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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me"><h1>Julio Biason .Me 4.3</h1></a> |
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<p class="lead">Old school dev living in a 2.0 dev world</p> |
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<h1 class="post-title">FSF and rms (Again)</h1> |
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<span class="post-date"> |
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2021-03-29 |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/gpl/">#gpl</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/fsf/">#fsf</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/free-software-foundation/">#free software foundation</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/stallman/">#stallman</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/rms/">#rms</a> |
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<p>About six months ago, in 2020-09-16<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup>, Richard Stallman, a.k.a. "rms", <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/130635/richard-stallman-resigns-from-fsf-mit-after-defending-child-rape/">resigned from |
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FSF</a> |
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(the Free Software Foundation, maintainer of the GPL family of licenses) with |
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not-so-great headlines. A week ago, in 2021-03-22, rms told the world <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/richard-m-stallman-returns-to-the-free-software-foundation-board-of-directors/">that he |
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is back</a>.</p> |
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<p>And now we have a huge mess. Again.</p> |
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<span id="continue-reading"></span><h2 id="first-of-all">First of all...</h2> |
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<p>Let me say this first and foremost: No one is denying the works of rms. No one |
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is denying that taking a huge undertaking of writing a whole compiler to |
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produce an open source operating system isn't without merit. All those are |
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recognizable and show a lot of effort for the greater good.</p> |
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<h2 id="but-then">But then...</h2> |
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<p>There are allegations coming from all sides that rms seems to harass people |
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(mostly women), some people feeling uncomfortable with his words and acting; |
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and we also have people saying that it is not all that, that there is a |
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"lynching" going around (I'm not kidding) and general support for him.</p> |
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<p>"Is he a bad or good person?" is not a question I intent answer here. This is |
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not the part that annoys me in this whole discussion.</p> |
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<p>Due his strong opinions and general complains about his presence, |
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he decided to resign from the FSF, the body responsible for the GPL license and |
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everything related to it, from keeping it active to helping developers with |
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legal situations with the license.</p> |
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<p>(Personally, while the linked article points that his resignation was in part |
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for the news about people using the "services" of Jeffrey Epstein of young |
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girls for sex, I've read that rms support for Marvin Minsky, cited in Epstein |
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list of clients, was not "yeah, sex with kids is alright!" but actually "I |
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think Minsky was convinced that the girls weren't underage and forced into |
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sex, so he was unknowingly part of it" -- again, that's my understanding. |
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And only on that point, just to be clear.)</p> |
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<p>But, in the end, that's what's pointed as his resignation.</p> |
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<h2 id="and-then">And then...</h2> |
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<p>In 2021-03-22, rms appeared in an online event, |
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<a href="https://libreplanet.org/2021/">LibrePlanet</a> to announce that he's back into |
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the board of the FSF. There wasn't an official statement about it, it was like |
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a huge surprise for everyone.</p> |
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<p>In the follow days, RedHat, FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) and a lot |
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other companies and groups removed their support for the FSF.</p> |
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<h2 id="but">But...</h2> |
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<p>The first problem I see with it all is that the FSF, while promoting the |
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openness of software, by securing a license that allows anyone to have access |
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to the code, a license that promotes the evolution of code in the open, suddenly took |
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a closed decision behind closed doors without consulting anyone outside the |
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board.</p> |
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<p>It seems weird promoting openness when they are closed in their own decisions.</p> |
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<h2 id="also">Also...</h2> |
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<p>The second problem is the content of the announcement.</p> |
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<p>Again, without ever getting into "he said that" "he didn't said that" matter, |
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one must recognize what they said that could cause people to revolt. |
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There wasn't any words about "Look, thinks I said were taken out of |
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context" or even a "I've chosen words poorly and that hurt people, and I |
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promise I'll take care of that in the future"<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>.</p> |
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<p>I believe that if there was any mention of that, the current revolt wouldn't be |
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so strong. Not saying "There wouldn't be any", but less aggressive. Heck, if |
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there was the acknowledgment that he learnt why there was a revolt in the first |
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place, this time it would be a lot less painful.</p> |
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<h2 id="and-finally">And finally...</h2> |
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<p>The third problem is the current state of free software. No, I don't mean "WE |
