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+title: Thoughts on GNU and Richard Stallman
+date: 2019-09-17 14:05
+tags: planet-fsfe-en, free software, gnu, rms
+---
+
+Richard Stallman has [resigned as president and from the board of
+directors of the Free Software
+Foundation](https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns).  I
+welcome this decision.
+
+As a co-maintainer of GNU packages (including Guix, the Guix Workflow
+Language, the Guile Picture Language, etc), and as a contributor to
+various other GNU software, I would like to state that while I'm
+grateful for Richard Stallman's founding of the GNU project and his
+past contributions to GNU, it would be wrong to continue to remain
+silent on the negative effects his behaviour and words have had over
+the past years.  His actions have hurt people and alienated them from
+the free software movement.
+
+When I joined GNU I used to think of Richard as just a bit of a quirky
+person with odd habits, with a passion for nitpicking and clear
+language, but also with a vision of freeing people from oppression at
+the hands of a boring dystopia mediated by computers.  Good
+intentions, however, aren't enough.  Richard's actions over the past
+years sadly have been detrimental to achieving the vision that he
+outlined in the [GNU
+Manifesto](https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html), to benefit all
+computer users.
+
+GNU's not Unix, but Richard ain't GNU either (RAGE?).  GNU is bigger
+than any one person, even its founder.  I'm still convinced that GNU
+has an important role to play towards providing a harmonized,
+trustworthy, freedom-respecting operating system environment that
+benefits all computer users.  I call upon other maintainers of GNU
+software to embrace the responsibilities that working on a social
+project such as GNU brings.  The GNU Manifesto states that "GNU serves
+as an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in
+sharing".  Let us do that by welcoming people of all backgrounds into
+GNU and by working hard to provide a healthy environment for fruitful
+collaboration.