news
Richard Stallman is the Last Crusader of the Software Freedom Movement
You might have heard Linux Torvalds’ name a dozen times, but you might not have heard of Richard Stallman. And that is a pity! (This is a longer story, so please stay to the end about the 2026 interview that almost happened.)
In the sprawling, sterilized history of the digital age, Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS) exists as a singular, indigestible singularity. He is the ghost in the machine of modern computing, a figure whose code runs the internet but whose philosophy is actively rejected by the corporations that profit from it. To understand the trajectory of the twenty-first century’s technological infrastructure, one must confront the paradox of Stallman: he is simultaneously the industry’s most revered architect and its most ostracized pariah. He built the foundation, but he refuses to enter the building.