Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953), also known as rms, is an American free software advocate and programmer. He works to ensure software is shared in a way that allows users to use, study, distribute, and change it freely. Software that provides these freedoms is called free software. Stallman started the GNU Project in September 1983 to create a Unix-like computer system made entirely of free software. This effort also began the free software movement. Stallman has led the GNU Project and developed widely used tools, including the GNU C Compiler (GCC), GNU Debugger, and GNU Emacs text editor.

Stallman introduced the idea of copyleft, which uses copyright rules to protect users’ rights to use, change, and share free software. He is the main creator of free software licenses, including the GNU General Public License (GPL), the most common license for free software.

In 1989, Stallman helped start the League for Programming Freedom. Since the mid-1990s, he has focused on promoting free software and opposing practices like software patents, digital rights management (which he calls digital restrictions management), software license agreements, non-disclosure agreements, activation keys, software protection devices, copy restrictions, proprietary formats, and closed-source programs.

In September 2019, Stallman left his position as president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and his role as a visiting scientist at MIT after making controversial comments about the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal. He remained the leader of the GNU Project and returned to the FSF board of directors in 2021.

Early life

Richard Stallman was born on March 16, 1953, in New York City. His family has Jewish heritage. He had a difficult relationship with his parents and did not feel he had a stable home. He became interested in computers at a young age. When he was a young teenager at a summer camp, he read manuals for the IBM 7094 computer. From 1967 to 1969, Stallman attended a special program at Columbia University for high school students. He also volunteered as a laboratory assistant in the biology department at Rockefeller University. Even though he liked math and physics, his professor at Rockefeller University believed he had potential as a biologist.

Stallman’s first real experience with computers was at the IBM New York Scientific Center during high school. In 1970, after finishing high school, he was hired to write a math program in Fortran. He completed the task quickly and then spent the rest of the summer writing a text editor in APL and a preprocessor for the PL/I programming language on the IBM System/360.

In the fall of 1970, Stallman began his first year at Harvard University. He was known for doing very well in a challenging math class called Math 55. He said, “For the first time in my life, I felt I had found a home at Harvard.”

In 1971, near the end of his first year at Harvard, Stallman became a programmer at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He became a regular in the hacker community and was often called by his initials, RMS, in computer accounts. Stallman earned a bachelor’s degree in physics with high honors from Harvard in 1974. He considered staying at Harvard but instead chose to study physics at MIT as a graduate student. After one year, he left the program to focus on programming at the MIT AI Laboratory.

While working as a research assistant at MIT under Gerry Sussman, Stallman published a paper in 1977 with Sussman about an AI system called dependency-directed backtracking. This work was an early example of solving problems through intelligent backtracking in complex tasks. As of 2009, the method Stallman and Sussman developed remained the most general and powerful form of intelligent backtracking. The paper also introduced a technique called constraint recording, where partial results from searches were saved for future use.

At MIT’s AI laboratory, Stallman worked on software projects like TECO and Emacs for the Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS), as well as the Lisp machine operating system (including the CONS from 1974–1976 and the CADR from 1977–1979). The CADR was later sold by Symbolics and Lisp Machines, Inc. (LMI) starting around 1980. Stallman strongly opposed limited access to computers in the lab, which was mostly funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 1977, when MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science installed a password system, Stallman found a way to decode passwords. He sent messages to users showing their passwords and suggested changing them to empty strings (no password) to allow open access. About 20% of users followed his advice, though passwords eventually remained in use. Stallman often talked about the success of this effort for many years afterward.

Events leading to GNU

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the hacker culture that Stallman was part of began to split into different groups. To stop other companies from using their software on competitors' computers, many companies stopped sharing the source code for their programs. Instead, they used copyright laws and limited licenses to control how their software could be copied or shared. This type of proprietary software had existed before, but it became the common practice after the US Copyright Act of 1976 changed the legal rules for software.

In 1979, Brian Reid added time bombs to the Scribe software to stop people from using it without permission. Stallman called this action "a crime against humanity." In a 2008 interview, he explained that he believes blocking users from making changes to software is the real issue, not whether software is sold for money. Stallman created a tool called Texinfo, which is a replacement for the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is loosely based on Scribe. He completed the first version of Texinfo in 1986.

In 1980, Stallman and other hackers at the AI Lab were not allowed to see the source code for the Xerox 9700 laser printer. Stallman had previously modified the software for the Lab’s older printer, the XGP, to send messages to users when a print job was completed or if the printer had a problem. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a problem because the printer was far from most users. This experience made Stallman realize how important it is for people to be able to freely change the software they use.

