The Shaggy God - Richard Stallman in Boston Magazine

"Strictly speaking, the complete operating system should have been called GNU/Linux, representing the combined contributions of Stallman and Torvalds. Stallman always insists on the term, pronouncing it "GNU slash Linux." But in the popular mind, it came to be known as only Linux. Stallman has never gotten over that."<p>The more I read about Stallman the more I find that his extreme stance is just who he is:<p>"He's entirely consistent and uncompromising and I think the world needs someone like that," Perens said.<p><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175802222&#38;pgno=4&#38;queryText=&#38;isPrev=" rel="nofollow">http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/sho...</a>

"The most momentous product of Stallman's genius, Linux, was the first operating system to feature software that was entirely free."<p>I believe this is not entirely accurate - I seem to remember someone else being involved in creating linux...

Can anyone answer for me how Stallman has influenced the Cambridge tech community? What was interesting, as the author envisons "Mt. Hackmore", is that Stallman is the only East Coaster in that circle. Makes me think that in combining his personality and ethos with the venture community in Boston you could perhaps explain the very conservative investment environment.

Stallman got trolled (though he realized it) when Philip Greenspun did a parody page on "Heather Has Two Mommies and they go to the Zoo" : <a href="http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/" rel="nofollow">http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/</a><p>Stallman's PC response, laying all on the "right wing Christian movement": <a href="http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/stallman-reaction.text" rel="nofollow">http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/stallman-reaction.text</a>

I understand why Stallman wants the GNU in GNU/Linux. But what's always confusing me is - why the slash? He's a programmer, so he knows that this is usually used for paths. But that does not seem to make sense if he wants this as a single name which should always be used. You can't create a single GNU/Linux folder - at least not in GNU/Linux. So anyone know why he didn't use another character there?

<i>Stallman detests wealth</i><p><i>He travels the world as a free software evangelist</i><p>Which came first, the chicken or the egg?<p>Does he detest wealth because he is a free software evangelist?<p>Or is he a free software evangelist because he never figured out how to become wealthy himself?

haha...RMS didn't post that ad for himself on craigslist, I posted it on his behalf! It's so strange to see oneself indirectly referred to in an article which one otherwise has nothing to do with.

He's taking credit for Linux now? wtf?