Stallman On Free Software and GNU's 20th birthday

An anonymous reader writes "Richard Stallman has written a piece on the state of free software and where it needs to go now, in celebration of GNU turning 20 today. It's available both on NewsForge and Linux.com."

not only GNU turns 20

[sulli]

but also RMS' beard. Send the Fab Five to do something about it!

linux.com?

[SmilingBoy]

But will RMS be happy that this artcle is posted to www.linux.com and not www.gnulinux.free?

Hurd...

[TWX]

So, was the Hurd mentioned as the new GNU kernel that Stallman still wants to use? I mean, Linux is supposed to be replaced by the Hurd, any day now...

Re:Hurd...

[lxs]

As Basil Fawlty would say:

Don't mention the HURD.

GNU/Richard Stallman

[ScottGant]

GNU/I GNU/thought GNU/that GNU/he GNU/demands GNU/GNU GNU/placed GNU/before GNU/everything GNU/when GNU/speaking GNU/to GNU/him.

GNU/But GNU/I GNU/am GNU/could GNU/be GNU/wrong GNU/on GNU/this.

First line...

[jdreed1024]

The first line reads: "It was twenty years ago today that I quit my job at MIT to begin developing a free software operating system, GNU."

Did anyone else start thinking up new lyrics to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when they read that first sentence? Perhaps a new Free Software Song is in the making....

Re:Hurd...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the beauty of the GPL, every version of Hurd that I run is forked from the latest linux. I just search replace "linux" with "hurd" in all the files and I am running a state of the art hurd kernel for my GNU system.

Re:GNU/Hurd

[mhesseltine]

If they can't, I'm sure they'll just tell people not to buy those products.

So, it'll be like trying to get people to migrate from Windows to Linux?

User: How do I get my WinModem to work?

Linux Supporter: You shouldn't have bought a WinModem. Get a real modem. Loser.

User: What about my cheap USB scanner.

Linux Supporter: Get a SCSI card and a real scanner. N00B.

Somehow, I don't see that driving adoption of GNU/Hurd. But, then again, I don't see Hurd coming out any time soon.

OK mods...

[gantrep]

Just wait until it's your birthday and I don't get you a cake, a present, balloons, or sing you happy birthday. We'll see what's "redundant" then...

Re:He's already accomplished a great deal.

[Wordsmith]

anyone else notice he lumped EMACS in with the operating systems? I think we all know EMACS is much more substantial than that :)

Re:So the Win98 community is in good shape, then?

[AndroidCat]

What's currently broken in Win98 that needs fixing?

Re:GNU/Richard Stallman

[DChristensen]

I hope to GOD that you used a script to generate that and did not spend all the time in Slashdot's editor typing it out manually.

In case you didn't, here's one for you:

perl -e '$_=<>;print map {$_=qq{GNU/$_ }} split'

Please use this for all future GNU/humor attempts.

Re:So the Win98 community is in good shape, then?

[Anonymous Coward]

"So the cheap bastards should upgrade."

MCSE Right???

Re:First line...

[TeknoHog]

Hmm, I guess this would go better with the 2.4.24 release.

It was thirteen years ago today
Col. Torvalds let the source away.
We've been going in and out of drives
but we guarantee to raise uptimes.
So may I introduce to you
the hack we've known for all these years
Col. Torvalds' Linux slash GNU band!

We're Col. Torvalds' Linux slash GNU band,
we hope you will enjoy the code.
Col. Torvalds' Linux slash GNU band,
just hack and let the evening go!

Col. Torvalds' Linux
Col. Torvalds' Linux
Col. Torvalds' Linux slash GNU band!

It's wonderful to post here,
it's certainly no troll.
You're such a lovely userbase,
we'd like to merge your code with us,
we'd love to take you /home.

I don't really want to freeze the code,
but I thought you might like to know
this release is going to fix the root
and we want you all to patch for good.

So let me introduce to you
the one and only Billy's fear
Col. Torvalds' Linux slash GNU band!