Build Date: Thu Apr 9 09:20:14 2026 UTC
Do you really think this is a WISE thing for you to be doing?
-- enigma
GNUisance: Pigdog Journal Interviews Richard Stallman
MB: Right. Got it. So, uh, how do you, how do you spend your time now? You probably spend a lot of time evangelizing --
RS: Management.
MB: Yeah?
RS: Basically talking with people about what work needs to be done. And asking people to do things.
MB: What do you -- what kind of projects are you working on? Like, when you sit down and actually start hacking?
RS: For programming, it's Emacs.
MB: Yeah. Like, I mean, what are you programming? You actually program Emacs?
RS: Emacs. That's what I work on.
MB: All the time?
RS: When I'm programming, I'm programming on Emacs. [I still don't know if he got what I was saying. I meant, what the hell were you WRITING?]
|
ES: You don't use vi when you're writing Emacs, do you? RS: I've never learned vi. ES: Umm... How do you keep from getting burned out? You've been doing this for a loooong time. RS: Idealism. ES: Idealism. OK. RS: It's my refusal to _quit_. ES: We were speculating that you still hacked on, like, Lisp machines or something. RS: No. No, I stopped doing that. I stopped writing for Lisp machines when I started the GNU project, and I stopped using Lisp machines once I had GNU Emacs to edit with. Before that, I used to do my editing on a Lisp machine. Cause, that way I had Emacs. I wasn't going to learn vi or ed to do my editing. MB: So, uh, so you spend a lot of time evangelizing like this. Like, about a third of the year your actually traveling -- RS: Of course, I do my ordinary work when I'm traveling. I can't let up on it because it would pile up. ES: Do you always stay with guys like Nick and Rick? |
 Richard Stallman, Dance Machine |
RS: Well, sure, yeah. I try to avoid staying in hotels because they're no fun and they cost money.
MB: So you're kind of like, almost, like an itinerant preacher, you know, moving through the --
RS: Yup.
MB: -- going from house to house of the faithful and kind of spreadin' the word.
RS: Yeah. It's a strange faith for an atheist.
MB: So, what do you do when you're not hackin', or spreading the word?
RS: I read. I eat. Occasionally I dance, although I have an injury from doing the kind of dancing I really love.
MB: Which is...?
RS: International folk dancing. Mostly Balkan.
MB: Crazy! Wow.
RS: I really love Bulgarian dancing.
MB: How'd you pick that up?
RS: [Ignoring me] Why I don't do it now is it hurts.
MB: Why Bulgarian dancing? Where'd that come from?
RS: I started doing it and I loved it. It's very exciting. Have you ever seen any?
 Stallman invades my personal space. |
MB: Uhh... My family's Greek, actually. So I've seen a lot of -- RS: I like Greek dancing, but not quite as much. MB: Yeah? How are they different? RS: I don't know how to describe it in words. But I could show you some of each. MB: Cool! Yes! Sure! Um, could we take a picture? RS: Maybe. I can't show you much of either of them, though, especially the ones that involve the vigorous jumping that I like. MB: Yeah, that's kinda tough. ES: ...kicking your heels in the air... RS: Well, it's gonna _hurt_, is the problem. MB: Well, OK, but don't hurt yourself. RS: I can do a tiny bit of that, you know, carefully chosen. MB: OK. Could we do it? Could we, could we snap it? Is that OK? RS: Doing it in here might be hard. MB: OK, All right. Well maybe later then. |
NM: Maybe in the other room. [CoffeeNet's front room, with lots of tables and hapless victims.]
RS: There's no room in there, and too much pressure.
[Garbled debate about where in CoffeeNet to do violent, acrobatic Bulgarian folk dancing. I can't follow it, really.]
MB: OK, maybe we can save that til the end, then.
RS: Yeah.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Crossroads are real and The Blues is a place; The enduring myth of Robert Johnson (More...)
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
NASA's Mars missions keep blowing up and crashing, but dammit, when you reach for the stars you have to expect a few minor setbacks. Drink a toast to the men and women of NASA! Toast them with a Lost Probe mixed up with your own two (or three) hands! (More...)
Paranoid Strippers & Psychotic Crack Dealers (Tales of Christmas Eve)
Christmas day, for the last 17 or so years has bored me. I find that the real fun and excitement always takes place on Christmas Eve. Every other year, it's the excitement of the metaphorical hunt instead of the kill. Otherwise, it's just plain bad craziness. (More...)
A Day in the Life of a Beverotologist
It was starting to look like a very boring Saturday, trapped as I was in the suburban wastelands of the outer Bay Area, so I called my Able Assistant (AA) and proposed that we perform some Spocktail field tests. For some time I've been working on creating the quintessential cinematic beverage and even tho' SMRL does most of its testing during nocturnal hours, this seemed an opportune time to roll up the sleeves of our labcoats and get some science done. While the beverotology creation tested this day (The Neurotoxin) must be deemed a success, this article focuses more the journey of the experimenters, rather then the science of beverotology. (More...)
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (More...)
Johnnie Royale's Guide to Wakes
Wakes can present problems for Bad People of the Future. (If you don't know what a BPotF is, you need to read more of the PDJ.) Sure, your friend is gone and you miss him and that really sucks; it does, I know. But all Bad People of the Future are gonna die, and they have all accepted that fact. They do deserve, however, to have one final kickass party to celebrate all the bad things they've done in the past, present and future. And you, as a friend, have to make sure that their desire for a final send off is well executed (sorry for the pun). That's just the way of BPotFdom. (More...)
The Deep Dark Underbelly of the Star Wars Myth, or Ramayana Remembered
It's a fact: Star Wars is a blatant plagiarism of an ancient Asian legend, and the long lines of devout Star Wars freaks are really unscrupulous Asian copyright busters. From Indonesia to Thailand to Nepal, videos are available for sale or rent before they're even released in the US and UK due to this nerdy camcorder-clutching bunch. (More...)
