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Richard Stallman Eats Something From His Foot

John Rearick · Youtube · 23 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention John Rearick's video "Richard Stallman Eats Something From His Foot".
Youtube Summary
During a lecture Q&A session Richard Stallman appears to pick something off his foot or toe, places it in his mouth and chews on it.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.
Oct 02, 2022 · spullara on An elegy for GNU and RMS
You should expect nothing more than this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

> He's not leading a culinary institute

No, but he is nevertheless an expert for certain culinary specialities (see e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ#t=1m46s). Essentially, of course, this is also about good manners. Anyway, it seems to be a law of nature that a guru will always find suitable devotees.

> What's more worrying is people I speak to regularly now don't even know who he is. And if they do it's because of the toe cheese incident.

I've known who Stallman is for a long time, but I had never heard about the toe cheese incident. I just looked it up. My reaction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_NXSa0_Uc

For anyone interested in the toe cheese incident:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

I'm not trying to malign Stallman here, but you can't deny this is interesting.

saagarjha
I think it's possibly one of the least interesting things about Stallman.
BigBubbleButt
It's not that he did something weird that's interesting (everybody does weird stuff) - it's that he did it in public, on camera, while the focus of attention during some sort of exhibit.

It's interesting because it's unique. The only other person I can think of that would do something similar is Danny DeVito.

Or at least I think it's interesting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Is Linux that popular with youngsters after they've left university? When I think about laptop Linux users it's the archetypical greasy bearded GNU'er [1] that springs to mind...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

RMS has said publically that proprietary software should be illegal, and that free software guarantees user freedoms. This is a philosophy, and one that opines every user wants to become a developer. For things like emacs, and much of GNU, this is true, for most of the rest of the world, this is not.

I eschew free software because I'm not about forcing my views on others (which is literally the mission of GNU). I'm about developing software to be the best it can be, and maybe meeting some friends along the way. Open source, being the best software development model overall, allows me to meet that goal. You could almost say some of RMS's more extreme quirks border on authoritarian (see the example with the abortion joke in the libc manual he FORBADE removal of and demanded be re-added when a dev simply overruled him). He's not acting in a manner that encourages "freedom", but as a simple and obvious dictator of all things GNU or claiming to be GNU. He's frequently tried to shape the path of GNOME (which I am a former foundation member and was on the sysadmin team) in areas he literally has no business weighing in on. Then there are some more gross personality problems, like his sexism, or tendency to actually eat his toenail gunk[1], or to ever refuse to be wrong on anything, even when an entire community disagrees with him.

Dr Stallman has done a great deal of good for the world with Free Software, however like the VAX and PDP-11, his time has passed. Open source won just like Linux won over GNU/Hurd. It is ok that he won, by losing.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

Jedd
rms's toenails aside, I'd suggest that every licence is about enforcing a set of views on others. There are plenty of licences to choose from, so it's fairly easy to find one compatible with your own views.

In the context of GP's (beginningguava) comment about 'open source projects' needing to change their licensing to prevent corporations making money by SaaSing various tools, my point was twofold - first, by definition you can't have free software with restrictions like that, and second you'd be merely fighting the symptoms (with little chance of success).

Aside - I'm curious what you mean by the 'open source software development model', as I don't think that's actually a thing.

SEJeff
Fair enough, the open source software development model is no different in reality from the free software development model generally speaking.

It goes back to ESR's The Cathedral and the Bazaar and is what he deems "the bazaar model" or "bazaar style" before him, Larry Augustin, and Bruce Perens (if memory serves) went on to coin the phrase "open source". Even if you don't necessarily agree with ESR (I see him in a similar vein as RMS fwiw), his thoughts on software development models have generally speaking, been proven true.

