A little conspiracy theory What's behind the anti Stallmans?

A little conspiracy theory

The surprising (and unjustified) adverse reaction to the return of Richard Stallman to the Free Software Foundation, invites us to put on the aluminum hat and try to see beyond statements based on political correctness. Let it be clear that this is a personal speculation of mine and that only reality will show if I am right or should I change my medication.

I have two clarifications to make. I spent years criticizing Richard Stallman. To my liking, I spent more time insulting proprietary software and services than developing competitive products based on free software. I also did not like promoting hardware capable so that it could run FSF approved Linux distributions. Luckily, this changed with the arrival of friendly hardware vendors, but not thanks to Stallman or the Free Software Foundation.

Moreover,  of the writers of Linux Adictos, I am the one who most openly supported the incorporation of companies into the world of free and open source software, as well as the appearance of new proprietary software options.

Having written this, so that my position is understood, it was time to get down to business.

A little conspiracy theory to try to explain the anti Stallman mania

My partner Darkcrizt did an excellent job summarizing the support and repudiation that was registered over the weekend. Leaving aside the individual activists, almost the entire list of opposition institutions mentioned (and those that were added later) have something in common. Strong corporate financial support.

Let's see:

  • Mozilla Foundation: He written long and hard on the slippery slope of the Mozilla Foundation motivated by showing greater interest in political correctness than in making a good browser. With a smaller and smaller market share, its main economic supporter is Google. Recently se divested of personnel and projects that were immediately hired by Google and Microsoft Among other companies.
  • Open Source Initiative: Entity with a purpose similar to that of the Free Software Foundation, recently had to repeat the election of your steering committee because by taking advantage of a vulnerability in an internal process, the results were manipulated. OSI recently refused to validate a license that would have prevented a company from will use Elastic technology for free to compete with a similar service. The company Elastic wanted protection for was AWS, Amazon's cloud services division which, coincidentally, is one of OSI's premium sponsors..
  • RedHat:The IBM subsidiary is a sponsor of GNOME (The GNOME Foundation was one of the first to come out to repudiate Stallman) Coincidentally, it also supports the Open Source Initiative. Recently Red Hat was in the eye of controversy because changed the goal of the CentOS project, from being an alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to being its test bed.

Let's dwell a little longer on the Red Hat case. According to a document published August 2020 by the FSF $ 708.016 came from member dues, while most of its income, $ 1.383.003, came from other contributors like Red Hat.
Those in the red hat are determined to make their money pay off:

Red Hat is a long-time donor and contributor to FSF managed projects, with hundreds of contributors and millions of lines of code contributed. Given the circumstances of Richard Stallman's original resignation in 2019, Red Hat was horrified to learn that he had rejoined the FSF board of directors. As a result, we are immediately suspending all Red Hat funding to the FSF and any events hosted by the FSF. Additionally, many Red Hat contributors have told us that they no longer plan to participate in events led or supported by the FSF, and we support them.

But, it is the following paragraph that will delight conspirators.

In 2019, we asked the FSF board to seize the opportunity created by Stallman's departure to transition to a more diverse and inclusive board composition. The FSF took only limited steps in this direction. Richard Stallman's return has reopened the wounds that we hoped would slowly heal after his departure. We believe that to regain the trust of the free software community at large, the FSF should make fundamental and lasting changes in its governance.

One cannot help but wonder if "fundamental and lasting changes" are like those who made the CentOS project in its governing body In exchange for financial support, they ended up incorporating members of the company and approving the change of direction of the project.

Diego Do you really believe what you are writing?

Which Stallman is the strongest obstacle for the principles of free software to be changed to favor corporate interests? That they are using their questionable attitudes and cancellation fashion to get rid of it?

In no way, the mentioned organizations are irreproachable and only seek the improvement of free software. It's just a series of coincidences that I'm sure I'm misinterpreting. Also, I couldn't find George Soros's involvement anywhere, and no conspiracy theory worth its salt can work without Soros's involvement.


8 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Juan García said

    The GPL license is published by the FSF and can only be updated by the FSF (read the license carefully).

    The GPL has historically been a barrier to large corporations that have taken over the free world. If it weren't for the GPL copyleft, big corporations would forge, for example, the linux kernel to redistribute it with whatever anti-features they please.

    An eventual new version of the GPL that is looser as the big corporations like, is only possible if we bring down the leadership of the FSF so personalities of these big companies can take control.

    I do not want to be conspiranoic, but surely it is a coincidence that there are signers of facebook, google or microsoft in this witch hunt.

    1.    Gregory ros said

      +10

      1.    klaus said

        "I do not want to be conspiracy, but surely it is a coincidence that there are signers of facebook, google or microsoft in this witch hunt.
        I was going to answer you, and I answer, that this is where the spread goes, that they are "benevolent" and that they "know what is good for us", and inevitably that publication of the old ecol strip came to my mind, when operating on the patient the doctor asks for a fork, the patient freaks out, and the doctor replies, "Oh, don't worry, we have a Microsoft consultant who knows what's best for everyone."
        Linux with the GPL is a huge stone in the shoe to the excessive ambitions of the companies, so big that it blocks their way.

  2.   Delio G. Orozco Gonzalez said

    Theseus came out of the Cretan labyrinth aided by Ariadne's thread; if the money route is followed, the rage against Stallman can be explained.

    1.    Diego German Gonzalez said

      Cui bono? Cicero would say.
      That if they are going to come to show off classical culture, to my article, I am not going to be left behind.

      1.    Delio G. Orozco Gonzalez said

        Diego German:

        It could also be Cui prodest (Who benefits?)

  3.   Bruno said

    Stallman is undoubtedly annoying because he is not malleable, like so many others. The common factor that Diego finds among the opponents, finally. it is money, which of course is essential to be able to defend freedom, but you have to be careful where you get it. Do not be things that by obtaining two more functionalities we resign the objective of genuine freedom. And this doesn't just apply to software. This policy gentlemen, of the purest. I support Stallman in his founding vision, which has certainly not changed.

  4.   Fernando said

    This character has released an addon to point out pages that support Stallman, pure Nazi.
    https://masgnulinux.es/aaron-bassett-y-las-artes-nazis-breves/