From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Subject: Richard Stallman to leave Origin Systems
Date: 2000/04/01
Message-ID: <38e64caa$0$23083@news.plethora.net>#1/1
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In a move sure to stun onlookers, Richard "Communist Kook" Stallman announced
today that he is breaking his ties with Origin Systems, claiming a "difference
in visions" as the reasion for the split.

"Frankly, we really weren't working together.", he explained.

Stallman, famous for his "GNU Manifesto", had expressed concerns about the
company's "hoarding" of software resources.  "When we realized Ultima 9 was
a bug-ridden piece of crap", he mused, "I suggested making it free.  They
started giving away copies, but that's not what I meant.  Customers still
can't fix the bugs themselves.  When I said I wanted to make it free, I meant
free as in speech, not free as in software.  Free software doesn't mean
software you don't pay for, it means software that comes without restrictions
on use."

Stallman feels that Origin's recent slump can be attributed to hoarding.
"When you don't show people the code to your products, you are denying them
a chance to contribute.  How could we have called Ultima 7 an `interactive'
world?  You couldn't change one line of that code."  He feels that the
"closed" nature of the world was a serious barrier to programmers and
researchers who wanted to get involved with Origin's Ultima project.

Stallman plans to start a new company which will produce substantially less
buggy code, through a process he calls "debugging".  "When I brought this up
at Origin, I was laughed at.  No one took me seriously.  Now they'll
understand."

[1]  Presumably not referring to himself.[2]
-- 
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