Richard Stallman’s rider

Just to offer a counter perspective, I'm sure that RMS honestly believes that the most important thing for your future is the use and advocacy of free software, and that being the case, there would be little point discussing anything else, no? Software increasingly pervades everything we depend on in life. The ownership and control of our futures rests to a large extent on who owns and controls the software we are using. The recent trend has been toward closed platforms behind opaque service interfaces, which is a problem of increasing difficulty for the free software movement.

That, and he does tend to be brusk.

It may well have happened. I helped organized his talk at Concordia University a few years ago, and this text was slightly different back then. It specified that he'd like to meet a parrot. But that's it. Just was one sentence, giving little information. Given that this is his standard text, I bet someone bought a parrot at one point over the last few years, and that prompted this seemingly peculiar addition.

He doesn't drink coffee. If I didn't drink coffee I'd be cranky in the mornings too.

I had a parrot once. I have the following to say:

Parrots should never be physically confined, either by cages or (god forbid!) chains. If they like you, they will hang around you on their own accord. After a while they seem to regard some humans as family. Mine would follow my mom around like a dog.

As far as I know, they do not surf wind drafts, but they do require exercise. Therefore, you should have an open space. Either that, or take it outdoors at a safe location (no roads!) for it to fly. But most importantly, let it climb some tress, they love it - even more if it has fruits or seeds. It was difficult convincing mine to get out of trees - we usually had to resort to bribing.

They can eat human food to some extent, mainly fruits and grain. I had trouble with parrot rations, because it was very picky and only ate what it wanted to (mostly the peanuts) and left the rest.

If you do get a parrot, get a couple. It makes them happier and safer (a cat might attack and seriously hurt one - but it is unlikely to kill). A cat attacking two parrots would die before doing much.

I don't really think that a pet parrot would be unhappy per se, provided the above holds. I can agree with RMS when he says that wild parrots would become unhappy.

Unfortunately, mine was a wild one. What's more, judging by the behavior, he seemed to be the leader of his group - the others seemed to follow and imitate him. However, it was also the most docile and appeared to be the happiest one. The others didn't seem to be so well. But we did treat him as well as we could.

The vet could not determine the cause of its death. I get the impression that, since it is an uncommon pet even here, he didn't have any previous experience. I think whatever it was, an experienced vet could have saved him. And I found years later that sunflower seeds have to be eaten in moderation, as they are very fatty.

I am having a hard time using the pronoun "it". His death haunts me to this day and it's been almost two decades now.

I never got any other pets.

Yes, they are that picky. Here, peruse a few hundred of them: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstage

Methinks in large part such "pickiness" is reasonable. These are people, not minor deities. They are being thrust into wildly different situations with complete strangers on a daily basis. They know what keeps them functioning, optimal, and sane - and nobody else is going to know, guess, or care unless it's spelled out in black-and-white. Their stress and schedules are maxed out enough as it is without having to deal with annoying mundane inanities (or worse) for a significant part of every day. Odds are their income/costs are high enough that just the time spent saying "I can't stand diet sodas, please get me the real thing" cost more than having a 2-liter of what he said he wanted on ice right there when he wanted it. And yes, there are odd little things that make all that stress tolerable, and the absence of which can drive one batty (every morning make sure there's 2 tbsp unflavored non-French-roast coffee beans, a small hand grinder, an Aeropress coffee maker, and 200F water or I'm not going to start the day well; a hard-won point of daily satisfaction for me, bewilderingly specific to others).