RMS pulls a serious power move (read: dick move), unilaterally appointing a maintainer to Guile without consulting the other co-maintainers or community, because the current co-maintainers disagree with him on governance https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2019-10/msg00005.html
It's also worth reading @dthompson's followup here https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2019-10/msg00007.html
David's experience is also mine; there's a reason I dropped my association as a "GNU hacker", which used to be the way I identified myself for some time.
For many people, I'm sure these things seem to be shocking, as if all of this is happening at once. I'm shocked by how fast things have devolved, but not the way they are, because I already saw and tried to change for years how bad it was until I gave up.
Smell like there are several power games at work in #GNU and in #Guile right now.
And since I've followed all the drama around #RMS' mail and I've seen how a crowd of people lynched him for what he SAID, I can't say I'm shocked by this reaction from Andy.
I've read his words before and I see how he is trying to profit as much as possible from the shitstorm that is on #Stallman right now.
I noticed you are with Andy.
That's why I replied to @cwebber
I don't know #RMS personally and I disagree with him on MANY MANY things. Even when we talk about #FreeSoftware I think he is too moderate (and I'm a catholic Christian so you might guess by yourselves on how many other things I deeply disagree with him! 😉).
But the arguments of Andy are poor. As the arguments of the crowd that got is head at #FSF.
#Software is a form of expression, so software #freedom IS freedom of expression.
Andy joined the crowd that lynched #Stallman for what he WROTE (conveniently misreading it, to be precise).
If you know that Stallman did any crime towards women, you have only ONE thing to do: denounce him and provide evidence to the police.
Each day you delay his trial is a day more you are accomplices of his crimes.
I'm very serious on this.
There is nothing else to do when you face a crime.
If RMS did any crime, denounce him.
Otherwise, please, stop this.
RMS
Leading people means helping them move from a point to another.
Like it or not, but #RMS proved a great leadership in #FreeSoftware: he didn't just give it a definition and an identity, but turned it in a powerful and positive political movement. He was being so.successful that #OpenSource was created to embrace, extend and estinguish such movement.
Thank to #OSS we now have #SaaSS, browsers that are more complex to #hack than operating systems and the four #freedoms have been reduced to privileges.
However #Stallman intransigence was still a pain in the ass for many people who want to finally absorb free software in open source.
Without Stallman at #FSF, #GAFAM are way stronger. Now THEY will lead!
Will #Google be creepy with women?
No!
Does Google care about women?
Sure! They are valuable data cow to milk! Great workers! And useful conumers! Just like men.
Same for #Microsoft, #Facebook and friends! They will be great leaders, if you want to be led where they want to milk you.
But I'm a weird #hacker. I prefer weird leaders. Because their weirdness protects mine. And yours.
Don't forget my words: nobody will fight for hackers' freedom. The gentrification process is running fast. First #Linus, now RMS... the next might be you!
RMS
You seem to assume that Politics is easier than Programming.
It's not.
Programming is way more funny.
And way less frustrating.
And I say this having experience of doing both, either separately or at the same time.
I don't know if #RMS code at all today, but he never stopped fighting for (his vision of) #FreeSoftware.
And despite the fact that I don't entirely agree with him on such vision, I call bullshit when people say he did nothing for #FS in the last 20 or 30 years.
He did a huge lot.
But it you only measure work in term of SLOCs/hour because you internalized the corporate perspective of #OpenSource productivity, obviously all his work is worth nothing.
But beware, people who adopt such perspective are going to be exploited.
If all it matters to you is X (with X being any easy to measure scalar, such as $, €, SLOC/hour or whatever), you stop being an hacker, a user or even just a citizen and you become a #robot, a #slave that can be easily #used through software.
RMS
@Shamar @dthompson @cwebber
Since he is responsible for the negative image people associate with GNU, I'd say that it may have been better if he did less in the last 20 years.
What exactly do you mean by "negative image of GNU"?
Are you talking about the lack of overall technical vision about the #GNU system or about something else?
if a free software project can't even be nice to women, it doesn't deserve to exist
If a free software project has any aspect you don't like, it deserve to be forked.
Only #OpenSource people who cry of community breaks and such bullshit. After all forks reduce their #market share!
As for women, trust me: I care A LOT about them. I have three daughters I love most, and I always carefully consider what is good for them, in the present and in the future.
Is a homogenous world were all people talk the same good for them? Would it be safer?
The answer is simply No.
In Italy we have had a history of private abuses easily mixed with public #hypocrisy to cover them.
In a world were people cannot TALK about something, such thing do not disappear. It just become invisible and more dangerous. Public #moralism just raise the stakes for powerful people, but it doesn't fix any perversion.
Since I want to effectively protect my daughters, I want a world where people with the weirdest opinions can discuss them while criminal like #Epstein are rapidly and easily denounced.
Don't judge books by their cover: a project (or a man, or a woman or a company or..) might LOOK nice to a woman while being creepy and dangerous. And the converse can also be true.
I prefer places that are dangerous and look dangerous too.
They are LESS dangerous.
But censorship and mob lynching of opinion won't make things better.
RMS
@Shamar @dthompson @cwebber
He did those things what, 20 years ago?
And if a free software project can't even be nice to women, it doesn't deserve to exist.