In one of my earliest blog posts here I called Richard Stallman, a father of the open source movement and almost immediately got a personal nastygram. From Richard Stallman. I appreciated it and have sought to be more careful. Stallman believes in free software, which he calls Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). (It’s also called Free Open Source Software (FOSS).)

In this video Richard Stallman talks about surveillance and being controlled on the Internet.

Whenever I make a real egregious error here, like confusing FOSS with open source, I can usually count on a short e-mail from Richard Stallman, dear old RMS himself. So I hope he forgives me going all Richard Stallman on the Obama Administration.

Bruce Perens defends Free Software and Richard Stallman

Direct link

Also see part 2 and part 3.

Bruce Perens at the launch event of GPLv3

Ever find yourself wondering what warrior for the open source movement Richard Stallman uses as his primary computer? It’s a Lemote Yeelong netbook.

GNU guru Richard Stallman sent me an e-mail the other day complaining that we erred by saying that the Free Software Foundation, of which he's president, promotes open source software. "We have never supported the idea of 'open source' because that idea denies the importance of users' freedom," he writes.

"Today I listened to Richard Stallman's lection which was recorded at Moscow State University..." -- Richard Stallman @ MIPT (Picture Reports) => http://ezheg.livejournal.com/30780.html ;)

"EFF-Austin invites you to a talk by the Free Software Foundation Activist - Richard Stallman on 23rd April 2009 [...] The GNU General Public License (GPL) was the outcome of the need for a principal right to free software. What does the freedom mean, what are the foundations of the GNU GPL philosophy and how has it evolved since Richard Stallman wrote the first GNU GPL in 1989?

Richard Stallman is one of the largest problems we have in the Linux (and Open Source) world today. He is a poor spokesman and he is out of touch with modern (and, even, semi-modern) technology.