Richard Stallman — "The purpose of free software is to give users freedom, not to make software popu…"
The purpose of free software is to give users freedom, not to make software popular.
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More from Richard Stallman
"As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. I find ties uncomfortable, so I don't wear them."
"There is no 'intellectual property.' It's a propaganda term."
"The reason that a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness."
"It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign. … Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of busines…"
"Years ago I saw a report claiming that, on one occasion, I had referred to the sole woman in the audience as 'the Virgin of Emacs.' The report portrayed this as persecution and misogyny, which were ce…"
About Richard Stallman (born 1953)
American programmer who founded the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, whose copyleft GPL licensing made the modern Linux ecosystem possible. Closely associated with Linus Torvalds (Linux kernel creator who builds on GNU userland) and Eric S. Raymond (open-source advocate (The Cathedral and the Bazaar)). For an intellectual contrast, see Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder — Gates's 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists arguing for software-as-property is the foundational document Stallman's GPL was specifically written to refute — the two opposing answers to 'who owns the code'.