Photo: Victor Powell / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Richard Stallman is one of those figures you either find inspiring or exhausting — and honestly, I find him both, which is probably the right reaction. This Manhattan-born Harvard grad could have cashed in like everyone else, but instead he spent decades fighting for something most people didn't even realize they needed: the freedom to use, study, and modify the software running their lives. He didn't just write manifestos — he built GNU Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU Debugger, and perhaps most consequentially, the GNU General Public License, which turned "copyleft" from a clever pun into a legal force that shaped the entire open-source world. A MacArthur Fellowship, a Grace Hopper Award, the Internet Hall of Fame — the establishment kept handing him trophies while he kept biting its hand, and I respect the consistency. Love him or not, every piece of free software you've ever touched has his fingerprints on it.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Richard Stallman
- Name (Japanese)
- リチャード・ストールマン
- Reading
- りちゃーど・すとーるまん
- Born
- March 16, 1953 (age 73)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Snake
- Origin
- Manhattan, New York, United States
- Occupation
- programmer / blogger / engineer / inventor / activist
2. Background
- University
- Harvard University
Awards & achievements
- 1990 MacArthur Fellows Program
- 1990 Grace Murray Hopper Award
- 1998 EFF Award
- 2001 Takeda Awards
- 2013 Internet Hall of Fame
- 1999 Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award
- 2015 ACM Software System Award
- 2016 doctor honoris causa from the Pierre and Marie Curie University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | GNU | — | |
| Notable work | GNU Emacs | — | |
| Notable work | Free Software Song | — | |
| Notable work | GNU General Public License | — | |
| Notable work | GNU Compiler Collection | — | |
| Notable work | GNU Debugger | — |
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Richard Stallman born?
Born March 16, 1953 (age 73).
Where is Richard Stallman from?
Richard Stallman is from Manhattan, New York, United States.
What does Richard Stallman do?
Richard Stallman works as programmer, blogger, engineer, inventor, activist.
What is Richard Stallman known for?
Notable works include GNU, GNU Emacs, Free Software Song.
Programmer — see all → · Blogger — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.