Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."

Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, is suddenly stepping down in what analysts see as a major move for the enterprise software giant as it confronts challenges in the cloud.

McDermott will be replaced by two members of the SAP executive team —  Jennifer Morgan, president of the company's cloud business group, and chief operating officer Christian Klein, the company said Thursday. Morgan and Klein will take the title of co-CEOs. 

No reason was given for McDermott's departure, but he will stay in an advisory role until the end of the year, SAP said.

"Every CEO dreams of being able to transition a company to its next generation from a position of significant strength," McDermott, who joined SAP in 2002, said in a statement. "When you look at where we were and where we are, I simply could not be prouder of what this company has achieved over the past decade."

In a statement, Hasso Plattner, chairman of SAP's supervisory board, praised McDermott's "invaluable contributions to this company," noting that "he was a main driver of SAP's transition to the cloud, which will fuel our growth for many years to come."

A big shift

SAP is one of the dominant players in the market for enterprise software used by businesses, including the world's largest corporations, to manage their operations.

But like other major enterprise software companies, including Oracle and IBM, SAP has had to adapt to the rise of the cloud, which has dramatically changed the way businesses access business software applications.

Instead of paying hefty licensing fees for software installed in private data centers, the cloud made it possible for businesses to access set up their networks and access applications through web-based platforms, typically based on a subscription model. 

That has been a challenging transition for companies like SAP as it faces cloud-based rivals such as Salesforce and Workday.

"For sure, SAP is a company that is transforming," Adaire Fox-Martin, a member of the SAP executive team, told Business Insider in August. "I think we're at the tail end of that process in terms of the transformation of our business to the cloud." She said SAP is looking to triple its cloud revenue to $15 billion a year by 2023. 

Making up on lost ground

Analysts say SAP, like other traditional software vendors, was late in the transition to the cloud. But the appointment of Morgan, in particular, shows a renewed investment in the cloud. As the now-former leader of SAP's cloud business, she's well-positioned to know the ins and outs of that market.

IDC analyst Mickey North Rizza said SAP is now "making up on lost ground," as it appeals to customers who are using both traditional software, and major cloud platforms like Amazon's. SAP is focusing on opportunities in an emerging trend called hybrid cloud in which businesses maintain networks in the cloud, but still keep huge chunks of their data and applications in private data centers.

"Their customers are going hybrid so that helps as they move forward," she told Business Insider.

IDC President Crawford Del Prete also told Business Insider: "This is an important change for them and is clearly a pivot deeper into the cloud and subscription business models," he told Business Insider. "It will accelerate the company's transition, in my opinion."

Analyst Ray Wang of Constellation Research agreed. "I think where we are is they are putting a new chapter in play," he told Business Insider. "Bill McDermott had an amazing run and a great team to get there," he said. 

Got a tip about XXX or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @benpimentel. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Since June, 1,299 people in the US have been struck with lung illnesses tied to vaping, or using e-cigarettes. Twenty-six people have died.

The new figures, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Oct. 10, include confirmed and probable lung-illness cases from 49 states, Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands. US officials have said they expect the number of deaths tied to vaping to increase.

Vaping is a highly variable hobby, making it difficult for officials to determine exactly what's causing the illnesses and deaths. 

Investigators have not yet identified a single common brand, device type, or drug across the cases. That could mean that all of the illnesses were triggered by the same issue, or that some of the cases are different diseases with some similar symptoms.

Officials said that it's likely that products containing THC played a role in the outbreak. About three quarters of the people who have the lung disease reported using vapes containing THC. About 13% said they exclusively vaped nicotine.

The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are working together to figure out the potential causes. The agencies have previously said they've gathered about 120 vaping devices and substances that may be linked to the illnesses, and are currently studying them. 

Some reports have suggested that vitamin E acetate, which has been found in some of the products, may play a role in the illnesses. 

Read more: Vaping is leading to a spate of lung injuries, comas, and death. Lung experts say oils like vitamin E may be partially to blame.

