Talk:Richard Stallman

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to Richard Stallman. --Antiquary 20:11, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Based on years of conversations, I am convinced that part of the cause of the problem is the tendency to call the system Linux rather than GNU, and describe it as open source rather than free software.


 * Instead of worrying about what somebody else is going to do, which is not under your control, the important thing is, what are you going to decide about what is under your control?


 * « Les cons peuvent être vaincus mais ils n'admettent jamais l'être. »
 * "Idiots can be defeated but they never admit it."


 * Playfully doing something difficult, whether useful or not, that is hacking.


 * Protecting essential freedoms is always a matter of restricting the actions that would deny them.


 * We promote free software as an ethical and social issue. Computer users should always have the freedom to share and change the software they use. It's wrong to try to stop someone.


 * Although the basic GNU/Linux system is free software, most of the GNU/Linux versions now available include a small amount of non-free software--just enough to spoil them as a way to attain freedom. But Linspire is in a class by itself; large and important parts of this system are non-free. No other GNU/Linux distribution has backslided so far away from freedom. Switching from MS Windows to Linspire does not bring you to freedom, it just gets you a different master.

A new source for quotes
The following link:

http://www.r-statistics.com/2010/07/richard-stallman-talkqa-at-the-user-2010-conference-audio-files-attached/

Has a 25 minutes session of Q&A with Richard, offering many nice quotes to include on this page.

24.0.90.38 20:43, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Unreliable Source
The source of the following is an email that is read in a radio show. It's not even sure if it's from Richard Stallman. If we want to quote Stallman on GNU/Linux, there are much better ways, by using reliable sources. Hnfiurgds (talk) 16:59, 29 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
 * Jun 18: #070 - Computer America #15 Tracktime 37:13 - received via email from a Richard (no certainty that it is from Richard Stallman)

Because that quote is somewhat of a Richard Stallman-related internet meme, it's likely that that was sent from someone pretending to be Richard Stallman, and may or may not originally be by him. --92.110.144.193 20:37, 13 July 2014 (UTC)
 * He has mentioned it, though. Microchip08 (talk) 15:13, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
 * But not in the above quote. And if wikipedia wants to provide accurate and objective sources, they must be able to to do so too. I still have not seen a reliable source for it, which is quite similar to Bill Gates 640K is enough for everyone, which also isn't quite correct. The internet has a lot of dynamics without really being accurate. 2A02:8388:1600:A880:BE5F:F4FF:FECD:7CB2 19:56, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
 * He never said this quote, this is a copypasta from /g/. --Thibaut120094 (talk) 12:11, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
 * So who originated the above quote then? 2A02:8388:1641:4700:BE5F:F4FF:FECD:7CB2 16:38, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm sure I'm fairly late to contribute to this page, but it appears that the above quote maybe not actually be attributed to Richard Stallman himself, from some digging it could show that is excerpts from a blogpost from someone by the name of Michael Lustfield on the very topic. blogpost


 * The "source" above is a dead link. Most of the text in the purported quote (excluding the first three sentences) may be found under Richard Stallman's name at https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.en.html . It is no secret, there is no mystery, and it is not, as described in the Wikiquote article, an internet meme commonly found anywhere. It is a fairly straightforward explanation posted prominently at gnu.org. It is not remarkably quoteworthy, particularly in contrast to Stallman's other noteworthy quotes here, so I am removing it. ~ Ningauble (talk) 14:48, 18 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Richard Stallman has actually written a critique on the so-called "Richard Stallman copypasta". Partial excerpt as follows: "A quotation circulates on the Internet, attributed to me, but it wasn't written by me. Here's the text that is circulating. Most of it was copied from statements I have made, but the part italicized here is not from me. It makes points that are mistaken or confused... The main error is that Linux is not strictly speaking part of the GNU system—whose kernel is GNU Hurd. The version with Linux, we call “GNU/Linux.” It is OK to call it “GNU” when you want to be really short, but it is better to call it “GNU/Linux” so as to give Torvalds some credit. We don't use the term “corelibs,” and I am not sure what that would mean, but GNU is much more than the specific packages we developed for it. I set out in 1983 to develop an operating system, calling it GNU, and that job required developing whichever important packages we could not find elsewhere." Wayback Machine shows the earliest archival of this post by Richard in December 2018. -- benlisquare Talk•contribs 04:20, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * These were removed during a cleanup, as having dead links and insufficient sourcing, otherwise, without any date or location info, require citations to adequate sources before being placed into the main article.


 * Programming is not a science. Programming is a craft.


 * By the way, I hope you all know about the worldwide boycott of Coca Cola company for things like murdering union organizers in Colombia. See the site killercoke.org.

On organizing quotes by topic
I think it would be better to organize the quotes by topic, such as grouping the quotes referring to opensource. I think this would make the page more useful since the grouping on date as it currently stands makes the page look just like a big mess.

Therefore, I propose to organize the quotes by topic. Sorting the quotes inside each topic by date (as the quotes are currently sorted).

Tigre200 (talk) 11:04, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Unclosed external links
In the wikisource, there are two external links with an opening bracket but no closing bracket, causing the URL to be leaked into the 'Read' mode. (Search for 'http' in Read mode for them.) Also there are some extra closing brackets (search for ')]'), and a 'w:' leaking into Read mode. --Nyarukoseijin (talk) 10:09, 13 April 2020 (UTC)