were all political”, he says, “but the SHP was imporant. We would never have skipped it for a demonstration”.
4.
See Steven Levy,
Levy devotes about five pages to describing Gosper’s fascination with LIFE, a math-based software game first created by British mathematician John Conway. I heartily recommend this book as a supplement, perhaps even a prerequisite, to this one.
5.
Gerald Sussman, an MIT faculty member and hacker whose work at the AI Lab predates Stallman’s, disputes this memory. According to Sussman, the hackers never broke any doors to retrieve terminals.
6.
I apologize for the whirlwind summary of ITS’ genesis, an operating system many hackers still regard as the epitome of the hacker ethos. For more information on the program’s political significance, see Simson Garfinkel,
7.
See Richard Stallman, “RMS lecture at KTH (Sweden)”, (October 30, 1986).
8.
In an email shortly after this book went into its final edit cycle, Stallman says he drew political inspiration from the Harvard campus as well. “In my first year of Harvard, in a Chinese History class, I read the story of the first revolt against the Chin dynasty”, he says. “The story is not reliable history, but it was very moving”.
9.
See Richard Stallman (1986).
10.
See Steven Levy,
11.
See Steven Levy,
Chapter 5 notes
1.
See Andrew Leonard, “The Saint of Free Software”,
http://www.salon.com/21st/feature /1998/08/cov_31feature.html
2.
See Leander Kahney, “Linux’s Forgotten Man”,
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,18291,00.html< /p>
3.
See “Programmer on moral high ground; Free software is a moral issue for Richard Stallman believes in freedom and free software”.
These are just a small sampling of the religious comparisons. To date, the most extreme comparison has to go to Linus Torvalds, who, in his autobiography-see Linus Torvalds and David Diamond,
Honorable mention goes to Larry Lessig, who, in a footnote description of Stallman in his book-see Larry Lessig,
. . . as with Moses, it was another leader, Linus Torvalds, who finally carried the movement into the promised land by facilitating the development of the final part of the OS puzzle. Like Moses, too, Stallman is both respected and reviled by allies within the movement. He is [an] unforgiving, and hence for many inspiring, leader of a critically important aspect of modern culture. I have deep respect for the principle and commitment of this extraordinary individual, though I also have great respect for those who are courageous enough to question his thinking and then sustain his wrath.
In a final interview with Stallman, I asked him his thoughts about the religious comparisons. “Some people do compare me with an Old Testament prophent, and the reason is Old Testament prophets said certain social practices were wrong. They wouldn’t compromise on moral issues. They couldn’t be bought off, and they were usually treated with contempt”.
4.
At the time, I thought Stallman was referring to the flower’s scientific name. Months later, I would learn that
5.
See Cecily Barnes and Scott Ard, “Court Grants Stay of Napster Injunction”,
