> I was left with the impression that he wasn't offering a solution, just a vision of a Utopia without any guidance on how to transition to it
Stallman quit his job to write an entire free software operating system and essentially dedicated his entire life to it. What more do you want?! I don't even want to imagine a world without Richard Stallman.
That doesn't really offer a solution for those of us that need to get paid. The choice he may have made to quit his job and write free software is anecdotal and simply won't generalise to everyone.
Stallman judges those that write proprietary software, calling this type of software immoral, and yet doesn't offer guidance to get from the current situation to a better situation. Without realistic and generalisable guidance, it is simply self righteousness on his part,
the same as any extreme idealist.
> That doesn't really offer a solution for those of us that need to get paid.
If you have anything at all to do with software you're "getting paid" by using the wealth of free software that makes up GNU Linux, OS X, etc. Free software constitutes a powerful non-scarcity-based model that is extremely good for productivity. Just because he doesn't kowtow to standard capitalist race-to-the-bottom models doesn't mean he's not "realistic".
Why should he come up with a solution to help you get paid? If you're making a living unethically it's not up to me to figure out a way for you to do it ethically. In any case, there are plenty of other people who have figured out how to do that and there isn't the slightest reason to believe that all software being free means nobody would get paid to write it.
He owes me nothing but he's not offering credible proof that his way is applicable to anyone but himself.
And as for calling something immoral which is the result of someones hard work and doesn't impact them if they choose not to use it, simply sounds like sour grapes and self righteousness.
Stallman quit his job to write an entire free software operating system and essentially dedicated his entire life to it. What more do you want?! I don't even want to imagine a world without Richard Stallman.