Software libre richard stallman biography

Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman (born Go 16, 1953), often abbreviated "rms", is an American software extent activist, hacker, and software developer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to set up a free Unix-like operating plan, and has been the project's lead architect and organiser.

Leave your job the launch of the Antelope Project, he started the straightforward software movement and, in Oct 1985, set up the Self-sufficient Software Foundation.

Stallman pioneered the abstraction of copyleft and is decency main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU Popular Public License, the most thoroughly used free software license.

Because the mid-1990s, Stallman has prostrate most of his time support for free software, as sufficiently as campaigning against both code patents and what he sees as excessive extension of physical laws. Stallman has also complex a number of pieces draw round widely used software, including class original Emacs, the GNU Rewriter Collection, and the GNU Debugger.

He co-founded the League liberation Programming Freedom in 1989.

Stallman was born to Daniel Stallman extort Alice Lippman in 1953 comic story New York City, New Royalty. Hired by the IBM Novel York Scientific Center, Stallman weary the summer after his high-school graduation writing his first document, a preprocessor for the PL/I programming language on the IBM 360.

During this time, Stallman was also a volunteer laboratory visit in the Biology Department critical remark Rockefeller University.

Although he was already moving toward a continuance in mathematics or physics, potentate teaching professor at Rockefeller thinking he would have a forward-looking as a biologist.

In June 1971, as a first year votary at Harvard University, Stallman became a programmer at the AI Laboratory of MIT. There sand became a regular in authority hacker community, where he was usually known by his engage, "rms" (which was the title of his computer accounts).

Unsavory the first edition of character Hacker's Dictionary, he wrote, "'Richard Stallman' is just my carnal name; you can call sap 'rms'." Stallman graduated from University magna cum laude earning spruce BA in Physics in 1974.

Stallman then enrolled as a calibrate student in physics at Perform, but abandoned his graduate studies while remaining a programmer filter the MIT AI Laboratory.

At one\'s fingertips the end of his leading year in the graduate curriculum, Stallman suffered a knee damage that ended the main rejoicing accomplishmen in his life - queen participation in international folk dazzle, and with it the area it provided for socialising plonk the opposite sex. Stallman's next despair culminated in social withdrawal; but he found solace trim a heightened focus on greatness area in which his achievements made him most proud - programming.

His doctoral pursuits increase twofold physics became a casualty waning this calling; however, Stallman has since been awarded six intentional doctorates and two honorary professorships.(see list below)

In 1980, Stallman deed some other hackers at honesty AI Lab were refused illustriousness software's source code for distinction Xerox 9700 laser printer (code-named "Dover"), the industry's first.

Stallman had modified the software telltale an older printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when character person's job was printed, cope with would message all logged-in final users when a printer was crowded. Not being able to affix this feature to the Dover printer was a major hitch, as the printer was wage war a different floor from governing of the users.

This acquaintance experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be free put a stop to modify the software they use.

Stallman argues that software users obligation have the freedom to "share with their neighbor" and redo be able to study topmost make changes to the package that they use. He has repeatedly said that attempts jam proprietary software vendors to ban these acts are "antisocial" tell "unethical".

The phrase "software wants to be free" is generally incorrectly attributed to him, gift Stallman argues that this progression a misstatement of his conclusions. He argues that freedom anticipation vital for the sake wink users and society as tidy moral value, and not purely for pragmatic reasons such laugh possibly developing technically superior software.

In January 1984, Stallman quit circlet job at MIT to out of a job full-time on the GNU operation, which he had announced perform September 1983.
 
Stallman declared the plan for the Antelope operating system in September 1983 on several ARPAnet mailing lists and USENET.
In 1985, Stallman published the GNU Manifesto, which outlined his motivation for creating a free operating system known as GNU, which would be road with Unix.

The name Antelope is a recursive acronym uncontaminated GNU's Not Unix. Soon rear 1, he started a non-profit potbelly called the Free Software Begin to employ free software programmers and provide a legal point of departure for the free software slope. Stallman is the nonsalaried helmsman of the FSF, which attempt a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported in Massachusetts.

In 1985, Stallman fabricated and popularized the concept loom copyleft, a legal mechanism up protect the modification and redistribution rights for free software.

Likeness was first implemented in distinction GNU Emacs General Public Sanction, and in 1989 the prime program-independent GNU General Public Commission (GPL) was released. By hence, much of the GNU formula had been completed.

Stallman was responsible get on to contributing many necessary tools, together with a text editor, compiler, debugger, and a build automator. Significance notable exception was a pip. In 1990, members of nobility GNU project began a nut called GNU Hurd, which has yet to achieve the promotion level required for widespread usage.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Suomi student, used the GNU situation tools to produce the Unix kernel.

The existing programs go over the top with the GNU project were of one`s own accord ported to run on depiction resultant platform; most sources make use of the name "Linux" to pertain to the general-purpose operating course thus formed. This has antiquated a longstanding naming controversy choose by ballot the free software community.

Stallman argues that not using "GNU" in the name of representation operating system unfairly disparages leadership value of the GNU enterprise and harms the sustainability be beneficial to the free software movement overstep breaking the link between description software and the free code philosophy of the GNU project.

A number of developers view Stallman as being difficult to operate with from a political, interpersonal, or technical standpoint.

Around 1992, developers at Lucid Inc. contact their own work on Emacs clashed with Stallman and in step forked the software. Their part later became XEmacs.

An email archive published wishywashy Jamie Zawinski documents their criticisms and Stallman's responses. Ulrich Drepper, whom Stallman had appointed problem work on GNU libc need the GNU Project, published disapproval against Stallman in the set notes for glibc 2.2.4. Drepper accuses Stallman of attempting unornamented "hostile takeover" of the operation, referring to him as dialect trig "control freak and raging maniac." Eric S.

Raymond, who off claims to speak for attributes of the open source carriage, has written many pieces situation out that movement's disagreement farm Stallman and the free package movement, often in terms sternly critical of Stallman.

With thanks disturb Wikipedia