The Phoenix has a quite good interview with RMS, including a surprisingly clear recognition of the on-going rift between “Open Source” and “Free Software”. (Bonus: a nice sidebar, “GNU and the Free Software Movement” as well)
Kudos to the author, Mike Miliard.
I like several things about this article. For one thing, the author obvious took great pains trying to break down a somewhat abstract and complex “inside baseball” issue and did not oversimplify it to the point of white-washing it.
For another, there are a lot of powerful RMS quotes:
What we need is enough people not to be outright cowards, and we can win. I really care about freedom and I’m willing to make some sacrifices for it. There are such strong forces arrayed to take away our freedom, and it’s vanishing so fast that, without sacrifices, we’re sure to lose it.
Finally, I deeply appreciate the very sad closing paragraph because it says so so much:
I ask Stallman if he’s optimistic. Surprisingly for a man with such ironclad convictions, he says no: the corporations just have too much of a stranglehold on government and society.
Every single person that ever tried to say that rms was “out of touch with reality” can now shut the hell up. The theme, sad but true, that runs through the interview is that rms knows it’s an uphill battle. He knows corporate interests are largely arrayed against him, and he knows that – especially in the USA – progress will be very difficult. He knows it requires sacrifices.
He’s just trying to live a life in line with his convictions as best he is able. Convictions like “everybody who’s using a computer deserves freedom”. How sad when people oppose that.
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