Ilias Aberkane writes:
Page 9 (chapter "Battle"):
"Stallman broke away from MIT in 1984 when he founded the Free Software Foundation."
This conflates two different dates. Stallman did leave MIT in January 1984 (to work on GNU, announced September 1983), but the Free Software Foundation was not founded until October 1985 — officially incorporated October 4, 1985.
Sources:
- GNU history (Stallman): "The Free Software Foundation was founded in October 1985, initially to raise funds to help develop GNU." https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html
- The GNU Project (Stallman): "In January 1984 I quit my job at MIT and began writing GNU software." https://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation (Formation: October 4, 1985)
So the correct sequence: GNU announced Sept 1983, Stallman left MIT Jan 1984, FSF founded Oct 1985.