The CDC advised people to consider not vaping until it can figure out the cause of the illnesses. The agency also warned smokers who vape nicotine to not return to smoking, however.

So far, the available evidence still suggests that when compared to smoking, vaping is a healthier habit. The practice involves inhaling heated vapor, rather than burned material. In general, vapers are believed to be exposed to fewer toxicants and cancer-causing substances than smokers. 

To help prevent young people from vaping, states including Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts have banned at least some e-cigarette products.

There are hundreds of different kinds of vaping devices

There's an enormous amount of variety when it comes to vaping devices, ingredients, and brands — making it difficult to pinpoint any single cause.

First, there are the all-in-one style devices, where all of the necessary pieces are contained in the device itself. These popular e-cigs are sold under brand names like Juul and Blu (for nicotine), and Pax (for cannabis).

Read more: The precarious path of e-cig startup Juul: From Silicon Valley darling to $38 billion behemoth under criminal investigation

Then there are the modifiable tank-based e-cigs, in which pieces of the device can be bought separately, and users can customize everything from the temperature of the device to the drug ingredients. These modifiable setups have been linked with dangers in the past, including at least two deaths.

Finally, there are the ingredients that go into the devices, which can range from waxes to liquids to ground plant matter. Some devices allow users to pour in their own liquid or stuff in their own wax or herbs, while other devices simply include disposable pre-filled cartridges.

In some of the cases reported to health agencies, users said they were vaping cannabis when their illness occurred. In Oregon, health officials said they had received reports that the person who died had been vaping cannabis. But because marijuana is still illegal in many states, it's possible that those cases are under-reported. Other vapers in the reports have been using only nicotine.

In many of the cases, patients said they experienced a gradual start of symptoms like trouble breathing, shortness of breath, and chest pain before they were brought to the hospital. Some people said they also experienced stomach issues including vomiting and diarrhea.

A new practice with several unknowns

Vaping is a relatively new practice, having only became popular within the past decade. Because of its novelty, researchers have warned that there's a lot we still don't know about how the practice impacts the brain and body.

Recently-discovered health risks range from a heightened exposure to toxic metals to a potentially higher risk of a heart attack.

Last spring, for example, researchers examining the vapors in several popular e-cigarette brands found evidence that they contained some of the same toxic metals normally found in conventional cigarettes, such as lead. They also found evidence suggesting that at least some of those toxins were making their way through vapers' bodies. Their results were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Consistently inhaling high levels of toxic metals has been tied to health problems in the lungs, liver, immune system, heart, and brain, as well as some cancers, according to the US Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration. 

In a study published last fall in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, scientists found evidence tying daily e-cigarette use to an increased risk of a heart attack. Still, the study could not conclude that vaping caused the heart attacks — only that the two were linked.

When it comes to the spate of recent lung illnesses, health departments are further investigating by testing e-cigarette products and samples they've collected from patients.

But vaping seems to have helped hook millions of teens on nicotine 

Separately, vaping appears to have helped hook lots of new young people on nicotine — in some cases, young people who otherwise would not have smoked.

E-cigarettes have been tied to a large recent jump in smoking among middle school and high school students. From 2017 to 2018, the percentage of teens who said they'd used e-cigs jumped 78%, according to the CDC. Preliminary data for this year shows that e-cig use has continued to increase among teens.

Because they contain nicotine, e-cigarettes are especially dangerous for kids and teens whose brains are still developing, experts say. In young people, nicotine appears to blunt emotional control as well as decision-making and impulse-regulation skills. That most likely helped prompt a warning about e-cigs from the US surgeon general in December.

The rise in youth vaping prompted a crackdown on the industry led by the FDA. The agency responded by curbing the sale of flavored e-cigs, which they've said are particularly appealing to young people.

"Ultimately, we expect these steps designed to address flavors and protect youth will dramatically limit the ability of kids to access tobacco products we know are both appealing and addicting," Scott Gottlieb, who was then FDA commissioner, said in a statement at the time.

This article was published on August 30 and has been updated.

Adam Neumann is no longer a billionaire, Forbes now estimates.