Richard Greenblatt, another AI Lab hacker, started a company called Lisp Machines, Inc. (LMI) to sell Lisp machines he and Tom Knight designed at the lab. Greenblatt refused outside funding, believing that profits from selling a few machines could help the company grow. Other hackers thought using venture capital was better. Since they could not agree, some hackers started a new company called Symbolics with help from an AI Lab administrator named Russ Noftsker. Symbolics hired many of the remaining hackers, including Bill Gosper, who left the AI Lab. Symbolics also forced Greenblatt to leave by citing MIT rules. While both companies sold proprietary software, Stallman believed LMI tried harder to avoid harming the lab’s community. From 1982 to 1983, Stallman worked alone to copy the work of Symbolics programmers to stop them from controlling the lab’s computers.

Stallman believes users should be free to share software with others and to study and change the programs they use. He argues that companies that try to stop these actions are acting against the interests of users and society. The phrase "software wants to be free" is often wrongly said to be his idea, but Stallman says this is not accurate. He believes freedom is important for users and society as a moral value, not just for practical reasons like creating better software. Eric S. Raymond, who helped start the open-source movement, says that focusing on moral arguments can push away people who might support ending software secrecy.

In February 1984, Stallman left his job at MIT to work full-time on the GNU project, which he had announced in September 1983. After leaving, he stayed connected to MIT as an unpaid "visiting scientist" in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Until around 1998, he had an office at MIT that also served as his legal home.

GNU project

In September 1983, Stallman shared his plan to create the GNU operating system on several ARPANET mailing lists and USENET. He began the project alone and explained, "As an operating system developer, I had the skills needed for this job. Even though success was not certain, I felt it was my responsibility to do this work. I chose to make the system compatible with Unix so it could be used on different computers and so Unix users could switch to it easily."

In 1985, Stallman wrote the GNU Manifesto, which described his goal to create a free operating system called GNU that would work with Unix. The name GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix," a recursive acronym. Soon after, he founded the Free Software Foundation, a nonprofit organization, to support free software development and provide legal help for the free software movement. Stallman served as the unpaid president of the FSF, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Massachusetts.

Stallman introduced the idea of copyleft, a legal method to ensure free software remains modifiable and redistributable. This idea was first used in the GNU Emacs General Public License, and in 1989, the first version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) was released. By this time, most parts of the GNU system had been completed.

Stallman contributed many important tools, including a text editor (GNU Emacs), a compiler (GCC), a debugger (GNU Debugger), and a build automator (GNU make). One major part missing was the kernel. In 1990, GNU project members began using the Mach microkernel from Carnegie Mellon University in a project called GNU Hurd. However, this project has not yet met the standards needed for full POSIX compliance.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student in Finland, used GNU development tools to create the Linux kernel, a free monolithic operating system. Existing GNU programs were adapted to work with this new system. Most sources refer to the combined system as "Linux," while Stallman and the FSF call it "GNU/Linux." This naming difference has caused debate in the free software community. Stallman believes not using "GNU" in the name weakens the recognition of the GNU project and harms the free software movement by disconnecting the software from its philosophy.

Stallman influenced hacker culture by contributing to the name POSIX and the creation of the Emacs editor. On Unix systems, GNU Emacs became very popular, competing with another editor called vi, which led to a rivalry between users of the two editors. Stallman humorously referred to himself as "St. IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs" and said, "vi vi vi is the editor of the beast, but using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance."

In 1992, developers at Lucid Inc. working on Emacs had disagreements with Stallman and split the software into a separate version called XEmacs. Technology journalist Andrew Leonard noted that Stallman's strong opinions were common among top computer programmers.

In 2018, Stallman created "Kind Communication Guidelines" for the GNU project to help discussions on mailing lists stay productive without directly addressing diversity issues.

In October 2019, a public statement signed by 33 GNU project maintainers said Stallman's behavior had "undermined a core value of the GNU project: the empowerment of all computer users" and called for the GNU maintainers to decide how the project should be organized. This statement came after Stallman resigned as president of the FSF and left his "visiting scientist" position at MIT in September 2019. Despite this, Stallman remained the head of the GNU project.

Activism

Richard Stallman has written many essays about software freedom and has spoken out strongly about political issues related to the free software movement since the early 1990s. He regularly gives speeches with titles such as The GNU Project and the Free Software Movement, The Dangers of Software Patents, and Copyright and Community in the Age of Computer Networks. In 2006 and 2007, during an 18-month public discussion about creating version 3 of the GNU General Public License, he added a fourth topic to explain the proposed changes.

