04.04.21

Two Weeks After Richard M. Stallman Announced His Return to the FSF at a Public Capacity

Posted in Free/Libre Software, FSF at 3:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Now that the dust has settled it seems fair to point out that the FSF was right; it pissed off all the right people (people who didn't care about software freedom anyway) and some who signed the petition against the FSF have since then realised they were conned, with some expressing remorse or considering a retraction of the signature (we’ve seen several examples of that)

AS we noted some months ago, Richard M. Stallman (RMS) never really left the FSF, he just kept a low profile and exercised control from behind the scenes as a voting member. Some advised him not to show his face or only issue carefully-worded statements.

“Some of the hostile (to RMS) elements have left, the so-called ‘moderates’ (compromises aren’t winning strategy) are leaving, and coup plotters were removed.”Weeks ago the FSF liaised with a firm that’s akin to P.R. and shortly later RMS was voted back into the Board of the FSF. Early rumours told us the intent was to reinstate him (via vote) as FSF President — a claim that he later denied to me personally, or maybe he changed his mind in response to the noise made by a hateful mob.

Regardless, my confidence in the FSF is greater than it has been in years. Some of the hostile (to RMS) elements have left, the so-called ‘moderates’ (compromises aren’t a winning strategy) are leaving, and coup plotters were removed. Some of them were removed last year. This means that antagonism to the spirit and the goals of the FSF is hardly there anymore. There are now two more members in the Board, one left a week ago, so the net gain is one. As I point out in the video, some of the Techrights-hostile elements of the FSF have also been eliminated. █

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