One day in Richard Stallman life
Author: Crossroads Translator: Mahuida
What I do is: The overall goal of my work is to give computer users to learn, copy, modify, and distribute the freedom of the software they use. In other words, I am a Free Software Movement event home.
In a majority of software refused to give user free world, we must give users these freedoms, we must create additional free software world. In 1984, I started the development of the GNU operating system, I hope it can be a software that is compatible with UNIX. In 1991, Linus Torvalds wrote a free kernel Linux that fills the crucial blank in the GNU. Today, the development of the GNU / Linux system is still going on.
Since October 1985, I have been the President of Free Software Foundation. FSF is a "charity group" that does not have to pay taxes to promote software sharing and change.
How did I get my current position: I don't have a position. My last position is to serve in the MIT artificial intelligence laboratory, but I wont out in January 1984 to prepare for the development of GNU systems.
It is necessary to resign from MIT, because if I have not resigned, MIT's management will transform my work into private software products. If the GUN system does not allow the user to get free, it is nothing to do.
In the 1980s, I was occasionally engaged in some contractual work (teaching, and freely refilling free software) to make a living, and in the 1990s, it was engaged in speech. But make a living is just a secondary part of my life - partially by avoiding extravagant habits, I will take less my life as much as possible. In this way, I can spend most of my time is doing something worth doing.
How do I arrange my days: I don't like to mandabate my time, so I just do this when I have related to others. In the middle of those actors, I do their own usual work, which is part of the various issues that have been processed by emails every day, but also write articles and committed to Emacs. Whenever I think it wants to do additional things (such as reading, eating, listening to music, or sleeping for a while), I will do it.
Time to work every day (at home and office): From the ideal, I don't want home and the office to be separate. If they must be separated, I will spend time in the office as much as possible and only go back to "home" when necessary. Of course, this is based on the comfort of the office. If I have an unqualified office, such as a small bedroom, I will try to escape.
I solve the problem: If I don't know how to deal with a problem, I will put it on one side, and then solve it again; during this time, I may think about any way. There are so many tasks to be completed, so I can always put down one, do one.
How do I reduce the pressure: some people who don't agree with me often quite demanding, talking about me with prejudice. When I made me upset, I would make it a complaint, then read other emails until I completely calm down. Then I will go back to handle the problem.
In my work, the other brings that the pressure is that I tried to correct a mistake, but it failed to connect. When such a thing happened, I would feel frustrated. Then I will tell myself that I can't give up, I have to solve this problem. So I will return to work.
My hero, tutor, or people I revered and why: I am particularly revered for freedom - such as Nelson. Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin. Lu De. Gold, Daniel Ellsberg, Ralph Nader, and Num. Jumsky. I also revered some scientists, they worked for the knowledge and health of humanity, rather than first considering profits. How do I guide others to work for me: I have not studied the guidance, so I just do my best to answer their questions.
The negative event changed my life in front of: In 1981, when Symbolics hired other hackers from Mit Ai Lab, they destroy my group and made me fall into blindness. Square. But when they brought the last pass back in 1982, they gave me a chance to fight. I refused their last pass and spent two years to develop software that can be used to replace their products. The book "hacker" tells this story.
The same experience has grind my anger, so I can apply it to other battles, and it also tells me that I have power and endurance to engage in large projects like GNU.
If life can come back, I want to change things or decide: When Debian GNU / Linux makes its own free software standard, I should take care of them more carefully. In the past decade, I have dealt with a lot of interpretation of free software definitions, but I didn't write down the conclusion. I should make this with the leader of Debian, but it didn't happen here until recently.
What kind of value for me is the most important, and how I evaluated others: Truth, beauty and justice are the most important value. Those who respect these goals; those goals are just a successful person, but it is a poor ambition.
In the daily work, what will encourage me, or make me excited: computer users should have the freedom of collaboration. Such freedom depends on our efforts. We can't disappoint them.
Biography: Richard Stallman is the founder of the GUN project. The project began in 1984, its goal is to develop free operating system GNU ("GNU's Not Unix" clotch), which gives computer users to almost lost freedom. GNU is free software: everyone can copy and distribute them freely, as well as make or small changes.
Today, the GNU system-based Linux-based variety (Linux core based on Linus Torvalds) has been widely used. It is estimated that users in the Gunu / Linux system today have exceeded 1,7 million.
Richard Stallman is the main author of the GNU C compiler. The compiler is a portable optimization compiler, its design goal is to support different architectures and multiple languages. It now supports more than 30 different architectures and seven programming languages.
Stallman also wrote a GNU symbol debugger (GDB), GNU Emacs, and many other GUN programs.
