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0 pointsDoreenMichele6y ago0 comments

Linus eventually realised that his abuse of contributors was a negative contribution and agreed to change. RMS has .. not got to that point.

Neither of them seems hugely socially savvy. Perhaps someone/something helped Linus get there and RMS hasn't had a similar experience.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

pjc506y ago· 4 in thread

There was an "intervention" where a group of long-time colleagues and senior kernel contributors took Linus off and told him their dissatisfaction in person.

DoreenMicheleOP6y ago

Meanwhile, some angry woman publicly calls for Stallman's removal and it seems we've gone with that. And are acting like the outcome here is entirely due to Stallman being an asshole.

pjc506y ago

I don't think she's the first person to object to his behaviour. I've seen a few more people posting their stories of objectionable behaviour, but I'm reluctant to point HN at them.

Edit: a list of complaints over years: https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

Edit: at the risk of targeting people for harassment by HN commentators, some personal stories from Twitter. Apparently people kept houseplants to ward off RMS: https://twitter.com/starsandrobots/status/994267630457401344

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kelnos6y ago

"Some angry woman" also listed several examples of bad behavior reported to her by multiple sources, dating back decades. While a lot of it was new to me, it's nearly impossible that this wasn't known by people at MIT and/or the FSF who could have acted in the past, but didn't.

IMO this was a long time coming, not some brand-new thing.

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rmc6y ago

people have complained about RMS in this regard for a long time

smacktoward6y ago

> I've spent a lot of time working with [RMS] to help him understand why various positions he holds are harmful. I've reached the conclusion that it's not that he's unable to understand, he's just unwilling to change his mind.

— Matthew Garrett (https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/52587.html)

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