The New Richard Stallman

It's hard to tell whether it's because RMS has changed, or whether the world has changed, but something is new here: RMS is starting to engage with politicians at the highest levels.

For example, a few months back I wrote about his meeting with Ségolène Royal - who, as I and many others predicted, is now officially a candidate for the French Presidential elections.

Now here's RMS hobnobbing with Rafael Correa, the new president of Ecuador. I had to laugh at this description:

Stallman spoke for almost 20 minutes, without Correa saying anything, just listening.

So some things remain the same.

In any case, the result seems good:

When Stallman finished speaking, there were a few questions, and a short conversations where the two of them were in agreement on everything, and Correa asked his advisers if Ecuador should migrate to free software. They said yes, and everyone, including Stallman, left the meeting with a broad smile on their faces.

(Via Linux and Open Source Blog.)