The former WeWork CEO's net worth has plummeted to $600 million, the magazine estimates, paralleling the plunging valuation of his co-working empire following the company's up-and-down IPO adventure that saw the company whipsaw from a $47 billion valuation to talk of bankruptcy in just 6 weeks. Forbes' Samantha Sharf also reported that Neumann's cofounder, Miguel McKelvey, has also lost his billionaire status.

The $3.5 billion drop in Neumann's personal net worth was the result of the declining value of Neumann's 18% stake in WeWork, Forbes reported. WeWork was valued at $47 billion in January following an investment from Japanese investment firm Softbank. However, the company reportedly sought a valuation as low as $10 billion in September as public scrutiny over its steep losses and leadership structure threatened its IPO. Forbes now estimates that the company is worth "at most $2.8 billion."

A representative for Neumann declined Business Insider's request for comment on whether Neumann's net worth had fallen below $1 billion.

The Forbes calculation of Neumann's net worth includes:

Read more: The WeWork IPO fiasco of 2019, explained in 30 seconds

Forbes does not believe that either Neumann or McKelvey — who the publication says is now worth $400 million — will likely rejoin the three comma club.

Neumann founded WeWork in 2010 alongside his now-wife Rebekah Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Concern from potential investors over the company's finances and corporate governance issues pushed Neumann to resign as WeWork's CEO on September 24.

Under Neumann's leadership, the company was plagued by a party culture that included alcohol-fueled company retreats and little work-life balance, Business Insider's Meghan Morris and Julie Bort previously reported.

Have you worked for Adam Neumann or WeWork and have a story you'd like to share? Contact the reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4725 using a non-work phone, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Twitter DM at @TaylorNRogers. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

GM CEO Mary Barra on Wednesday held a meeting with United Auto Workers President Gary Jones and Vice-President Terry Dittes. 

The UAW strike against GM, with nearly 50,000 workers walking off the job, is now in its fourth week.

The meeting between Barra, several GM negotiators, and the UAW leadership,  was held at GM's headquarters in downtown Detroit and took place on Tuesday afternoon at Barra's behest, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Business Insider. The news was originally reported by the New York Post and the Detroit Free Press.

The UAW also confirmed the meeting to Reuters. The meeting has been labeled "secret," but the UAW disputed that characterization.

Read more: The US auto workers union just decided to walk out on GM — here's why they're striking

After appearing to have resolved a series of remaining issues around profit-sharing and temporary workers, talks reached an impasse the past weekend when, Dittes wrote in an email to GM negotiator Scott Sandefur, the company failed to respond in an acceptable manner to a UAW proposal.

Talks continued into the night and early morning

With no official counter from the UAW on Monday and Tuesday, even as negotiations continued, Barra decided to offer the meeting, which ran for about an hour. The New York Post said that armed guards escorted Jones and Dittes to Barra's office in the Renaissance Center, but that wasn't the case. The meeting took place in the main negotiating area in the building, and there were no armed guards, a source familiar with the situation said.

A source indicated that talks then continued well into the night and early Thursday morning, suggesting that two sides are working to address the remaining sticking points.

The strike began on September 16 and is the largest labor action against a major automaker since 1982. In 2007, the UAW struck GM for just two days.

Jones's presence at the media was notable. The UAW president has maintained a relatively low profile during negotiations. He, along with other UAW officials, is under investigation by federal authorities on allegations of corruption.

The meeting was consistent with Barra's approach to running GM. She's wasted no time in making the difficult decisions that could keep the 111-year-old automaker in business. GM sold its money-losing European division, Opel, in 2017, and more recently streamlined its South Korea operations. In 2016, it bought San Francisco-based Cruise Automation for an all-in price of $1 billion; subsequent investment has raised the self-driving startup's valuation to nearly $20 billion (GM's market cap is $50 billion). 

