The Free Software Foundation Should Re-add Richard Stallman to the Board
Dr. Richard Stallman is missed by many who perceive him to have been wrongly treated; putting Stallman back in the Board (at the very least) would help the image of the Free Software Foundation more than the newly-announced work with Community Consulting Teams of Boston
Original story by Dr. Roy Schestowitz. Published 2021-03-04, Originally published 2021-03-04.
This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
Honorary Doctor Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, the Free Software Foundation and the GNU foundation.
SEVERAL hours ago the Free Software Foundation (FSF) said it had been “awarded consulting project grant from Community Consulting Teams of Boston” (CCT) and there are already some speculating that this may be notable news because they might “recommend that the FSF abandons its free software roots” (something which partly happened 2 years ago when few members of the Board pushed out RMS, the founder, soon to be followed by efforts to censor people who spoke out in favour of RMS).
"“To a lot of people, myself included, the outspoken (not radical, just bluntly honest) nature of the FSF is what contributed to its popularity.”"
Based on our understanding (informed sources), RMS still plays a role at the FSF, albeit less publicly. He’s still the head of the GNU Project, even if he does not speak publicly as much as he used to.
To a lot of geeks (not greedy and racist corporations like IBM/Red Hat), RMS is the reason they generally support the FSF and the perception that RMS was betrayed by few elements at the FSF (elements that have since then partly or entirely departed) isn’t helping.
Alexandre Oliva
A few months ago Alexandre Oliva left the Board, which is kind of sad but not the end of the world...
To a lot of people, myself included, the outspoken (not radical, just bluntly honest) nature of the FSF is what contributed to its popularity. If they want to regain credibility, re-adding RMS to the Board would be a step in the right direction. Don’t try to appease a bunch of lying trolls from Salesforce and racists from IBM (they should fix themselves first). Remember who originally built and supported Free software. Not those companies that outsource almost all their code to proprietary software of Microsoft (GitHub) while crushing communities or cost-free options.
This post is also available in Gemini at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/03/04/re-adding-richard-stallman/.
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