![\"Bill](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/gates.jpg\" "\\"Bill")
<\/p>\nRichard Stallman: legendary founder of the Free Software Foundation, purveyor of the GPL, defender of open source. And \u2013 as of today \u2013 expert FUD manipulator.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Obviously someone was seriously pissed off at the abundance of (largely positive) press<\/a> coverage<\/a> Bill Gates has been receiving as he stepped down from his final roles at Microsoft.. and it appears Mr. Stallman just couldn\u2019t bear to let the man he hates more than any other step down without getting that last word in.<\/p>\n In an article by Richard Stallman<\/a> published on BBC today, Stallman pulled back no punches bashing not only Bill Gates, Microsoft, and makers of proprietary software everywhere but also took the incredibly cheap shot of accusing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a> of working to ruin the very countries they\u2019re trying to help:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gates’ philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won some people’s good opinion. The LA Times reported that his foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental degradation and illness in the same poor countries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n Stallman, one of first people to accuse people of spreading FUD<\/a> to further their opinions, doesn\u2019t stop there:<\/p>\n Gates is personally identified with it, due to his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing copies of his software. <\/p>\n It said, in effect, "If you don’t let me keep you divided and helpless, I won’t write the software and you won’t have any. Surrender to me, or you’re lost!" <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Here Stallman is referring to Gates\u2019 now-famous letter<\/a> asking people illegally copying, distributing, and using <\/em>Altair Basic to stop. Stallman somehow neglects to mention that \u2013 regardless of whether morally acceptable or not \u2013 Microsoft had the legal right to demand payment in exchange for their software. Ignore for a second whether or not Bill Gates and Microsoft were in the right or in the wrong to ask for payment in exchange for their work \u2013 is Richard Stallman seriously suggesting that it\u2019s right<\/em> to illegally obtain copyrighted software?<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to say that Gates should never have charged for his software and another to say that it\u2019s OK to use it without paying. Gates chose<\/em> to ask for money, users (as Richard Stallman himself has advocated on many occasions in the past) should be looking for an alternative if they don\u2019t want to front the cash.<\/p>\n Who Richard Stallman thinks he\u2019s kidding, we don\u2019t know. But he\u2019s obviously crossed that line that shouldn\u2019t be crossed; apparently desperate enough to stop Microsoft the minute he senses an opening\u2026 even if it means spreading FUD, making pointless accusations, and generally talking nonsense to get his point across. This isn\u2019t any way for a respected figure in the open source community to act, especially not when it comes to someone who has \u2013 whether Stallman likes it or not \u2013 contributed as much to the tech community as Bill Gates has.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richard Stallman: legendary founder of the Free Software Foundation, purveyor of the GPL, defender of open source. And \u2013 as of today \u2013 expert FUD manipulator. Obviously someone was seriously pissed off at the abundance of (largely positive) press coverage … Continue reading \n
![\"Richard](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/stallman.jpg\" "\\"Richard")
Never mind the fact that those are unsubstantiated rumors following money trails several-hundred pockets deep \u2013 what does the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have to do with Free Software? Is Stallman so desperate to make Mr. Gates out to be the bad guy that he\u2019d sink this low?<\/p>\n\n