PERSONAL BACKGROUND
- NAME: Richard Matthew Stallman
- BORN: March 16,1953
- WHERE: New York City
- OCCUPATION: President of the Free Software Foundation
What did he do?
As a hacker in MIT’s AI laboratory, Stallman worked on software projects such as TECO, Emacs, and the Lisp machine operating system. He would become an ardent critic of restricted computer access in the lab, which at that time was funded primarily by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. When MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) installed a password control system in 1977, Stallman found a way to decrypt the passwords and sent users messages containing their decoded password, with a suggestion to change it to the empty string (that is, no password) instead, to re-enable anonymous access to the systems. Around 20% of the users followed his advice at the time, although passwords ultimately prevailed. Stallman boasted of the success of his campaign for many years afterward.
How did he become famous?
He campaigns for the freedom to use, study, distribute and modify software; software that ensures these freedoms legally (via its license) is termed free software. In September 1983, Stallman launched the GNU Project to create a Unix-like computer operating system composed entirely of free software. Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft. He initiated the free software movement in October 1985. He founded the Free Software Foundation.In 1989 he co-founded the League for Programming Freedom.
Type of Hacker:
- He is a white hat hacker. He joined the group of hackers at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) in 1971.
