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RMS is quite unkempt, his feet stink like a hobo. In general he has a retarded way of dealing with people, not a nice person to be in touch with.

Just my 2 cents. PS: I did not mention his philosophy, neithe if his ideas are wrong. I just said he's got a bad personal hygiene and that he is has a retarded way of dealing with people, here are some quotes: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms It is plain wrong to offer condolences to a father with a newborn child and thus retarded.




RMS is a delightful man (I've had the pleasure of interviewing him at length in person), and his demands are completely in line with his philosophies. His dedication to free and open-source ideals, if impractical, is also inspiring and rare.

Saying he has "a retarded way of dealing with people" is perhaps too general. I myself found him enchanting and enlightening in our interactions. Maybe you just didn't like the way he treated you.


He certainly manages to get your attention. I saw him speak many years ago, the room was full of young, passionate enthusiasts and true to form even with his unkempt appearance we were glued to every word. I have no doubt he has been almost entirely responsible for maintaining the high profile nature of free software (for all his complaints about 'open source', the side affect has been to create a rich culture of sharing while producing work you can get paid for).


> open-source ideals,

You didn't read the part of the rider about "open source".


Your parent said "free and open source". Tiny but important difference.


"I didn’t receive the DEC message, but I can’t imagine I would have been bothered if I have. I get tons of uninteresting mail, and system announcements about babies born, etc. At least a demo might have been interesting."

I actually laughed at that.


I think your poor English isn't sufficient to understand the dark humour at play in the post.

The foreword from Edward O'Connor might just as well be rewritten: "In which I consider the latest example of my own utter lack of humour." I love his casual Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. Then Edward goes on to write authoritative posts on empathy, on hypocrisy, and on overpopulation.

As it says on top of his homepage: Edward O'Connor is a web standards developer in San Francisco, CA.


> It is plain wrong to offer condolences to a father with a newborn child

Do a google search for 'childfree' some time and you'll see that RMS is on the nice side of that one.




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