Pioneers

Richard Stallman

Software Engineering

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Richard Stallman." Accessed August 31, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/richard-stallman.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Richard Stallman. Retrieved August 31, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/richard-stallman

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-richard-stallman,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Richard Stallman},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/richard-stallman},
  note = {Accessed August 31, 2026}
}

Richard Matthew Stallman, also known by his initials rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer who campaigns for software to be distributed so that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute and modify it, a principle he calls free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project in September 1983 to write a Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software, founded the Free Software Foundation in October 1985, developed the GNU C Compiler and GNU Emacs, and wrote every version of the GNU General Public License. He pioneered the concept of copyleft, using copyright law's own mechanisms to preserve users' rights to use, modify and distribute free software.

Facts

Birth Date

1953-03-16 1

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Richard Stallman

Wikimedia FoundationLead section

Quote, Lead section

born March 16, 1953

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