The Desktop Summit two weeks ago in Gran Canaria was supposed to be the first joint conference between GNOME and KDE. And, in the reporting, that's what it was. But in the blogs, the event is going down as the time that Richard Stallman was accused of sexism.
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14 years 39 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago
re: Richard Stallman, Leadership, and Sexism
> Logically, people should be able to accept both that Stallman has made significant contributions to computing and that he is capable of making a sexist comment. One observation does not negate the other. But, in practice, the majority of people in the free software community seem incapable of holding both views at the same time -- even though both are true.
Amen brother. The fact that RMS had offended people with a single "humourous" remark is his own shame, but it really shouldn't dismiss his real message about being a free software activist. Maybe people are angry with his nonchalant words together with his careless attitude towards the issue of sexism in computing/IT/free software community.
Whatever the reason for angst, I think it's harsh to label RMS as sexist as a result of this particular situation. To me, it would be like labelling theif to a distracted and stressed mother that unconsciously took goods from a store without paying for them.