Richard Stallman Resigns from Free Software Foundation

Sep 17, 2019

GNU founder came under fire for comments made on an internal MIT mailing list

The outspoken founder of Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU project, Richard Stallman, has resigned from his post as President of the FSF. Stallman came under fire for his comments in defense of the late Marvin Minsky, co-founder of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence lab, who was implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal. Although Stallman did not defend Epstein, his comments regarding Minsky’s involvement were regarded as insensitive at best and came across as an inappropriate logical exercise in the face of growing concern over Minsky’s actions. 

Reaction from the Free Software community was swift. The Free Software Conservancy (SFC) said in a blog post, “The fight for diversity, equality, and inclusion in the fight for software freedom; our movement will only be successful if it includes everyone. With these as our values and goals, we are appalled at recent statements made by the President and founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, in his recent email to the MIT CSAIL mailing list.”

The SCF then called for Stallman to step down from positions of leadership in the free software movement. A few hours later Stallman announced that he has resigned from his position at MIT and FSF.

Related content

  • News

    In the news: The Art of PostgreSQL; Red Hat Announces CentOS Stream; Linus Torvalds Agrees to Kernel Lockdown; Richard Stallman Resigns from Free Software Foundation; Oracle Announces Autonomous Linux; Attackers Find a New Way to Install Cryptominers; and GitLab 12.3 Brings More Security to DevOps Engineers.

    more »
  • GNOME: Split from GNU Project?

    Richard Stallman's strong position against proprietary applications is butting heads with some members of the GNOME Foundation. A call to split with Stallman's GNU Project is being considered.

    more »
  • Richard Stallman: Cloud Computing a Trap

    As an original founder of Open Source, Richard Stallman cautions in an interview with the British Guardian newspaper about the repercussions of cloud computing. His main objection: dependency and loss of control.

    more »
  • Welcome

    This article went to press one week before Richard Stallman abruptly resigned as head of the Free Software Foundation. Yikes! All is flux in the FOSS world. Still, the trend toward détente between Microsoft and the Free Software community is bound to continue, and these thoughts on Stallman’s recent visit to Redmond offer a glimpse into how real change happens – one small step at a time.

    more »
  • Mono Discussion: Stallman Warns, Ubuntu Dismissive

    The introduction of Mono into Linux and the open source environment begs risking patent claims from Microsoft. Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman sees it that way. The Technical board at Ubuntu, on the other hand, doesn't consider it any reason to be disturbed.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus

Issue 235/2020

Buy this issue as a PDF

Digital Issue: Price $12.99
(incl. VAT)

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source