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Williams, Sam

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

"Richard kicked up a fuss
about my making unauthorized modifications when I was
cleaning up the Emacs LISP libraries," Raymond recalls.
"It frustrated me so much that I decided I didn't want
to work with him anymore."
Despite the falling out, Raymond remained active in the
free software community. So much so that when Salus
suggested a conference pairing Stallman and Torvalds as
keynote speakers, Raymond eagerly seconded the idea.
With Stallman representing the older, wiser contingent
of ITS/Unix hackers and Torvalds representing the
younger, more energetic crop of Linux hackers, the
pairing indicated a symbolic show of unity that could
only be beneficial, especially to ambitious younger
(i.e., below 40) hackers such as Raymond. "I sort of
had a foot in both camps," Raymond says.
By the time of the conference, the tension between
those two camps had become palpable. Both groups had
one thing in common, though: the conference was their
first chance to meet the Finnish wunderkind in the
flesh.


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