[stelonix]

Interesting, I've been thinking about this myself: whether a new foundation or movement will be created around RMS and without the stigmas that allow people to be "cancelled" over their thoughts or opinions. I have to say, the FSF without RMS simply makes no sense. It's one of those institutions where more than 51% of its effectiveness came from a single person. I firmly believe a "fork" for the FSF is coming soon.

[gwd]

> I have to say, the FSF without RMS simply makes no sense. It's one of those institutions where more than 51% of its effectiveness came from a single person.

If that's true, then Stallman has completely failed as a leader. There are 7 billion people in the world; if after 40 years there is nobody of similar caliber at the FSF, it is because he has either not attracted them, not trained them, or has driven them away. (Perhaps by asking them on a date or handing them a card that said "tender embraces" the very first time he met them.)

I sincerely hope that there will be people in the FSF that can make it more robust, and set it up for long-term success.

[craigsmansion]

> I sincerely hope that there will be people in the FSF

There are: https://www.fsfla.org/%7Elxoliva/

But apart from being next in line, he's also next in line: https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/1174371580547223553

[lostjohnny]

> If that's true, then Stallman has completely failed as a leader

He's been under constant attack for the past 40 years.

Nobody wants to be friend with the smart friend who's also unpopular.

And that's what he failed, he trusted people would be decent.

They are not.

[johnny22]

i didn't wanna be his friend after meeting him personally. Nothing to do with him being unpopular, since i I (at the time) was an unpopular nerd too.

[hdfbdtbcdg]

We are not alone. It takes a brave person to put their head above the parapet in the current climate.

[lostjohnny]

it already happened.

As usual, not trying to be prejudicial here, it happened in the U.S. where different 501(c)(3) formed to attract donation capital, but that actually have been an enemy of large part of the FSF community.

There can't be one strong FSF they want many small feuds, it's like greenwashing, open washing is happening, which, BTW, "misses the point of free software".

Look at what happened to Eben Moglen, a person that nobody can describe as harsh, impolite, unempathetic, creepy or whatever BS they are throwing now at RMS.

And still in 2017 he was declared "no longer a friend of the free software community" by mjg59.

Why?

Because Moglen expressed his lawyer opinion in a way that Garret did not like.

Garret works at Google, Moglen still offers pro bono legal representation at the Software Freedom Law Center, which he founded.

It's not hard to take parts for me.

[flatb]

> harsh, impolite, unempathetic, creepy or whatever BS they are throwing now at RMS.

He has been accused, by several independent parties, of, among other things:

-Asking female coworkers to lay down topless on a mattress in his office.

-Threatening a colleague to kill himself if he/she didn't go on a date with him.

-Posting up signs in his workplace along the lines of "Knight for Justice (Also: Hot Ladies)".

Do you think that reprieving someone for threatening a colleague to kill yourself if they don't give in to your romantic/sexual advances is "throwing BS"? It's an honest question.

[concordDance]

Can I have a reliable source on the suicide threat? In particular something indicating it was genuine rather than jocular.

[flatb]

https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/d59r46/richard...

From someone who worked at MIT.

[concordDance]

I see no dates, names, details or basically anything of substance relating to the suicide threat story. It seems to just be one of those sourceless rumours that get passed around as gospel.

Note in particular that the commentator does not say they saw this or even that someone who saw it told them. You're just hearing a rumour this person heard at MIT.

[hdfbdtbcdg]

I don't see any reliable source there. Are some of those profiles verified? I also didn't see any reference to suicide.

[andrekandre]

> Because Moglen expressed his lawyer opinion in a way that Garret did not like.

any article about what happened?