"God" redirects here, for the general concept of a "god", see Deity
Richard Stallman, or RMS, is the founder of the GNU project, current presid
The beloved Stallman, as seem in Ubunchu
ent of the Free Software Foundation, a pioneer of the free software movement and a huge (literally) autist. He has been the GNU project's lead architect and organizer, and developed a number of pieces of widely used GNU software including the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU Debugger, various tools in the GNU coreutils and the original Emacs editor. He is also the main author of the GPL family of software licenses which are collectively the most widely used copyleft licenses. He is both worshipped and ridiculed by /g/entoomen.
Inane Comments[]
A /g/ user once emailed Stallman asking him to check out /g/. Stallman responded with "I tried to look at that page but saw only inane comments."
Everyone on /g/ then proceeded to die a little inside.
RMS Copypasta[]
"I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Artist representation of RMS
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux. "
Email[]
RMS often accepts emails from /g/ users, and replies in a thouroughly serious manner. Threads dedicated to rms emails are common. Feel free to contact rms@gnu.org for any GNU/Linux questions you may have, or to invite him to an official question and answer thread.
Websites[]
http://stallman.org/ - Stallman's personal website