Bonum Certa Men Certa

GNU is Not Linux: Richard Stallman Explains the Origins of GNU

Another series of interviews coming...

Richard Stallman on chair



Summary: Stallman tells Techrights/TechBytes lesser-known details about the birth of GNU in the early 1980s

Freedom is appreciated by more and more people who now understand how freedom gets covertly derailed, either by corporations, by authorities, or both. The NSA leaks have helped people reassess their views.



A lot of the digital oppression that we now suffer from was vaguely foreseen decades ago. Back doors and other malicious features were only a few years or decades away back then; trust in computers was maintained owing to secrec; behind the scenes computers and networks turned from instruments of enablement to instruments of control (restriction, surveillance, and more). The trend we are seeing was predictable to pessimists. As times goes by the words of warning from Richard Stallman find support from a wider audience of former optimists.

Stallman's life as a freedom activist mostly began 30 years ago. Our readers regularly ask for him to come back and share his views. Iophk pointed out that GNU's anniversary was an opportunity to speak about the past. "Any kind of interview, either via e-mail or via SIP," he said, "would be great."

"I don't think I've seen any retrospective yet covering where progress has actually been made. There are a lot of things that have become so common that we almost take them for granted or forget their origins."

The interview with Stallman tries to focus on GNU as a movement and as a software project. It does cover some topics outside the area of software, but any topic other than software is not the main topic this time around. Some questions came from readers, giving an opportunity to receive a video response. Others were written in advance in order to address contemporary issues. The overview is as follows:

Part 1: the Origins of GNU

- - Can you recall the text/code editor (amongst other tools) used to initially create GNU and over time render proprietary software non-obligatory for development work?

- - What was the first GNU program?

- - How did the number of active participants vary over the years back in the 1980s?

Part 2: the Achievements of GNU

- - What is it among the goals of GNU which has not been fulfilled yet (if any)?

- - If the GNU operating system was widely preinstalled on restrictive hardware and preloaded with binary blobs, would that, in your view, be better than lesser ubiquity for GNU?

- - What will it take to break the desktop monopoly and tackle the OEM bundling trap?

Part 3: the Future of GNU

- - Do you believe that GNU receives as much credit as it deserves?

- - To what extent does attribution to GNU (which usually accompanies understanding of its principles) contribute to its sustainability as a long-term project?

- - Are you optimistic or pessimistic with respect to the future of computing as increasingly free/libre?

The interview took a short time compared to the 2.5 hours I spent with Stallman, mostly speaking off the record. Questions were also taken from readers and then answered. Someone asked me to ask "Richard what he thinks about Google? is it evil? is it lesser evil, just like in RMS's example of lending a copy of software to your friend, even though this copy should not be copied?"

Questions were also asked about darknets and such. One person sought Stallman's opinion on "i2p, freenet and the meshnets that are rising like Hyperborea with the altDNS deal."

One reader wanted to "ask him to join Diaspora!"

For all those questions and much beyond them be sure to keep an eye on Techrights.

Among the topics covered we also had trolls, or those who focus on reputation damage to the Free Software Foundation, the GPL, and people who are associated with these. The interview will get split into segments and then edited as before, probably to be released over the span of the next 3 months (I work full time, so I must pace this editing process accordingly).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 09/03/2025: Lagrange 1.18.5 and Writing Mannerisms
Links for the day
Links 08/03/2025: International Women's Day, Software Patents Being Squashed
Links for the day
Hiding Problems Doesn't Work
transparent organisations will be more stable and sustainable
Under the Pen Name "John O'Donnell" (LLM Slop, Not Real Article or Author) LinuxLinks Pushes Spammy Page
it happened some hours ago.
 
