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Williams, Sam

"Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software"

"
The St. Ignucius skit ends with a brief inside joke. On
most Unix systems and Unix-related offshoots, the
primary competitor program to Emacs is vi, a
text-editing program developed by former UC Berkeley
student and current Sun Microsystems chief scientist,
Bill Joy. Before doffing his "halo," Stallman pokes fun
at the rival program. "People sometimes ask me if it is
a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi," he says.
"Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a
penance. So happy hacking."
After a brief question-and-answer session, audience
members gather around Stallman. A few ask for
autographs. "I'll sign this," says Stallman, holding up
one woman's print out of the GNU General Public
License, "but only if you promise me to use the term
GNU/Linux instead of Linux and tell all your friends to
do likewise."
The comment merely confirms a private observation.
Unlike other stage performers and political figures,
Stallman has no "off" mode. Aside from the St. Ignucius
character, the ideologue you see onstage is the
ideologue you meet backstage.


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