[LINK] Linux gaining acceptance in Canberra

[Roger Clarke]

"Chirgwin, Richard" <Richard.Chirgwin@informa.com.au>:
>2) Interviewing a Finnish programmer was (and is?) considerably less painful
>than interviewing Richard Stallman. (Try it sometime.) ...

Some people think that 'Gnu's not Unix' was the origin of the term 
'Gnu'.  But like so many other TLAs it's an ex post facto 
reconstruction (and if you think about chickens and eggs, it's easy 
to see that it *couldn't* have been the real origin of the term).

The real origin is that a Gnu has a thick hide, and that's definitely 
one of Richard Stallman's qualities.

<anecdote>

I met Stallman once (but, unlike RC, didn't have to interview him). 
I was visiting David Chaum in Amsterdam in 1987 (after his original 
Mixmaster and Digicash articles were published, but before he became 
a household name amongst the digerati.  I ended up helping him with 
his Scientific American article - and it was *still* another 3 years 
before it was ready for publication!  We see one another at CFP 
conferences every couple of years).

After a couple of hours, we were interrupted by a phone-call.  David 
apologised, and said that a friend had just arrived at Amsterdam 
railway station, and was getting on another train in two hours, and 
he needed to go and meet him.  'Oh, by the way Roger, you might like 
to come and meet him, he's an interesting guy'.  (When David says 
'interesting' about people, David means interesting, and very, very 
bright ...).

Stallman's luggage (a small plastic carry-bag) actually included a 
pair of shoes.  Presumably he was going somewhere where he wanted to 
be, but anticipated difficulties if he wasn't wearing any.  (Albert 
Langer is a paragon of sartorial virtue in comparison with Richard).

I'd done some work on the software copyright furore and amendment 
legislation only a year or two before, so I figured I could engage RS 
in conversation.  I thought I knew a little about the economics of 
software production, but boy did I get my propositions blown out of 
the water in quick time.  Stallman's intellect puts other extremely 
bright people I've met (like David Chaum and Albert Langer) in deep 
shade.  David's quite gentlemanly in conversation, Albert less so; 
but Richard can be very, very rude to fools - which in his case means 
almost the whole of the population of homo sapiens.  In fact, I 
suspect he's not even impressed with *himself* at times.

I've not met him since, but every story I've heard suggests he's never changed.

</anecdote>

-- 
Roger Clarke              http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                 Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke@xamax.com.au            http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor, Uni of Hong Kong, Dept of Comp Sci and Info Sys
Visiting Fellow, Australian National University, Dept of Comp Sci
----------
For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/