Richard Stallman agrees to do an AMA on reddit

<p><pre><code> &#62; As the cloud is moving in (gmail, google docs, etc) and &#62; slowly replacing more and more of our traditional applications. &#62; What can we do in order to free the web from closed source &#62; systems which we can't just use, share and adapt as we like. &#62; Can free software compete with this or are we forced to live &#62; in the last century where everything is hosted on out own &#62; computers? </code></pre> I know it might go against the grain here on HN (with all the Web 2.0 buzz that goes around), but why is running applications on your local computer now considered 'old fashioned?' While things like Google Maps/Earth are really awesome, I'm not about to say that we get rid of locally stored maps (or turn-by-turn directions). What happens when we <i>don't</i> have cell reception or and Internet connection?

I saw him speak at Rice University a few years back and he really left a bad impression on me.<p>At the heart of his message there are some good ideas - but his insistence on people saying GNU with Linux made him seem childish and bitter. He also went over the time and didn't take any questions. By about the 1.5 hour mark large number of people were walking out during the talk. He mocked one of them. There appeared to be no end in sight. Around the hour 45 minute mark it was just getting rambling and incoherent and I also walked out.<p>There is a place for free software, but I certainly wouldn't want Richard Stallman as a spokesman for my cause.

Reddit has managed to arrange some pretty cool interviews. I've enjoyed many of them.

Is he going to email a daemon that answers the questions?

This makes me think there is room for a service that does nothing but AMA with famous people only.

I saw him speak a few years ago. The impressions I got were:<p>* nice guy, but a bit awkward socially<p>* very smart and good memory too<p>* has written a lot of free software, and would like others to consider making theirs free as well<p>Also, I wished that he would've included more technical topics in the talk.

It's too bad that he can't just login to reddit and answer the questions directly.

If it wasn't for this article pointing to the reedit post, I would have never discovered this juicy, delicious, and distasteful video of Stallman eating his foot pickings.<p><pre><code> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ </code></pre> That literally brightened my day. Brilliance is questionable if it means this is the end result!

Has he answered any of them yet? :/

"Why do you eat the split-ends our of your beard?"<p>"Why do you eat your toenails?"<p>(both live, on stage)

So that'll be ten questions about the flavour of the stuff between his toes then...

This isn't exactly on topic but wow, having now used to HN, I can see that Reddit really has bad commentary!<p>Reddit was the best thing in the world when it happened but I'm not missing it at all since I left around two years ago.