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Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman Quotes

Activist

Richard Stallman, born on March 16, 1953, is a renowned activist. He is one of the founders of the free software movement, the founder of the GNU project, and the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Stallman is dedicated to promoting the ideas of free software, advocating for users' freedom to use, study, modify, and distribute software.

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All Software People Ifs Way Writing Use Program Thinking Should Users Want World Computer Programming Code Giving Helping Ideas Knows Mean

Famous Richard Stallman Quotes

“Android is a major step towards an ethical, user-controlled, free-software portable phone, but there is a long way to go.”

Way Long Steps Majors Phones Controlled Ethical Software Users Long Way Androids Long Way To Go

Author:Richard Stallman

“Proprietary software tends to have malicious features. The point is with a proprietary program, when the users dont have the source code, we can never tell. So you must consider every proprietary program as potential malware.”

Source Program Code Features Software Users Malicious

Author:Richard Stallman

“I have not seen anyone assume that all the citizens of New York are guilty of murder, violence, robbery, perjury, or writing proprietary software.”

Writing Violence New York Citizens Murder Assuming Guilty Software Robbery Perjury

Author:Richard Stallman

“My favorite programming languages are Lisp and C. However, since around 1992 I have worked mainly on free software activism, which means I am too busy to do much programming. Around 2008 I stopped doing programming projects.”

Mean Language Projects Busy My Favorite Activism Programming Software Too Busy Programming Languages Lisp

Author:Richard Stallman

“If the users don't control the program, the program controls the users. With proprietary software, there is always some entity, the "owner" of the program, that controls the program and through it, exercises power over its users. A nonfree program is a yoke, an instrument of unjust power.”

Ifs Exercise Program Instruments Owners Over It Software Users Entity Unjust Yoke

Author:Richard Stallman

“I consider that the Golden Rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way.”

People Ifs Way Want Break Share Program Agree Refuse Golden Conquer Divides Software Users Solidarity Golden Rule Sellers

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system software free, just like air.”

Able Written Air Software

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“Also, because schools must teach the spirit of goodwill, the habit of helping others around you, every class should have this rule: students, if you bring software to class you may not keep it for yourself.”

Ifs Should May Helping School Spirit Class Teach Students Habit Should Have Helping Others Software Goodwill

Author:Richard Stallman

“It's clear that other problems such as [...] the domination of business over government, science, thought, and society, are much bigger than non-free software.”

Problem Government Clear Bigger Software Domination

Author:Richard Stallman

“Free software is software that respects your freedom and the social solidarity of your community. So it's free as in freedom.”

Social Community Software Solidarity Your Freedom

Author:Richard Stallman

“In the free/libre software movement, we develop software that respects users' freedom, so we and you can escape from software that doesn't.”

Movement Software Users Libre

Author:Richard Stallman

“Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.”

Social Movement Source Development Software Methodology Social Movements Open Source

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“Fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents, any more than swatting mosquitoes will eliminate malaria.”

Fighting Danger Software Patents Mosquitoes Malaria

Author:Richard Stallman

“Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance.”

Giving Bits Learning Foundation Programming Awards Software Rebel Solo Alliances

Author:Richard Stallman

“If in my lifetime the problem of non-free software is solved, I could perhaps relax and write software again. But I might instead try to help deal with the world's larger problems. Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating, and now I have a taste for it.”

Ifs World Writing Trying Helping Problem Might Evil Deals Taste Standing Lifetime Relax Software Exhilarating

Author:Richard Stallman

“Today many people are switching to free software for purely practical reasons. That is good, as far as it goes, but that isn't all we need to do! Attracting users to free software is not the whole job, just the first step.”

People Needs Firsts Reason Whole Today Jobs Steps Practicals Software Users First Steps Switching

Author:Richard Stallman

“To be able to choose between proprietary software packages is to be able to choose your master. Freedom means not having a master.”

Mean Able Masters Areas Software Packages Computing

Author:Richard Stallman

“Free software' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer'.”

Thinking Should Matter Liberty Speech Concepts Beer Software Free Speech

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.”

Giving Writing I Can Use Names Software Compatible Unix

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“You know, if you were *really* going to starve, you'd be justified in writing proprietary software.”

Ifs Knows Writing Software Justified

Author:Richard Stallman

“I never imagined that the Free Software Movement would spawn a watered-down alternative, the Open Source Movement, which would become so well-known that people would ask me questions about "open source" thinking that I work under that banner.”

People Thinking Wells Asks Known Movement Source Alternatives Ask Me Software Well Known Banner Spawn Open Source

Author:Richard Stallman

“I figure that since proprietary software developers use copyright to stop us from sharing, we cooperators can use copyright to give other cooperators an advantage of their own: they can use our code.”

Giving Use Figures Advantage Code Software Copyright Developers

Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“The Adobe flash plug-in is non-free software, and people should not install it, or suggest installing it, or even tell people it exists.”

People Should Software Flash Plugs

Author:Richard Stallman

“Writing non-free software is not an ethically legitimate activity, so if people who do this run into trouble, that's good! All businesses based on non-free software ought to fail, and the sooner the better.”

People Ifs Writing Running Failing Trouble Ought Activity Software

Author:Richard Stallman

“Paying isn’t wrong, and being paid isn’t wrong. Trampling other people’s freedom and community is wrong, so the free software movement aims to put an end to it, at least in the area of software.”

People Ends Community Movement Areas Paid Aim Software

Author:Richard Stallman

“A hacker is someone who enjoys playful cleverness—not necessarily with computers. The programmers in the old MIT free software community of the 60s and 70s referred to themselves as hackers. Around 1980, journalists who discovered the hacker community mistakenly took the term to mean “security breaker.””

Mean Enjoy Term Community Security Computer Journalist Software Programmers Cleverness Hackers Mit

Author:Richard Stallman

“Every decision a person makes stems from the person's values and goals. People can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is to help others as well as oneself, we call that idealism. My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better.”

Source: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

“Our mailing lists (and their repeater newsgroups) are only for the purpose of promoting proprietary software.”

Purpose Computer Lists Software Promoting Mailing

Author:Richard Stallman

About the Author

Born: March 16, 1953
Known for: Activist
Quotes: 95

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