[ale] Richard Stallman at the University of Georgia

[Charles Shapiro]

Richard Stallman at the University of Georgia Chapel in Athens last night
was awesome.  You are really sorry you didn't go.   My group (four of us)
got there an hour early and I brought binoculars.  I was surprised that we
were the very first people in the door, but by the time things actually
started the auditorium was nicely filled up.  We did get front-row seats.

Stallman, feisty as ever, talked for almost an hour and a half about how
proprietary software enables mass surveillance on a scale never dreamed of
by the great tyrants of the past.  It was thought-provoking, not to mention
refreshing to see someone who honestly tries to live by the principles he
professes.  He was careful to announce that if you wish to share pictures
or audio of the talk, you should not put him on facebook and you should use
only open formats ("No mp-anything", no wma, ogg preferred).

Also featured: an appearance by Saint IGNUcius (
https://stallman.org/saint.html ) to general hilarity.  The Saint
officially declared that vi is Not Sinful as long as you are using a libre
version (e.g. Vim).  During the Q/A period one of our own ( Avery!) asked
about Emacs Evil, but the Saint seemed unfamiliar with that vi emulator
which runs on emacs.

The Q/A period had some fireworks between students and Stallman, as well as
some other general rowdiness and applause and some genuinely interesting
responses.  "The long term choice is not between proprietary software and
no software. The long term choice is between proprietary software and free
software."

The whole thing didn't break up 'til almost 23:00. I got a wonderful mug
decorated with common Emacs commands, signed by the Great Man himself.

All in all, a most worthwhile trip, even though I got to bed around 00:30
this morning.

-- CHS
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