RMS and open letter

[Carl Schwan]

Le mardi, mars 23, 2021 11:11 PM, Luis Falcon <falcon at gnuhealth.org> a écrit :

> On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 19:49:36 +0000
> Carl Schwan carl at carlschwan.eu wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> > like you probably heard already RMS was reinstatement to the
> > Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation. RMS has
> > always been a negative force to the Free Software movement due
> > to his toxic behavior. There is an open letter asking for his
> > and the current board FSF resignation available at
> > https://rms-open-letter.github.io/.
>
> This attack against Richard is appalling, and, in my opinion, the
> reflection of the sick society we live in.
>
> I find disgusting the amount of public mobbing and battering that
> Richard has suffered this past year and a half. Many of the
> brown-nosers who proudly showed pictures with him, now are part of this
> evil campaign.
>
> You don't have an idea of how much pain these people has inflicted upon
> him. Zero empathy. Not a single case has been filed against him, just
> coward bullying and mobbing. You believe he is guilty, then go to court.

Doing something morally wrong is not always illegal according to the laws.

> Richard has been a victim of those who could not accept a pure movement
> and philosophy like the Free/Libre Software movement.

If you look at the people who signed the letter, you will see a lot of
names of people who also dedicated their lives to Free Software. I don't
think they want to destroy the movement but are getting tired of having
RMS, as a public figure, representing them.

> While some of his same-age are now filthy rich by writing proprietary
> code, RMS lives humbly, putting all his time and talent to the benefit
> of the community.

He hurts many in the community, driving away contributors from
underexpressed minorities. A good summary can be found here:
https://rms-open-letter.github.io/appendix

> We can not conceive the Free/Libre Software - and all the benefits that
> brought to society- without Richard. Our projects would not exist today
> without RMS, Founder of the FSF and the GNU project. That is just being
> grateful.

RMS created the free software movement but this shouldn't be an excuse
for irresponsible behavior. People at the top of an organization and
serving as a public figure for a movement should have an irreproachable
behavior. With great power comes great responsibilities.

> Finally, I find ironic that the "open letter" to debunk RMS is placed
> on Github, a Microsoft owned company.

Yeah not a fan of that personally but the option to sign by mail was also
available for those who wished to only use free software to sign the letter.

> This puts an end to my discussion on this matter, at least on this
> channel.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dr. Luis Falcon, MD, MSc
> President, GNU Solidario
> Advancing Social Medicine
> www.gnuhealth.org