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Well you're kind of making my argument. There's a misunderstanding. I'm talking about young people. Stallman doesn't need to change his approach or principles but what I'm saying is that I have a feeling that one day all the people like you who "get" it will die and very few if any of today's young people will be on board with his views. They'll probably think Stallman was the father of Open Source and not be able to tell the difference between Free Software and Open Source software. If only there was a more moderate, more palatable version of Stallman then maybe the message would reach more people.

And I'm not saying Stallman's views are right or wrong. They just are.




I think your points about young people are right on the money. To be more specific, there is a history to his views. They have evolved over time in reaction to specific events, just like everybody's ideas. People who have not experienced the same events will not understand how his views are shaped without this background being explained. In order to understand how the building is made you need to see the scaffolding. Many times Stallman's(and others) views are presented without the proper narrative in place.


It seems likely to me that many of the possible more moderate versions of Stallman would end up advocating "Open Source where it makes sense".




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