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ARE BEING SWALLOWED BY CORPORATE GREED", although that's partially true, but we |
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are seeing the use of "kind-of-open-source-but-not-quite" license, a.k.a. |
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"source available" license, like the |
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Public_License">SSPL</a> being recently |
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adopted by the Elastic Corporation.</p> |
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<p>While resources from FSF could be used to dispel any |
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt">FUD</a> or |
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misconceptions about GPL licenses, we now focus on "Should he be in the |
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board?". The board even had to engineer a staff member to <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/update-on-work-to-improve-governance-at-the-fsf">act as |
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director</a> |
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and other measures of openness, when there should be a focus on making sure |
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"source available" licenses don't spread too much.</p> |
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<h2 id="in-conclusion">In conclusion...</h2> |
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<p>I just have one question floating my head right now: Does anyone need to be on |
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the board to actually help the FSF? Imagine if instead of "I'm back to the |
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board of FSF", rms announcement actually was "I'm back helping the FSF promote |
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free software". Sure, some people would complain, but you can see that even |
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them would think "Yeah, but he's not <em>part</em> of the FSF." And life would move |
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on, and the FSF could focus on the GPL and other licenses, and helping |
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companies not get trapped into "source-available license is our only solution" |
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and so on.</p> |
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<p>So <em>why</em> in the board? Isn't there any other position where rms can't help the |
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FSF? I pretty much doubt that, but someone (or someones) decided that wasn't |
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enough; board or burst.</p> |
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<p>"Since he's there, just leave him there" as a way to quell the discussion is no |
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way to deal with this. Unless we see open discussion on why -- and, for morbid |
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curiosity, who -- rms is back on the board, the whole point of the FSF as |
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promoters of openness feels shaken to me, personally.</p> |
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<h2 id="post-script">Post-script</h2> |
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<p>One of the easiest way to make a project crumble is to have heroes. "If this |
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person takes a vacation, the system will crash", "The whole success of this |
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project is due that person" are very <em>bad</em> signs in a project.</p> |
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<p>For example, when Guido von Rossum decided to resign from his BDFL position, |
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the whole Python community scrabbled to figure out a way to move along -- |
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mostly 'cause the community put a lot of pressure on him because it thought the |
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only way to move forward was with Guido at the helm. The Rust community, on the |
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other hand, focus a lot of taking this image of "This is the project of this |
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person" by giving small parts to a lot of people: I know there is a person |
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leading the "better error messages" part, I know there is a person leading the |
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"async" part (although I'm seeing a movement on the lead of that part), I know there |
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is person leading the "Rust in Embedded environments" part and so on. If any |
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one of those resigns, I don't feel like the Rust ecosystem is in danger; it is |
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only part of it, and a substitute can be found 'cause that person was not "the |
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hero" of that part.</p> |
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<p>That need for heroes seems to be part of the problem with FSF: With rms out, |
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there was no hero in tow to promote the project. Because nobody actually tried |
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to move out of rms shadow before his resignation, the leadership ended with a |
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vacuum that nobody filled -- or felt the need to fill. That was the moment to |
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push small projects, assign several names (maybe a handful of names) into those |
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projects and show that the FSF found a better way to move. But because they |
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never tried to innovate, they seems to have get stuck into "finding another |
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hero" and decided to call the old one back.</p> |
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<p>Free Software shouldn't be synonymous of rms.</p> |
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<hr /> |
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<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup> |
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<p>Well, screw this, I don't want to use the Imperial format for dates and I |
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don't want to confuse people that use the Imperial format, so let's go with |
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the ISO format and confuse the world.</p> |
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<div class="footnote-definition" id="2"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">2</sup> |
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<p>That isn't that freaking hard, people! I've been called out for using |
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"guys", which I responded that I understood what they meant, would take more |
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care in the future, and thanked for their reply. From that point, instead of |
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"guys", I use "people" and neutral pronouns. And it doesn't freaking |
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hurt <strong>at all</strong> (although it is really hard when my native language -- |
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Portuguese -- have only gendered pronouns, but I try).</p> |
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