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Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

stallman.org

351–357 of 357 posts

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum, this had escalated quickly, with all the fake news and duck hunting and the strange patterns seen in the last months about how we need a better name for gimp, for moral reasons none less, how great is that apple has now an equivalent to 'festival' and other small strange things. Open source is in a really complicated moment for its survival. Is like we would had arrived to a sort ot 'extinguish and replace' phas…

Has there been renewed chatter for possibly renaming GIMP? I have been out of the loop but it would be such a shame for the program to be renamed

Some days ago it was discussed (here) that Gimp was forked in fact. Apparently just because some people "found offensive" the name Gimp (Something that could be seen as an obvious attempt to first degrade the brand, then appropriate as own new invention, and finally phagocyte it. Has happened before with other programs that were slightly modified and then heavily advertised).

Updated, link here: https://itsfoss.com/gimp-fork-glimpse/

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please link some claims of him harassing and propositioning and harassing students?

The follow up to the original blog post includes a few quotes (they start in section 2): https://medium.com/@selamie/remove-richard-stallman-appendix...

The quotes are not particularly damning: a rumor that he hit on women, a report of unsubstantiated assumptions about the mattress, and a direct quotation of his hitting on a woman. The balance of the post is about his opinions in the abstract, the (mis)quote, other sexism at MIT, and the author's personal feelings.

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, although I think that is a function of society becoming less formal. For instance, much of the lingo in the trades (historically less formal) is purposely slightly vulgar. For example, first thing that comes to mind is male/female terminology for things like sockets & connectors. The terminology only makes sense if one considers it in a vulgar context, and it isn't a recent usage (I've seen repair manuals…

Entertainment media's driven a lot of it, I think, for whatever reason. Generations X and Y have tended to make catching accidental (and not even especially interesting) double entendres a prominent feature of the humor-media they've (we've) created in a way it wasn't (yes, some, but not so constantly ) before. Earliest example I can think of that did a lot of this is Beavis & Butthead, but it's been all over the pla…

After articulating your point more, I'll definitely agree with that. Shakespeare was all about the double entendre, but cleverly writing double meaning into a turn of phrase is definitely different from forcing it into anything that would apply. Still haven't looked into the history of the naming of 'finger', but it's 100% possible that it wasn't intended to be sexual.

In a way, it cheapens the phrase 'double entendre', as AFAIK the phrase used to imply a clever, sometimes obscure, double meaning that was intentional vs. anything that could be taken out of context.

Or, as Archer would say, PHRASING!

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#354
post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very sad situation. I hope that the FSF does not lose him forever.

This is a serious question: has he even contributed anything of substance to the FSF or GNU project within the past decade or two? Has he done much of anything besides give talks scrutinizing non free software?

Advocacy is a substantial part of what the FSF does.

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#355
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Brilliant asshole" was not intended as a compliment. MIT should have dissociated with Stallman decades ago.

Honestly, I was suprised to learn he still used to be around there up until recently. Kinda undermines the entire heroic "Stallman left CSAIL to start GNU" story that is often cited as the origin point for GNU.

He left a paying job at CSAIL. They let him keep an office.

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there been renewed chatter for possibly renaming GIMP? I have been out of the loop but it would be such a shame for the program to be renamed

Some days ago it was discussed (here) that Gimp was forked in fact. Apparently just because some people "found offensive" the name Gimp (Something that could be seen as an obvious attempt to first degrade the brand, then appropriate as own new invention, and finally phagocyte it. Has happened before with other programs that were slightly modified and then heavily advertised). Updated, link here: https://itsfoss.com/g…

Thanks for the update

Re: Richard Stallman resigns from CSAIL at MIT

#357
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He never said that there's nothing wrong with it, which means you're lying. Shame on you. (disclaimer: I dislike Stallman a lot anyway, but this is just a typical SJW witch Hunt. Because he did in fact never say it's ok nor defended it.) Edit: typo

He has, on record, said that he thinks there is nothing wrong with statutory rape 'as long as both parties consent'. I'm not sure he understands the concept of consent.

Read this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape

(see Romeo and Juliet clause)

Stallman being a defender of freedom has, obviously, a very powerful definition of consent ('cos consent is a form of freedom). It's far of ours, and in a dangerous territory. But that doesn't make it wrong.

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