Richard Matthew Stallman (b. 1953) is an American software freedom activist, programmer, and founder of the free software movement. In 1983 he launched the GNU Project to build a complete Unix-like operating system made entirely of free software, and in 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation to advance that goal.[1]
Early life and education
Richard Stallman was born on March 16, 1953, in Manhattan, New York City. He developed an early fascination with mathematics and computing, and as a teenager gained hands-on programming experience at scientific research centers. He went on to study physics at Harvard University, graduating in 1974.[1]
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
While an undergraduate, Stallman began working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he became a staff programmer and a prominent member of the institution's hacker community. There he contributed to systems software, most notably an early and highly influential version of the Emacs text editor.[4]
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stallman grew increasingly concerned about the spread of proprietary software and restrictive licensing, which he argued prevented users from studying, sharing, and modifying the programs they depended on.
The GNU Project and Free Software Foundation
In September 1983 Stallman announced the GNU Project, an ambitious effort to develop a free operating system compatible with Unix. Its name is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix." He personally wrote major components of the system, including the GNU Emacs editor, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and the GNU Debugger (GDB).[2]
In 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the freedom to run, study, share, and modify software. He also published the GNU Manifesto, which set out the philosophy behind the project.[3]
Copyleft and the GNU General Public License
Stallman is the principal author of the GNU General Public License (GPL), one of the most widely used free software licenses. The GPL applies the concept of "copyleft," a licensing method that uses copyright law to guarantee that a program and its derivative works remain free for all users.[3]
Legacy
The GNU tools became foundational to modern computing, and when combined with the Linux kernel in the early 1990s they formed complete operating systems now used on servers, embedded devices, and personal computers. Stallman's advocacy also helped shape the broader free and open-source software movements. His work has been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship (1990), the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, the ACM Software System Award, and induction into the Internet Hall of Fame, among other honors.[1]
