[Discuss] RMS in the news

[Bill Horne]

On 9/18/2019 7:10 PM, John Abreau wrote:
> I first heard of RMS at the Boston Computer Society in 1985.

I first met RMS in a room adjoining the workstations aisles in the AI 
lab at M.I.T.  I was a High-school student who liked computers, and I 
had the good fortune to know another Amateur Radio operator who worked 
there. RMS was sitting at a small table with a terminal on it, dictating 
code into a tape recorder. The only other item in the room was a cot at 
the other end, and when we shook hands, he said "Happy hacking!" My 
friend later told me that RMS lived there, but I didn't quite believe it 
until years later, when I learned that RMS' apartment had been burned 
out and that he hadn't known about it for about a week.

The next time I saw him, RMS was standing in the center strip of 
Memorial drive, holding a sign that read "Software should be free." I 
stopped and asked him why, but I didn't understand his explanation.

The last time we met, I was swiping groceries at a supermarket in 
Cambridge. RMS came by and told me that I shouldn't use the self-service 
section, because I was putting people out of work.

RMS has left us the FSF, the GNU organization, and Emacs (which I use 
every day): we owe him a lot, both as a society and as a group, and I 
hope we can keep in mind the immense weight of his achievements on the 
balance of his life.

The problem with genius, it has been said, is that there's no way to go 
but down.

Bill Horne