Later, however, when the subject came up again,
Stallman did admit that loneliness, or the fear of
perpetual loneliness, had played a major role in
fueling his determination during the earliest days of
the GNU Project.
"My fascination with computers was not a consequence of
anything else," he said. "I wouldn't have been less
fascinated with computers if I had been popular and all
the women flocked to me. However, it's certainly true
the experience of feeling I didn't have a home, finding
one and losing it, finding another and having it
destroyed, affected me deeply. The one I lost was the
dorm. The one that was destroyed was the AI Lab. The
precariousness of not having any kind of home or
community was very powerful. It made me want to fight
to get it back."
After the interview, I couldn't help but feel a certain
sense of emotional symmetry. Hearing Sarah describe
what attracted her to Stallman and hearing Stallman
himself describe the emotions that prompted him to take
up the free software cause, I was reminded of my own
reasons for writing this book.
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