The name of the famous American programmer Richard Stallman is forever inscribed in the history of the development of information technology. Moreover, he gained wide fame not only with the development of numerous different applications, but also with a pronounced position on the issue of software protection. Being the ideologist of the concept called copyleft, Stallman is a kind of idol for some, while others gave him the epithet “odious”. About the life and career of the culprit of heated debate can be found in this article.
Computer genius
Despite the ambiguity of personality, many are interested in various data and facts regarding Richard Matthew Stallman: in what year he was born, where he received his education and how he became one of the most famous programmers in the world.
The future hacker-philosopher was born in 1953, March 16 (Pisces is the zodiac sign). The birthplace of Richard was New York Manhattan, where at that time his parents lived, Jews by nationality. Father is Daniel Stallman, mother is Alice Lippman.
Richard spent his childhood and youth in New York. Here he went to school and received secondary education.
Computers occupied a significant place in Stallman's life, even when he was barely ten. Already in those days, the boy was actively interested in the device of these devices. His reference book was an instruction for an IBM 7049 computer .
In high school and after graduation, Richard Stallman did not study PC anymore - he worked with them. At the age of eighteen, a gifted young man got a job at the IBM New York Science Center. His first creations were:
- a program written in fortran;
- preprocessor for PL / 1.
Stallman managed to combine this occupation with volunteer work as a laboratory assistant at Rockefeller University in the Department of Biology. The professor, who was his leader, prophesied to Richard the glory of the great scientist. But, contrary to the opinion of his colleague, Stallman preferred biology to the field of physics and mathematical science.
Excellent hacker
In 1971, Richard went to Cambridge, where he successfully entered the local illustrious Harvard University. As a student in one of the most difficult elementary mathematics courses in the United States, he earned top grades.
During the first year of study, Richard Stallman got a job as a programmer in the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence (LII), located at the famous MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). And also became a permanent member of the university hacker group.
In this institute community, he quickly became famous under the fictitious nickname RMS, formed on the initials of his full name (Richard Matthew Stallman). In the biography of the programmer, this hacker hobby played a decisive role in a sense.
In 1974, Richard received a Harvard diploma with honors and became a bachelor of physics. Without thinking twice, he continued his studies at the graduate school of MIT. But a year later he realized that physics is not quite what he wants to devote his life to. Stallman dropped out of school and immersed himself in work at LII. Programming was Richard's main, if not the only, interest.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, he actively worked on the development of artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, Stallman broke out a kind of internal conflict in which the freedom-loving hacker confronts the usual law-abiding programmer. The first began to win very quickly - this is the character of Richard Stallman. Freedom in all areas of life has been and remains for him a much more valuable thing than just development and progress.
Opponent of Copyright
At first, a hacker's rebellion was expressed only in the form of criticism, in particular regarding the restriction of computer access in LII. In 1977, the words flowed into the case - Richard hacked the password of the laboratory security system.
Meanwhile, copyright was gaining momentum - licenses restricting use were issued one after another. After the passage of the copyright law in the United States, Stallman realized that it was time to move on to decisive action. He created clones of programs in order to provide users with an identical product that does not have the limitations of change and distribution.
Richard openly called the policies of commercial organizations issuing licensed security software unethical and anti-social. In the fall of 1983, he announced the development of his own project, called the GNU. This operating system (OS) of the free type was to become the main brainchild of Stallman. In support of his project, he organized and led a movement whose goal was to fight for open source software.
In 1984, Richard left MIT and began to work on GNU. Over the next decades, many useful programs related to GNU appeared. But as an OS, this project is being developed to this day. In 1991, on the basis of GNU, a Finnish student created an operating system called Linux.
Writing
In conclusion, it is worth noting another interesting part of the biography of Richard Stallman - his literary work. Throughout his career as a programmer, he regularly published articles. But the culmination of his writing is an impressive dystopian story "The right to read." He talks about the possible consequences of maintaining copyright laws in their original form. As you can see, Stallman will promote the concept he created in any way.