It was my first time. I got to meet him. Not just by accident, it was a carefully organized (public) setup.The speech was not on the 'free' thing, although he took the advantage of being on stage to introduce the concept (to an audience that was of course aware already.) Nice to see that there were quite a lot of university professors in the room as well, might be a sign of the principles getting into more of 'the established' layers of society.After the speech, the well-prepared student-organization suddenly focussed on the issue of planning 'what was to be after the speech?' Which basically meant that (as one of the few car-owners there) I got to drive rms to his following dinner appointment...

During the 15' drive we easily ended up stressing the differences between the hard-line free GNU vision, and the more pragmatic open Apache vision. Basically he would appeal to my 'if you have any feel for the issue of freedom' (which he knew I had, but it is more oriented to data-ownership then to algorithm-ownership) So we ended up not really communicating when I opposed 'isn't choosing no to do so also some fundamental expression of freedom?'The good news is that there is a lot more alignment in thinking then there is difference, so we concluded with the 'happy hacking' -goodbey anyway :-) And surely we are on the same side opposing the European pattent laws. (the topic of the speech)

All in all, the straight thinking he applies is something I do admire (even if it's not completely mine), and his fysical presence (motivationally glowing eyes included - he needs to be close up in your car before you see this) is one that carries natural authority. He has an (euh,) 'own' way of behaving on stage but the tone of voice, clear argumentation, didactical build-up and overall reasoning in answering questions make it a perfect easy-listening and thought-refreshing experience, grab the occasion if he stops by near you.

9:46:12 AM