by fury999io on 9/29/23, 6:07 AM with 788 comments
by newscracker on 9/29/23, 9:33 AM
We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely. For a few moments, leave aside his personality and what people have said about his behavior or hygiene. If he hadn’t been there, our world would’ve been a lot different and a lot poorer. A visionary is what he was and is.
While the Free part of FOSS is being substituted by “(just) open source” and “source available”, while DRM goes deeper into our lives, and while everything is becoming a “hosted service”, one can only hope for (and put efforts into) going back to the ideals he proposed and pushing back on the elements that control us and seek to do even more so.
We all don’t have to be absolutists (it comes at the cost of convenience, which most people prefer), but there are enough of such people around the world as far as FOSS is concerned. Whenever I see FOSS meetups and people connecting over it, that’s something I’m grateful for and wholeheartedly support (though I’m not one of them).
by tusharhero on 9/29/23, 1:59 PM
My email:
Greetings Dr. Stallman,
First of all, Happy 40th GNUversary!
I was not able to attend the GNU40 meeting in Switzerland, but I have heard rumours that you have announced that you have some form of cancer.
Can you give me some more information about this? And is the cancer manageable?
I hope you are around for many more years.
--- tusharhero
Stallman's reply:
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
I'm glad you are concerned about my well being. At the same time, I am disappointed that people are spreading incomplete rumors, instead of passing along all of what I said about this. That is going to waste a lot of people's time and concern, just as it has done with you.
My prognosis is good. I can expect to live many more years.
-- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
by PostOnce on 9/29/23, 10:14 AM
For example, the right not to have to use some random company's app to interact with a government agency or a public school (and agree to said company's EULA, etc). It only takes a few dozen people to create a church with legal standing in many countries.
The FSF and the EFF are nice, but churches have additional legal protection for their adherents.
It does sort of vaguely border on religious zeal at this point. I've told companies they can either talk to me on Signal (or email), wait til I arrive on site, or find another contractor, but I will not use WhatsApp no matter how much they pay. This also applies to, for example, Microsoft/Google/Amazon products where learning their APIs and products mean my human capital, my skills, can be revoked by someone I never met, made valueless, my income made moot, in a sense.
Imagine having invested substantial time and effort into a proprietary ecosystem that was killed (by the company or its competition) and not being able to quickly leap into a competing esoteric, obtuse product.
by tharakam on 9/29/23, 9:15 AM
Only recently, I happen to realise, we could have listened to this man little more. Too late then, we are sold already.
Recover well Mr Stallman! I wish you the best!
by 0xcb0 on 9/29/23, 7:36 AM
I think he is one of the most influential persons in the last decades, not only regarding GNU or FreeSoftware but also about technology overall. While sadly at the same time lots of people underestimate his works and foreseeing.
He has really been and still is an inspiration for me. Really all the best to him!!
by coffeemug on 9/29/23, 7:16 AM
by jraph on 9/29/23, 8:27 AM
May he recover well, or at least have long enjoyable years ahead.
He has/had arguable/unacceptable behavior, but I believe we strongly owe him. He has built incredible software, defined important stuff and kicked our asses in the right direction.
by smudgy on 9/29/23, 9:29 AM
As I am prone to do when I'm brought back to that moment where I was just chatting with the RMS, I smile and wonder how many other dumb college compsci kids were exposed to a different kind of way of doing things that basically changed their lives.
Get well soon Mr. Stallman!
by yura on 9/29/23, 7:21 AM
by DonHopkins on 9/29/23, 1:28 PM
Richard Stallman has certainly been successful inspiring Ton and others to do great work and carry the flame! I hope he has access to excellent healthcare, and is as lucky as Ton.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosendaal:
https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/jlaxaf/can_we_just...
"Money doesn't interest me" - Ton Roosendaal interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg
BlenderCon 2020 closing address transcript:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951703
DonHopkins on Oct 31, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: Can we just take a moment to appreciate Ton Roosen...
It's well worth watching and discussing the entire video, including Ton's introduction and close, bracketing all the amazing contributions by blender artists and developers:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24951550
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjmbsiflMU
I think he saved the important personal news to discuss at the end, so it didn't distract from the virtual conference's focus on Blender itself, its community, and developers.
Ton is an unstoppable lucky force of nature: First he survived a vicious ceiling attack, now he survived leukemia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk&ab_channel=Blend...
In the introduction, Ton says that it has been a year of introspection and renewal, and describes how the Blender organization has been restructured.
That's followed by a series of mind blowing videos by a diverse worldwide bunch of talented Blender artists and developers.
In his closing statement, Ton tells what has happened to him in the past months, explains his change of perspective, and the implication and changes at the Blender Foundation.
Ton Roosendaal's BCON2020 Blender Conference closing address transcript:
https://youtu.be/uEjmbsiflMU?t=5427
I think it is a quite common effect in films.
Imagine, you are standing in the middle of a waterfall.
It is noisy, it is messy, it is colorful, it is wet.
You see everything is falling down.
Suddenly stops, the jets are coming down.
