faif-2.0

172 CHAPTER 11. OPEN SOURCE
fissure in my view comes from an odd mix of idealism and territoriality.
There are people out there who think it’s all Richard’s personal
ego. I don’t believe that. It’s more that he so personally associates
himself with the free software idea that he sees any threat to that as
a threat to himself.”
Stallman responds, “Raymond misrepresents my views: I don’t
think Torvalds ‘conspired’ with anyone, since being sneaky is not his
way. However, Raymond’s nasty conduct is visible in those statements
themselves. Rather than respond to my views (even as he claims
they are) on their merits, he proposes psychological interpretations for
them. He attributes the harshest interpretation to unnamed others,
then ‘defends’ me by proposing a slightly less derogatory one. He has
often ‘defended’ me this way.”
Ironically, the success of open source and open source advocates
such as Raymond would not diminish Stallman’s role as a leader – but
it would lead many to misunderstand what he is a leader of. Since the
free software movement lacks the corporate and media recognition of
open source, most users of GNU/Linux do not hear that it exists, let
alone what its views are. They have heard the ideas and values of open
source, and they never imagine that Stallman might have different
ones. Thus he receives messages thanking him for his advocacy of
“open source,” and explains in response that he has never been a
supporter of that, using the occasion to inform the sender about free
software.
Some writers recognize the term “free software” by using the term
“FLOSS,” which stands for “Free/Libre and Open Source Software.”
However, they often say there is a single “FLOSS” movement, which is
like saying that the U.S. has a “Liberal/Conservative” movement, and
the views they usually associate with this supposed single movement
are the open source views they have heard.
Despite all these obstacles, the free software movement does make
its ideas heard sometimes, and continues to grow in absolute terms.
By sticking to its guns, and presenting its ideas in contrast to those
of open source, it gains ground. “One of Stallman’s primary character
traits is the fact he doesn’t budge,” says Ian Murdock. “He’ll wait up
to a decade for people to come around to his point of view if that’s
what it takes.”