now this has been my choice to help the movement.

In the end, yes I hope we can all agree, as Stallman says, “Freedom is worth the inconvenience”, and fight for it.