Richard Stallman is a tech celebrity who has been on the tech scene for a long time. He is most widely known for his free software activism. Basically, his stance is that ALL software should be free. By free, I don’t mean free of charge. I mean free to use/copy/distribute/modify. Stallman basically believes that nobody should “own” software. Once you create a piece of software and release it to the public, it is now owned by the public.So today I had an epiphany. If you think about Rush Limbaugh, he is basically a political lightning rod. He has extreme opinions, and he has a large microphone. Whenever he says anything big, nearly everybody hears it. And at the same time, the majority of those people disagree (at least in part) with what Rush says. Rush speaks to the far right wing of the political spectrum. That means that all of the people who are center right, center, or left tend to disagree with Rush. So if you do the math, that means that most people don’t agree with Rush.I think Stallman fits this mold as well. Not politically; if I were to compare Stallman to Limbaugh politically they would be polar opposites. But I think Stallman is the same type of individual, doing the same type of thing. Stallman often says big controversial things, and he has a big microphone (the tech press widely reports his statements.) And just like Rush, most people tend to disagree with Stallman.The interesting thing is that people like Rush and Stallman continually get lots of press, even though their opinions come from the extremes. When will we ever learn?
