Freedom, Not Fame, is His Goal
Fame is rather meaningless, even if money follows, because fame is the f word that unless or unlike freedom does not mean happiness and sometimes leads to anxiety, even depression. In showbiz, for instance, there are many "celebrities" that are controlled by some record label or producer or director. Without that dependence, they lose the limelight. They have invisible shackles.
To people like RMS, fame was a side effect, not the goal. The reason he wants greater recognition for GNU is GNU's association with freedom as a philosophy and goal. Unlike Linux, it's not about "open source" as "methodology".
People who pursue money alone won't find happiness because a pursuit of money can be not only tiring but also involve abandoning one's freedom. Many company "founders", for instance, are actually controlled by predatory VCs. Anil Dash has a a couple of new articles [1, 2] about what VCs became. █
