Richard Matthew Stallman, often known by his initials rms, is an American programmer and activist who pioneered the free software movement. In September 1983, Stallman launched the GNU Project with the goal of creating a Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software. To support this movement, he founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985 and served as the lead architect and organizer of the GNU Project.\n\nAs a developer, Stallman created several foundational pieces of software, including the GNU Emacs text editor, the GNU Debugger, and the GNU Compiler Collection (originally the GNU C Compiler). Beyond writing code, Stallman pioneered the concept of "copyleft," a legal framework that uses copyright law to protect the rights of users to run, study, share, and modify software. Under this philosophy, he authored the GNU General Public License (GPL), which became the most widely used free software license in the world.\n\nSince the mid-1990s, Stallman has dedicated much of his career to advocacy, campaigning against software patents, digital rights management, and proprietary software agreements. He also co-founded the League for Programming Freedom in 1989. Although he resigned from his presidency of the FSF and his visiting scientist position at MIT in 2019 following controversial remarks, he remained the head of the GNU Project and later returned to the FSF board of directors in 2021.