GM's original offer didn't satisfy the UAW

GM originally offered to invest $7 billion and add 5,400 jobs in the US, including "solutions" for idled plants in Ohio and Michigan. The company announced last year that it would "unallocate" a group of US factories, but in its initial offer to the union it said that it could bring an electric-battery plant to area in Ohio where the Lordstown facility is located, and that it could use the Hamtramck plant in Michigan to assemble a new electric truck.

The UAW membership walked out over benefits, profit-sharing, and the fate of temporary workers, despite a GM offer to keep UAW contributions to health care at around 3%. But earlier this week, Dittes sent a letter to the membership that stressed job security as an ongoing concern.

"We have made it clear that there is no job security for us when GM products are made in other countries for the purpose of selling them here in the USA," he wrote, referring to GM vehicles manufactured in Mexico."We believe that the vehicles GM sells here should be built here."

Apple drew harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress on Thursday after the tech giant decided to pull an app from the App Store that was being used by protesters in Hong Kong.

The app, HKmap.live, allowed protesters in Hong Kong to share the location of police and plan their movements accordingly, similar to apps like Waze.

Apple has repeatedly flip-flopped on whether to allow the app — it initially rejected the app earlier this month, then made it available for download a few days later, before ultimately removing it from the app store on Thursday.

"Apple assured me last week that their initial decision to ban this app was a mistake. Looks like the Chinese censors have had a word with them since," Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted. "Who is really running Apple? Tim Cook or Beijing?"

An Apple spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. In a previous statement explaining the rationale for removing the app, Apple said HKmap.live was "used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong," the New York Times first reported.

In response, developers of HKmap.live told The Verge that "HKmap App never solicits, promotes, or encourages criminal activity. HKmap App consolidates information from user and public sources, e.g. live news stream, Facebook and Telegram."

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has a record of being tough on China, also criticized Apple's decision.

"An authoritarian regime is violently suppressing its own citizens who are fighting for democracy," Wyden tweeted. "Apple just sided with them."

Other lawmakers to blast Apple's decision included Republican senator Rick Scott of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

Tim Cook, in a leaked memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, talked more about Apple's decision to remove the app. Cook wrote that the app was being used to "maliciously target individual officers for violence," and that he received "credible information" from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau as well as the app's users which indicated it was being used for those purposes.

Google on Thursday was accused of removing a game about the Hong Kong protests at the request of Hong Kong police, which the company has denied, saying instead it was because the app violated its policies.

The video game distributor Blizzard has also drawn backlash this week for banning a Hearthstone player for supporting the Hong Kong protests. Before that, a Houston Rockets manager walked back his statement in support of Hong Kong protesters after China's state broadcaster said it wouldn't show future Rockets games.

 

If you don't have central heating, or do but don't want to use all that energy, then a space heater is a great way to ensure you keep nice and warm during those long winter months. Space heaters will keep you warm in your frigid office, that one cold room in your house, or your chilly dorm room.

There are plenty of space heaters to choose from, so you might have to do a little research to find the right one for your needs. Thankfully, we've done the research for you to find the best space heaters you can buy. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Last but not least, you'll want to consider what the space heater looks like. Sure, that may not be as important as offering heat, but the fact is that a space heater could well become a piece of furniture in your house, and as such, it should be able to fit in with the rest of your furniture reasonably well.

Updated on 10/10/2019 by Caitlin Petreycik: Updated formatting, prices, and links. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook is standing by the company's controversial decision to remove an app from the App Store used by Hong Kong protesters to track police activity.

In an email to Apple staff obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Cook said the app, called HKmap.live, was removed because it was being used to "maliciously target individual officers for violence" and "victimize individuals and property where no police are present."

The Apple CEO said he received "credible information" from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau and users in Hong Kong that indicated that the app was being used in this way, Bloomberg reported. 

"These decisions are never easy, and it is harder still to discuss these topics during moments of furious public debate," Cook wrote in the email, according to Bloomberg. "National and international debates will outlive us all, and, while important, they do not govern the facts. In this case, we thoroughly reviewed them, and we believe this decision best protects our users."

The content of the email published in Bloomberg's story is similar to a post said to be a leaked memo to staff from Cook that was published on the website Pastebin on Thursday. 