Stallman’s strong support for free software inspired the creation of a program called Virtual Richard M. Stallman (vrms), which checks the software installed on a Debian system and reports which programs are not free. Stallman disagrees with some parts of Debian’s definition of free software.

In 1999, Stallman encouraged the public to create a free online encyclopedia by contributing articles. This project, called GNUPedia, was later replaced by Wikipedia, which had similar goals and became more successful. Stallman was on the Advisory Council of a Latin American television station called teleSUR but left in 2011 after criticizing the station’s coverage of events during the Arab Spring.

In August 2006, Stallman met with officials in the Indian state of Kerala and convinced them to stop using proprietary software, such as Microsoft’s, in state-run schools. This led to a major decision to replace Windows with a free software operating system on computers in 12,500 high schools.

After personal meetings, Stallman received positive statements about the free software movement from the then-president of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, and the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.

Stallman has participated in protests about software patents, digital rights management, and proprietary software. In 2006, he held a sign that said “Don’t buy from ATI, enemy of your freedom” during a talk by an ATI employee, which led to police being called. Later, AMD, which bought ATI, made its hardware documentation available for free software use.

Stallman has criticized Steve Jobs for influencing Apple to create closed systems. He once asked Jobs if he could distribute a modified version of a software tool in two parts, one under the GNU General Public License and the other under a proprietary license. Stallman later learned this would not be allowed by the GPL, and he informed Jobs, which led Apple to release the software under the GPL.

For a time, Stallman used a notebook from the One Laptop per Child program. His current computer is a refurbished ThinkPad X200 with Libreboot (a free replacement for the computer’s basic software) and Trisquel (a free operating system). Before that, he used a ThinkPad T400s and a ThinkPad X60 with similar free software. Earlier, he used a Lemote Yeeloong netbook, which he chose because it could run free software at the lowest level of the computer. He lost this computer in 2012 while in Argentina. Before using Trisquel, he used the gNewSense operating system.

Stallman often gives a talk called Copyright vs. Community, where he discusses digital rights management and names companies he refuses to support. He supports reducing copyright terms and suggests a 10-year limit. He proposes using taxes to support authors, with payments based on their popularity, or a system where people can directly support authors. He believes sharing copies of works for non-commercial purposes should not be considered illegal. He has also supported civil disobedience in response to certain laws.

Stallman refuses to sign anything with a “©” symbol, following his views on free software. He helped the International Music Score Library Project return online after it was taken down in 2007 due to a legal letter from Universal Edition.

Stallman warns about the risks of e-books, such as those on Amazon Kindles, which prevent copying and allow remote deletion of books. He argues that e-books are less useful than paper books and that Amazon requires users to reveal their identities when purchasing e-books. His story The Right to Read describes a future where sharing books is restricted. He also opposes encrypted storage formats like DVDs and Blu-rays, calling the use of encryption on non-secret data a conspiracy.

Stallman views the Sony BMG copy protection scandal as a criminal act and supports boycotting Sony for its legal actions. He has suggested that the U.S. government might promote software as a service to access user data without a search warrant. He denies being an anarchist, even though he supports user privacy and software freedom.

Stallman believes the words people use are important, especially when discussing software and freedom. He encourages people to say “free software” and “GNU/Linux” and to avoid terms like “intellectual property” and “piracy.” He requires journalists to use his preferred terms in interviews.

Stallman argues that the term “intellectual property” is confusing and prevents clear discussions about copyright, patents, and trademarks. He believes calling these laws “property laws” biases how people think about them. His focus on terminology has sometimes caused misunderstandings and conflicts with others.

Comments about Jeffrey Epstein scandal

In September 2019, it was discovered that Jeffrey Epstein had given money to MIT. After this, Joi Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, resigned from his position. An internal email discussion group within MIT’s CSAIL department was created to express concerns about how MIT had handled its connections to Epstein. In this discussion, people talked about Marvin Minsky, a deceased MIT professor who was named by Virginia Giuffre as one of the individuals Epstein forced her to have sex with. At the time, Giuffre was a minor and had been involved in Epstein’s underage sex trafficking ring.

Richard Stallman clearly criticized Epstein, stating, “We know that Giuffre was being forced into sex by Epstein. She was being harmed.” In the same discussion, Stallman responded to a comment that said Minsky “is accused of assaulting one of Epstein’s victims.” Stallman argued that it was unclear whether Minsky knew Giuffre was being forced, and that Epstein might have kept this information hidden from others. He also said that the harm caused to the victim does not depend on legal details, such as the victim’s age or the country where the event happened.

