I think Stallman is misunderstood and his contributions to technology are misunderstood and often understated. In my view, he is one of the most - if not the most - influential figures in technology in the last 40 years. The GNU Project and the GPL are directly responsible for what uninformed people variously refer to as “Linux” or “open source.” Stallman is criticized as being pedantic or stubborn in insisting on certain terms, but this is actually not uncommon especially in the realm of business and politics (political and government leaders strongly insist you use the correct term for their party) and there is a reason for this; indeed, I think there is a direct correlation to the general misunderstanding of Stallman and the widespread usage of terminology which erases his philosophy and contributions.

At the same time, in the last few years I have come to believe Stallman is seriously flawed as a leader and a spokesperson. In 2018, for example, he insisted on including a joke referring to the “global gag rule” in the documentation for abort() in glibc. This joke was widely criticized for various reasons, such as its inappropriateness in a technical manual, its US-centricism, its effect in creating an unwelcoming atmosphere, and so on. The discussion was moved to a private mailing list, but my understanding was that Stallman pulled rank as “Chief GNUisance” to insist that the joke remain in the manual, despite community objections.

Stallman’s “eccentric” behavior has been previously noted, and seems to do more harm than good. I’ve read reports that he has contributed to an unwelcoming environment particularly for women, both off and online, and I have no reason to doubt those reports. It is telling that many of those reports came from people who worked at FSF or in the GNU project for/with him. Those have more credence than “open source” people or random internet anons slinging shit.

More generally, a fundamental flaw of Stallman’s in my opinion is that he often seems to form opinions on matters that do not concern him and without consulting relevant communities, often running counter to the widely accepted opinion in those communities. Most controversial is his article against singular they/them (which, to my knowledge, runs counter not only to consensus in the trans and non-binary communities but also to generally accepted linguistic practice overall) but he shows this tendency elsewhere for example when he argues that “piracy” is a smear term (which was technically true at some point - but this term has long since been “reclaimed” (for lack of a better word) by the data sharing community, a fact he does not even seem to mention). His anti-glossary is full of more examples.

It’s entirely possible that Stallman is a brilliant thinker and hacker, but a poor leader and spokesman. I wouldn’t consider myself an effective leader either. I still greatly respect Stallman, his philosophy, and his work. I no longer “hero worship” him as I did a decade or even 5 years ago.