To
address the business side of the GNU Project, Stallman
drafted a few of his colleagues and formed the Free
Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit organization
dedicated to speeding the GNU Project towards its goal.
With Stallman as president and various hacker allies as
board members, the FSF helped provide a corporate face
for the GNU Project.
Robert Chassell, a programmer then working at Lisp
Machines, Inc., became one of five charter board
members at the Free Software Foundation following a
dinner conversation with Stallman. Chassell also served
as the organization's treasurer, a role that started
small but quickly grew.
"I think in '85 our total expenses and revenue were
something in the order of $23,000, give or take,"
Chassell recalls. "Richard had his office, and we
borrowed space. I put all the stuff, especially the
tapes, under my desk. It wasn't until sometime later
LMI loaned us some space where we could store tapes and
things of that sort."
In addition to providing a face, the Free Software
Foundation provided a center of gravity for other
disenchanted programmers.
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