Stallman’s comments, along with a collection of claims against him, were shared on Medium by Selam Gano, who called for Stallman to leave MIT. On September 13, 2019, the website Vice published a copy of the email discussion. Because of Stallman’s comments about Minsky, some people asked for his resignation. Separately, older writings by Stallman from 2013 and earlier about underage sex and child pornography laws were shared again during this time. On September 14, 2019, Stallman wrote on his blog that he had learned through recent conversations that having sex with a child can cause psychological harm, and that adults should not do this.

On September 16, 2019, Stallman announced he was leaving both MIT and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), saying this was due to pressure from others over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations. In a post on his website, Stallman said his email comments were not meant to defend Epstein, explaining, “Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve called him a ‘serial rapist’ and said he deserved to be imprisoned. But many people believe I defended him—and other incorrect claims—and feel hurt because of what they think I said. I’m sorry for that hurt. I wish I could have prevented the misunderstanding.”

In March 2021, Stallman announced his return to the FSF board of directors at an event called LibrePlanet2021. An open letter asking the FSF to keep Stallman was published, arguing that his statements had been misunderstood and needed to be viewed in context. On April 12, the FSF board confirmed its decision to bring Stallman back. After this, Stallman apologized and explained that he had poor social skills.

Soon after, another open letter was shared on GitHub, calling for Stallman’s removal and the removal of the entire FSF board. This letter was supported by major open-source organizations, including GNOME and Mozilla, and included a list of accusations against Stallman. Many groups, such as Red Hat, the Free Software Foundation Europe, and the Tor Project, criticized, stopped giving money to, or ended their relationships with the FSF. Debian did not issue a statement after a community vote on the matter. However, the FSF noted that these actions had little financial impact, as less than 3% of its income came from direct corporate support in the most recent year.

Personal life

Richard Stallman currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He previously lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years. He speaks English, French, Spanish, and some Indonesian. He has stated that he is "an atheist of Jewish ancestry" and often wears a button with the message "Impeach God." He has denied having autism but has occasionally considered the possibility of having a "shadow" version of it. He has also said he is childfree.

Stallman has created a collection of filk music and parody songs.

In September 2023, during his keynote speech at the GNU 40th anniversary event, Stallman announced that he had been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, a type of cancer. He reported that his prognosis was positive and that he hoped to remain healthy for many years. Later, he confirmed that he was in remission and receiving treatment.

Honors and awards

• 1986: Received an honorary lifetime membership in the Computer Society at Chalmers University of Technology
• 1990: Won the MacArthur Fellowship, also called the "genius grant," for exceptional merit
• 1990: Received the Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery for important work in creating the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)
• 1996: Earned an honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology
• 1998: Received the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• 1999: Won the Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award
• 2001: Received the Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being (武田研究奨励賞)
• 2001: Earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow
• 2002: Became a member of the US National Academy of Engineering for starting the GNU project, which created influential, free-to-use software tools and for starting the free software movement
• 2003: Earned an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• 2004: Received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Salta
• 2004: Received an honorary professorship from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú
• 2007: Received an honorary professorship from the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega University
• 2007: Won the First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimiento Libre
• 2007: Earned an honorary doctorate from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote
• 2007: Received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pavia
• 2008: Earned an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo in Peru
• 2009: Received an honorary doctorate from Lakehead University
• 2011: Earned an honorary doctorate from National University of Córdoba
• 2012: Received an honorary professorship from the Universidad César Vallejo de Trujillo in Peru
• 2012: Earned an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Latinoamericana Cima de Tacna in Peru
• 2012: Received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad José Faustino Sánchez Carrión in Peru
• 2014: Earned an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in Montréal
• 2015: Received the ACM Software System Award for creating and leading the GCC software system
• 2016: Earned an honorary doctorate from Pierre and Marie Curie University
• 2016: Received the Social Medicine award from GNU Solidario

Selected publications

• Stallman, Richard M. (1980). EMACS: The Extensible, Customizable, Self-Documenting Display Editor. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. AIM-519A.
• Stallman, Richard M. (2002). GNU Emacs Manual. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: GNU Press. ISBN 1-882114-85-X.
• Stallman, Richard M.; McGrath, Roland; Smith, Paul D. (2004). GNU Make: A Program for Directed Compilation. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: GNU Press. ISBN 1-882114-83-3.
• Stallman, Richard M.; Rothwell, Trevis; Beebe, Nelson (2023). GNU C Language Introduction and Reference Manual. GNU.
• Stallman, Richard M. (2015). Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman (Third edition). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: GNU Press. ISBN 978-0-9831592-5-4.