[Video] Richard Stallman on Understanding the Misconception of So-called 'Artificial Intelligence'
to "know and understand"
FSF's Defective by Design (DBD): Amazon Tightens the Digital Handcuffs
Reproduced verbatim
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Plenty of Issues, Plenty of Censorship
The OSI is abusive on many levels!
EPO Staff Appraisals Apparently Benefit Kakistocracy, Including Cheaters Who Grant Illegal Patents and Punish Good Patent Examiners (Who Find Valid Reasons for Denials)
In prior reports the staff representatives said that rewards typically went to people who granted many patents, i.e. didn't do proper examination and instead just allowed many fake patents get enshrined as EPs, causing fiasco (from which some patent attorneys could profit)
As The Web Gets Drowned Out, Sinking in a Pool of LLM Slop, Real News Sites With Real News Become Increasingly Rare If Not Extinct
This is a real problem
Links 09/03/2025: Moderna Patents Thrown Out, Climate United Sues E.P.A.
Links for the day
Links 09/03/2025: FiveThirtyEight Killed by Disney, Nature (Journal) Chooses Suicide by Slop
Links for the day
The Harder They Try to Censor, the Bigger the Scandal (and the Impact) Will Be
We don't plan to self-censor our coverage; sometimes we just delay publication a little
Gemini Links 09/03/2025: Leasehold Derangement Syndrome, Raspberry Pi, and More
Links for the day
All-Time Low for Microsoft in Africa
it helps show how irrelevant Microsoft is becoming
French woman (frontaliere) trafficked to promote unauthorised cross border Swiss insurance
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
New York Times & Guardian reporting on Modern Slavery Act prosecution of Glodi Wabelua
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Diana & Adrian von Bidder-Senn, EVP, Palm Sunday & Debian death on wedding day
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The RTO (Return-to-office) Layoffs or 'Soft' Layoffs at IBM and Red Hat
There are certainly many layoffs going on there, but many are described as "resignations" or "retirements" after RTO or some other form of relocation
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 08, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 08, 2025
Graveyard of Mastodons: A Vast Number of Inactive Accounts
More than 80% of users in mastodon.social (the "big one") are no longer active
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Reading Cory Doctorow's 'Little Brother', Abandoning GAFAM Forever
Links for the day
No, We Don't Want to Go "Viral" (and You Probably Don't, Either)
"Viral" junk gets forgotten quickly
Windows is Being Eradicated
On the Web, in Africa in particular, user strings or UAs that say "Windows" are becoming more rare
For International Women's Rights Day (Today) Staff Representatives at the European Patent Office (EPO) Opened Up on Gender Discrimination at the Office
Office discrimination against women is widely known; unless you sleep with men in management
Links 08/03/2025: Tariff Self Harm and Mostly Solved Diseases Making a Comeback
Links for the day
Links 08/03/2025: Climate Change Causing Food Shortages, Selling Off Chrome Still in the Cards
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Driving in Japan, GrapheneOS, Tariffs Silver Lining
Links for the day
Working Like a Pack of Hyenas, the Microsofters Try Hard to Hide the Truth and Actively Censor Critics
They even target women
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Bylaws of the OSI a Shocking Oversight
That's what the OSI is right now: a salesperson
Thinking About Abandoning 'Google News' Altogether Due to Easy Poisoning by LLM Slop
As long as Google News keeps sending traffic to these leeches, it'll be very hard to justify relying on Google News for anything at all
Links 08/03/2025: Microsoft Failures, Further Attacks on Speech in Hong Kong
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Physical Albums, Analog Computing, Deleting All Social Control Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 07, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 07, 2025
OpenAI, Deep in Debt With Growing Losses, Sees Web Traffic Falling Fourfold in a Year
Microsoft's shares have fallen over 10% since the last report and OpenAI is trying to con people via Wall Street, offloading the debt to some gullible fools
Microsoft's Social Control Media Efforts Cratering (GitHub and LinkedIn)
Expect more layoffs
Microsoft Office is a Dying Cash Cow and Now It's Just Dying/Starving
Most people use Android and they don't need some bloated office suite because many processes involve Web forms
Links 07/03/2025: Radio’s Death Knells and US Abandoning Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/03/2025: Replacing Firefox with LibreWolf, Visiting Churches
Links for the day
Links 07/03/2025: Oracle Layoffs, HPE Eliminates 3,000 Jobs, Massive Price Hikes at Microsoft, More Surveillance in Microsoft's Stuff
Links for the day
Manslaughter: Haverfordwest convictions, Abraham Raji & Debian DebConf drowning
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Open Source Initiative's (OSI) Latest IRS Files: Only 2.9% (2.90046827447%) of Its Income is From Members
So almost all the money is corporate
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (Formal Complaint)
Time will tell if a Cheeto-controlled California will take this seriously or just brush it aside like a head of state from Ukraine
Half a Decade Without Social Control Media
Not all audience is desirable
IBM Laid Off Almost 2,000 Staff Last Friday and No Western Publication (Newspaper, Web Site) Even Mentioned That
Only some Asian sites mentioned it
Under IBM, After Killing OpenSource.com, the Next Casualty May be "Community Blog" of the Fedora Project
It sounds like they already made the decision/s
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part IV - Physical Health, Mental Health, and Debilitating Anxiety
One is better off feeding stray pigeons (rather than scrolling and clicking on "timelines" like a dumb pigeon)
Links 07/03/2025: WSL Breakage (as Usual), Abandoning WordPress for Hugo
Links for the day
LLM Slop Versus Richard Stallman
"Compilation Of Corruption: Jeffrey Epstein And The Halls Of Academia"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 06, 2025