I thought he used it to refer to delicious ripped foot manifolds?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
Shenxi
I'm aware :] But my question remains.
sneak
Because the dangers of information ownership seems to be the single solitary thing the guy has ever been right about, ever, as evidenced in part by that video which I thought sufficed as a standalone answer.
Shenxi
What are good examples of where he's been wrong?
Here's Stallman showing another awesome means of self sustinence:

https://youtu.be/I25UeVXrEHQ

At risk of down votes I prefer my heroes to be a bit more sanitary :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

vezzy-fnord
Who else is a close contender for what RMS is doing? Only ones I can think of are Eben Moglen and Bradley M. Kuhn, but they're far too dry and analytical for a mass audience themselves.
vacri
Why the fuck is this relevant to what he is saying? Why is it trotted out every single time his name is mentioned on HN?
SixSigma
Hitler liked dogs.
Jun 01, 2013 · Nyubis on RMS lifestyle
For the curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
As much as I appreciate Stallman, videos like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ show him as eccentric for reasons that go well beyond sticking to principle.
For bonus points, in the actual recording they note that Hypocrites "Smells like thousand year old goat cheese.". which no doubt refers to Stallmans's legendary hygienic practices. [0]

Needless to say, the BSD guys aren't really fans.

[0]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

suborbital
I am surprised you didn't bring up monkey gate & security taking a backseat.
diminish
Yea, most BSD guys I know are also fans of Apple; iOS and Macs on desktop rather than GNU or Linux and Clang is supported by Apple for license reasons.
Some folks miss the point. We only make fun of Stallman in an attempt to change his behaviour in a way that benefits both him and others. For instance, rms smells bad. If he could be persuaded to smell less bad, then everybody would benefit.

Ridicule is a valuable social mechanism for giving negative feedback to those who behave inappropriately. For those who say "but can't we give this feedback in a non-hurtful way?", the answer is no, for the same reason that your brain can't make pain non-painful -- some people are too damn stubborn to listen to non-painful feedback.

Here is a video of Richard Stallman, in the middle of a talk, eating something he's just picked off his foot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

None
None
majmun
This is fact of nature, Stallman eating from his foot was not considered good behaviour in group and signals were sent to correct it. wich may or may not be understood by recipient. (it may come too late and on wrong medium)

Nature knows also cases when minority is right in that case minority can send more powerfull signal than group.

raganwald
Your argument reminds me—painfully—of arguments in favour of physical bullying. “Hey, a few clouts to the head and he’ll get the idea.”

I don’t hit my children, no matter how stubborn they are.

terrywilcox
Straw man.

Edit: I'm not saying that the original argument is correct, as it really isn't, but your response was a straw man.

hugh3
Indeed. My original comment may have been somewhat over the top, but I would still argue that yes, a bit of ridicule can sometimes do someone good. That's a very long way from saying anything about violence.
meric
You are trying to use "a bit of ridicule" to change rms's personal habits, then saying "That's a very long way from saying anything about violence".

I fail to see how this contributes to anything.

Oct 27, 2011 · nikcub on Richard Stallman’s rider
Make sure you feed him, otherwise this happens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

I don't pay attention to people like RMS who eat stuff off their feet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...
The video in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
marshray
I feel ill.

Wait a minute, I've just been cured of nail-biting. I feel the glory! Stallman is truly a saint!! All hail St. Ignucius!

Sorry, I cant read something about RMS without remembering his horrific foot incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

Not antagonising you, but you are aware that he did something similar during a lecture once, right? His lack of concern for social norms is... intriguing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

Dec 13, 2010 · wahnfrieden on Stallman on Hacking
That's not his worst - he has a history of "food hacks": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
I don't care what this guy has to say anymore. After he pulled his sock off, picked his foot and ate whatever the fuck it was he picked off, all in front of what appears to be a lecture class sized audience - I lost all respect for the guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

No wonder computer people have a brutal rep for social interaction. WTF.

jarin
I'm surprised that wasn't one of the top 25 questions.
astrange
It was #11.
"like giving the Han Solo award to the Rebel Fleet" -- he was a terrific speaker a decade ago, even if he did get off the rails quickly raving about GNU-slash-Linux.

Now he just eats detritus from his foot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ

If it wasn't for this article pointing to the reedit post, I would have never discovered this juicy, delicious, and distasteful video of Stallman eating his foot pickings.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
That literally brightened my day. Brilliance is questionable if it means this is the end result!
He also likes to pick stuff off of his feet and eat it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
hackermom
Absolutely repulsive. I'm sure I'll get a down-vote by the RMS Zealot Society because of saying that.

add.: I wonder if the down-voting is because of the "RMS Z S" remark, or because of the implied crowd of down-voters apparently thinks eating things off of ones own feet is acceptable when it's RMS doing it - I honestly don't know what to think.

lelele
That's a fake video. Can't you see that?
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