You see a bit of splashes.
You are standing there in the darkness.
On a black mirror.
That's how it feels when the doctor tells you that you have leukemia.
On February 24th, this year I was urgently hospitalized because I was developing bruises all over my body.
I started to bleed on my mouth.
The doctor said go to the hospital. Ton, we have to examine you.
At midnight I got the infamous bad news delivery by the doctor that I have acute leukemia of the quite rare kind.
It is called APL, which is not very common, but it is very lethal.
So usually you don't survive two weeks with this, unless, of course, the treatment works.
So that's what happened.
They immediately gave me blood transfusions and chemotherapy, and luckily after a few days I was recovering.
So I quickly moved from the critical phase to the phase of that you may get cured.
Four weeks later I was released from the hospital.
I was strong enough to join the rest of the world in the ... lockdown, staying at home.
After five weeks I had my first bone marrow test, which was extremely good.
And cancer was in remission, the doctor said. We are going to take you to the next phase, to cure you fully.
And that's called the maintenance phase.
Maintenance, right?
Then he said, well ... actually it is 7 months of treatments in which you have to be four months in hospital.
Not full time. But imagine in the afternoon you go to the hospital, they hook you up with the bag of poison, you wait three hours, you get sick, you go home, go to bed, in the morning you feel a little bit better.
And in the afternoon you go back to the hospital.
They hook you up, and you get sick again.
That's for 4 weeks, and then you get 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks getting sick, and 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick, another 4 weeks to recover, another 4 weeks to get sick!
It was last Friday, the last of the chemotherapy.
And this morning I went to the doctor again to discuss the tests I had.
And luckily my blood is fantastic, the bone marrow is looking really good, I could be declared cured.
But there was one little test they are still waiting, is the DNA test, which will take another 2 weeks to get.
But the doctor said I shouldn't worry about that.
I'm recovering extremely well.
So basically I've got my life back
So ...
And oh, how much I would have loved to sit together, today, at the conference with everyone because there would have been a conference and we would have thrown an enormous party not this year.
So I'm telling you this because this whole experience has had a profound impact on me, on my personality, on my life of course, plus I had time to think.
And I learned a couple of lessons.
First, getting cancer and surviving it it is not a fight. It is not something you win, something you lose.
You only need one thing. A little bit of discipline of course, to take care of yourself, eat well, do some exercises.
But what you need is luck.
And I was lucky.
I was lucky that science found the right treatment for me.
This is only 15 years old. This treatment for people with this kind of leukemia.
I was lucky to have family, friends around me to stand by.
I was lucky to have a team here in the company to stand by and to have.
Francesco Siddi to replace me for 8 months, doing fantastic job on it.
So I was lucky to live in the Netherlands, where there is a universal health care for everyone.
So there was not a moment that I had to worry about what would the treatment cost, and the doctors didn't have a moment to think other than what can we do for Ton, to help him, to cure him, and to make it as good and easy as possible for him.
So next time if you see people having cancer, don't wish them strength, or in Dutch "sterkte", just say good luck, and I wish you well, or a good day, a good evening.
Other things that I learned was that I want to start taking better care of myself, and I want to, I have a feeling that I was sacrificing myself too much.
So I want to put myself more forward, and also take care better of myself in a way that I can pay myself a little bit better. So I can afford a little house outside of Amsterdam with a garden.
I also mentioned last year that at some moment I have to step aside from Blender, for the future, to allow other people to come in.
And the process is been sped up, but not so much that I want to step down, but to get very strong people around me to help making Blender strong, and keep it strong, and move on, and step forward.
Because the main thing I learned was that I was really really not ready to let that go.
I couldn't let go of Blender, because that' s my life' s work.
Blender is life, right.
Blender is a community.
It is a team of people here.
It is everybody who is contributing.
It's the developers.
The bug fixers.
It is the people that make add-ons.
It is even the people who complain, or the people use Maya and don't like Blender.
It is the forum trolls.
And even the people who want to have the game engine back.
So all of them are the people I love.
And all of them I feel like is my family.
And I would never let go of that family.
So, enough drama, right?
I want to end with a little more happy note.
As you all know 2020 is not very nice.
It is a year that we are going to forget.
But the happy message is that 2020 didn't get me down, and I want to spread that positive vibe with everyone.
So please take care of yourself, take care of each other, and a little bit of Blender.
And I see you next year in Amsterdam, or somewhere else.
Bye Bye!
by omgmajk on 9/29/23, 6:18 AM
by mullikine on 9/29/23, 10:55 AM
Father God in Heaven,
Please heal Richard Stallman of the cancer afflicting his
body, and give him a strong will to endure all of this to the end.
Let him keep his health through this period of his life here on Earth, LORD.
And let both him and his legacy continue shine the light of freedom and
transparency and human decency in this world, which is getting so dark.
And keep him healthy through his chemo, please God. And give him the joy of Your
salvation through Jesus Christ, and the hope of life eternal.
Save his soul, please God. And if it is Your will, even make him a saint in the
church of Jesus Christ, Your Son. Heaven wont be the same without him.
