maximumpc.com DEC 2019 MAXIMUMPC 17
Alex Campbell
OPEN SOURCE
Get Rid of the
Gross, Bad Apples
RICHARD STALLMAN was forced to resign from
MIT and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) after
criticism regarding his defense of Jeffery Epstein.
It wasn’t the first time he’d made questionable
statements. And his isn’t the only instance of toxic
behavior in the open-source world.
The fact someone writes
good code doesn’t make them
unassailable as a person.
One of the biggest criticisms of technology as an
industry is the proliferation of misogynistic and
toxic behavior among its ranks. It may be easy to
point fingers at Big Tech, but there are bad elements
in open source as well. One of the biggest names,
Richard Stallman, resigned from his position at the
Free Software Foundation and his post at MIT after
statements he made defending Jeffrey Epstein
from accusations of rape and sex trafficking.
As someone who always thought of Stallman
as a prophet of free software, I was surprised to
learn about his statements. What disturbed me
more was that he has a long history of defending
pedophilia and child pornography. Reading some
of his old blog posts, it doesn’t get better.
While Stallman is an extreme case, Linus
Torvalds was also the subject of criticism over
behavior. Torvalds took time off from being the
head of the Linux kernel project after outrage
over his treatment of code contributors. He would
publicly shame and curse-out developers who
committed code that he found to be bad.
Putting aside details, the problems in the online
open-source community stem from a history of
being made up of mostly nerdy, white males. While
there is nothing wrong with being a nerd or white
(or both), there is something to be said about being
in a community that lacks a diversity of voices. The
toxic masculinity, misogyny, and
racism I saw in the Marine Corps
was also a product of the infantry
being exclusively male. It doesn’t
surprise me that such individuals
also exist in a community long
dominated by men.
There’s now lots more diversity
in the open-source community.
It’s a minority of members who
express views or create posts
that are offensive and off-putting.
People who head projects are in
de facto positions of power, and
the larger the project, the more
powerful and influential the project
leads. The behavior of leaders in
open source ought to be subject
to scrutiny, just as someone
who holds a leadership role in
government should be. Likewise,
leadership in open source should
take care to represent the wide
diversity of users, developers, and
community members.
Diversity anywhere results in
better outcomes. Women have
unique world views and concerns
men might never consider. The
LGBTQ community can bring
unique perspectives on privacy and
gender use in interfaces. People of
color or differing socioeconomic
status may be more aware
of the barriers and challenges
that disadvantaged communitiesface. Newer contributors may
have good “stupid” questions
that might go overlooked by older
developers, while older developers
bring experience that can be levied
to mentor newer programmers.
Bringing those views into
how projects are designed,
documented, and presented to the
public is important.
The fact someone writes
good code doesn’t make them
unassailable as a person. If free
and open-source software is
meant to free the user, one must
ensure that the diversity of users
is represented and respected,
and that the developers have a
grounding in morals and ethics.
While it is good and proper that
Stallman resigned, his remarks
still leave a stain on MIT and the
FSF that will take time to fully
cleanse. Every Linux user relies
on GNU code that Stallman helped
produce. For me, I can appreciate
his contributions to open source
while demanding better from
people in the community.Alex Campbell is a Linux geek
who enjoys learning about
computer security.Richard Stallman resigned over
questionable statements he made.