Richard Stallman has revealed he is undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of white blood cells, but said the prognosis is good. On Wednesday, the 70-year-old Stallman attended the 40th anniversary celebration of the GNU project in Switzerland, and his image has changed a lot. As we wrote last week, the GNU Project was celebrating 40 years of free software, and Stallman appeared on stage at Bill/Bean to deliver the closing remarks. His trademark long hair was gone, as was his beard.
In true GNU fashion, the video is a WebP file on the GNU.org website, rather than being hosted on a commercial streaming service. We recommend downloading the file and playing it locally -- VLC supports the format well -- but even so, we struggled to understand what he was saying. Stallman was in his seat, wearing an anti-viral mask, and he called on the audience to do the same. His voice was muffled, causing the audience to shout inaudibly.
He said he had follicular lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a blood cancer that causes B lymphocytes to form clumps in the lymphatic system.
While non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was also the cause of death of the late Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, there are many types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Stallman had one of the slower-growing types. He said that his prognosis is good and he hopes to continue to be active on the GNU stage in the years to come.
Although Stallman was a controversial and polarizing figure, he was a recognized pioneer. Without his efforts to formalize and promote free software, there would be no open source world today. On the Internet, people expressed their concern for him, and many wished him well.