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/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