Not everybody sees the Stallman
legacy as set in stone, of course. Eric Raymond, the
open source proponent who feels that Stallman's
leadership role has diminished significantly since
1996, sees mixed signals when looking into the 2102
crystal ball: I think Stallman's artifacts (GPL, Emacs,
GCC) will be seen as revolutionary works, as
foundation-stones of the information world. I think
history will be less kind to some of the theories from
which RMS operated, and not kind at all to his personal
tendency towards territorial, cult-leader behavior. As
for Stallman himself, he, too, sees mixed signals: What
history says about the GNU Project, twenty years from
now, will depend on who wins the battle of freedom to
use public knowledge. If we lose, we will be just a
footnote. If we win, it is uncertain whether people
will know the role of the GNU operating system-if they
think the system is "Linux," they will build a false
picture of what happened and why.
But even if we win, what history people learn a hundred
years from now is likely to depend on who dominates
politically.
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