In Jesus Christ's name I ask,
Amen.
by freeqaz on 9/29/23, 6:19 AM
by jll29 on 9/29/23, 8:32 AM
I also know that if he reads this, it will be from an Emacs mail client on his dusty ThinkPad in text mode (no X11 or Wayland) by sending a URL to a service he wrote that will email him the Web page back - a clean process without any using any tainted proprietary software.
He only ever exchanged one sentence with me when we had dinner together with other computer scientists two decades ago in Edinburgh: "I don't do smalltalk." - and he didn't mean the programming language. :)
by testermelon on 9/29/23, 7:26 AM
by sambeau on 9/29/23, 11:46 AM
by tibbydudeza on 9/29/23, 7:52 AM
Right person at the right time - live long and prosper RMS.
by SillyUsername on 9/29/23, 8:14 AM
fuck cancer.
by garba_dlm on 9/29/23, 2:07 PM
referring to his story of "right to read" or something like that about books being able to get deleted of your bookshelf... and then Amazon making this a reality some decades later
by mgd on 9/29/23, 7:58 AM
by Bright_Machine on 9/29/23, 1:11 PM
by honeybadger1 on 9/29/23, 11:23 AM
by kome on 9/29/23, 10:17 AM
We need his vision to inspire us to keep inspiring. And to help us understand what is right and what is wrong.
I hope he will heal soon.
by clbrmbr on 9/29/23, 12:38 PM
Two days later I found myself selling books alongside a self-described nomad and was approached by the leader of the communist party of Great Britain who shook my hand and said “I’m a big fan of your work.”
Was one of those surreal moments.
by jjice on 9/29/23, 3:23 PM
by pvaldes on 9/29/23, 10:38 AM
by FredPret on 9/29/23, 1:51 PM
The more the tech world develops and the more I learn, the more I start to like free & open source tech.
I do think there will always be a a large and growing amount of space for paid software work, but the variety and quality of free software seems to go up and to the right over time.
by Aspie96 on 9/29/23, 4:45 PM
But I think the world is better with him than without him and that he's worked hard to further his mission. Not everyone should be like him, but it's great that he is.
I sincerely wish RMS all the best.
by max_ on 9/29/23, 7:50 AM
Do you guys know of any ways to reduce your risks of getting cancer? I know not smoking tobacco works.
What foods, bad habits should one avoid. What other habits can reduce cancer risks?
Are there any prophylactic techniques?
by fury999io on 9/29/23, 6:07 AM
by billy99k on 9/29/23, 2:32 PM
by pkdpic on 9/30/23, 4:19 PM
by vlugorilla on 9/29/23, 10:28 AM
by pimpampum on 9/29/23, 9:26 AM
by tegmark on 9/29/23, 12:18 PM
because of the poisonous vitriol that responses will undoubtedly have, i wont be reading responses. dont even bother.
by mid-kid on 9/29/23, 7:05 AM
by gregopet on 9/29/23, 7:11 AM
by TZubiri on 9/29/23, 11:22 AM
by User23 on 9/29/23, 2:49 PM
by kombai on 9/29/23, 12:16 PM
The biggest tension at the GNU 40 years event was when an old Mr. was speaking about social economics and his attempts to make a local money in Basel (ch). Two american protagonists interrupted the speach telling it is too political. Later i talked to the one of them, a Chinese girl studiying in Harvard USA, she started telling me things about her big rich buisiness family and personal crypto projects she had in liberal finance field in Switzerland, she proposed me a job as a Solidity develloper. And I UNDERSTOOD why the previous speech was "TOO POLITICAL" for her.
For me, FSF and GNU are not enought political; I was always disappointed of the FSF and GNU political positioning, while their fight is about freeing the world of proprietary licences (property right) they don't consider to support anticapitalists movements who are fighting for that to. Stallman was the only to publicly support the French left social-reformist party "La France Insoumise" with the candidat Jean Luc Mélenchon, and for me it means a lot.
Now, let's say it; OF course I understand why this is strategic for them, but i don't stand for it because it is irresponsible and dangerous.
by squarefoot on 9/29/23, 10:38 AM
by adamc on 9/29/23, 4:04 PM
by staringback on 9/29/23, 4:02 PM
by vfinn on 9/29/23, 10:32 AM
by znpy on 9/29/23, 9:56 AM
So sad to hear this :(
by oliverpk on 9/29/23, 11:37 AM
by anticensor on 9/29/23, 10:52 AM
by ngc248 on 9/29/23, 9:24 AM
by placesalt on 9/29/23, 12:50 PM
by bigbillheck on 9/29/23, 3:53 PM
by PHGamer on 9/29/23, 2:43 PM
by golemotron on 9/29/23, 9:05 AM
by H8crilA on 9/29/23, 6:53 AM
by minebreaker on 9/29/23, 6:50 AM
by eurleif on 9/29/23, 6:43 AM
by jhatemyjob on 9/29/23, 6:39 AM
by 99112000 on 9/29/23, 8:33 AM