Richard M. Stallman on Steve Jobs: "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone"

I'm not sure what Richard M. Stallman, software freedon activist and the main author of the GNU General Public License, was thinking when he wrote this over on his personal blog:

Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died.

As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone." Nobody deserves to have to die - not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing.

Unfortunately, that influence continues despite his absence. We can only hope his successors, as they attempt to carry on his legacy, will be less effective.

I can understand that Apple's view of computing is at odds with Stallman's view of the world, but this sort of outburst is uncalled for.

I've come across a lot of crazy things said by a lot of crazy people over the past few days, but this is by far the craziest. Reading that has left me shaking my head is disbelief.

(via The Loop)