An elegy for GNU and RMS
I sympathise with the frustration here. However:<p>- There isn&#x27;t a big pool of people willing to devote time to Free Software. If we had a big pool of people who are better than Stallman and more willing to work on the cause then we&#x27;d talk about them. Stallman may not be unique, but he is rare in being simultaneously 1) principled, 2) motivated, 3) willing to work very hard for not a lot of money or prestige in the circles of power and 4) willing to put himself out there pushing a message.<p>I can find any number of people who are 2&#x2F;4 on that list. 3&#x2F;4 is rare. A lot of people who want Stallman gone are going to trade off their principles when they realise that they can get invited to very expensive parties put on by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Or plan on just fading in to the background. I think there is an interesting wound to be reopened in the Eich v. Mozilla topic on this point as well.<p>- No related to this article, but people have completely unrealistic standards for volunteer leadership. The man is human and has flaws. Everyone has flaws. We can tolerate some flaws in people who are doing good work.