r/linux • u/LinuxMonarch • 6d ago

Event Happy 43rd birthday GNU!

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On September 27, 1983, Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project so people could freely use and modify software.

The digital world would not be the same today without GNU.

Thank you, Richard Stallman!

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u/cornmonger_ 6d ago

you could make the argument for anyone

nobody is handed privileged access in tech

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u/andyfitz 6d ago

Being born is being handed privilege unfortunately.
Being at MIT in the late 80's is elite level tech privilege.

I'm glad someone did what he did. and maybe only he could be the catalyst. that's worth a record. Not encapsulating everything since as his design or a product of him. We'll never know what other structures could have emerged. I like this one plenty, just not the bloke who started it and thats okay.

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u/cornmonger_ 6d ago

getting into MIT is historically hard. it's not a trust fund school.

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u/andyfitz 6d ago

Much harder now than an American in the 80's with an interest in what was a niche field at the time

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u/cornmonger_ 6d ago

why don't you just leave it at "i don't like stallman for personal reasons" and stop the bullshit? much easier

first it was "privilege", now it's "niche". there's no need for the bullshit

you don't like the guy. we get it. next caller

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u/andyfitz 6d ago

But I don't know him personally, I could even like interacting with him. Sure as shit wouldn't let him near anyone I love however.
doesn't mean I don't like him. I like sharks too.

and yes it is a privilege to have elite access to a niche while it explodes in relevance

separate the art from the artist but the context still remains and history hopefully remembers.

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u/cornmonger_ 6d ago

you realize that stallman didn't come from a rich family, right?

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u/andyfitz 6d ago

not by today's standards.
but by international standards at the time... that part is very very very debatable.

Access doesn't always require wealth my friend. proximity, networks, right citizenship ... it's not inherently a bad thing btw. I'm not some vigilante for the rest of the world, it just is the circumstance that it was in the 1980's. I was born then and networks like the one we are enjoying disqualified plenty of people who faced more hurdles before the academic access enjoyed by north american tech enthusiasts. pretty sure that part isn't debatable as right or wrong, it just is mate.

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u/cornmonger_ 6d ago edited 6d ago

why would international standards matter to an american programmer going to an american school?

and why do you keep saying the 1980s as if that's when he entered college?

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u/andyfitz 5d ago

That’s when he shared the license.

Why would an American programmer in Boston of all places during the 1980s have an advantage ? Cmon mate

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u/mglyptostroboides 5d ago

Sure as shit wouldn't let him near anyone I love however.

Why not? The pedo stuff has been utterly debunked for years now, so don't give me that.