An Apple spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's inquiry about whether the memo posted on Pastebin was legitimate.

Cook's email echoes the comment Apple issued earlier in response to its decision to remove the app, a choice that has come under criticism. See below for the full statement Apple issued to Business Insider earlier on Thursday regarding its decision to remove HKmap.live from the App Store. 

Apple removed the app after People's Daily, the newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, slammed the iPhone maker for keeping the app on its store. Since Apple removed the app, officials such as US Sen. Josh Hawley and Charles Mok, Hong Kong's information technology legislator, have rallied against the decision.  

James Murdoch's holding company agreed to buy a small stake in Vice Media Group, sources briefed on the deal told the Financial Times.

Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former CEO of 21st Century Fox, has been on Vice's board of directors since 2013.

Murdoch launched the holding company, Lupa Systems, earlier this year in an effort to make his own way in the media industry outside of his family's empire, according to the FT.

When the Murdoch family sold most of 21st Century Fox to Disney for $71 billion, James Murdoch used his $2 billion in proceeds to build Lupa Systems as a holding company for his media investments, the FT reported.

Lupa Systems recently teamed up with another holding company, Joe Marchese's Attention Capital, to acquire a controlling stake in Tribeca Film Festival parent company Tribeca Enterprises. 

The FT didn't uncover the size of Lupa's stake in Vice, but sources with information about the sale told the outlet Lupa was a minority shareholder. 

A representative for Murdoch declined to comment to Business Insider.

Murdoch's deal with Vice followed quickly behind Vice's merger with Refinery29, which Vice bought mostly with stock. The FT reported the Lupa deal valued Vice at about $4 billion.

The FT reported that James Murdoch is trying to step away from his father's conservative media leanings with his Lupa investments, citing sources familiar with the deal.

Both Vice and Refinery29 are known as progressive outlets with young audiences. The Refinery29 acquisition positions Vice ⁠to improve its reputation as a sometimes hostile work environment for women.

Some Microsoft employees are taking a stand and asking their employer to drop its contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — following suit from their colleagues at GitHub, the Microsoft-owned code-sharing site.

On Thursday, Microsoft employees published an open letter to management on GitHub asking for the company to drop its contracts with ICE. As Recode reported, Microsoft currently has over $8 million in contracts with ICE, while GitHub recently renewed a contract with the agency worth some $200,000.

You can read the full letter here. It's not immediately clear how many employees signed the letter, but Bloomberg's Mark Bergen and Dina Bass report that it's "circulating" among the company. Microsoft employees are asking their co-workers, as well as people outside Microsoft, to like, or "star," the repository as a sign of support, a Microsoft employee told Business Insider.

Earlier this week, over 150 GitHub employees signed a similar open letter protesting that deal with ICE. GitHub CEO Nat Friedman defended the deal, saying in a a letter to employees saying that GitHub would not block the contract, but it plans to take part in immigration advocacy efforts and to donate $500,000 to immigration nonprofits. 

Read more: GitHub is facing an employee backlash as its CEO defends a $200,000 contract with ICE: 'All it does is make us complicit'

Microsoft employees say in the letter that they stand in solidarity with their colleagues at GitHub, arguing that a deal with ICE — the agency tasked with enforcing the Trump administration's controversial immigration policies, including family separation at the Mexican border — is in violation of management's stated support of human rights causes. 

"Microsoft is an international company that professes to equality and diversity, and is built on the labor of many immigrants," the letter said. "So how can we continue to do business with an organization that endlessly terrorizes this populace? We demand that Microsoft upholds its own guidelines in our commitment for human rights. As leaders in the tech industry, we are paving the way for others to follow."

The employees behind the letter say that Microsoft's dealings with ICE makes the company complicit in its work.

"Every single product and service that ICE has available to them makes them more efficient, able to operate at a bigger scale, and more capable of committing widespread human rights abuses," the letter from Microsoft employees said. "If we continue to provide those tools to such organizations, we are continuing to take part in the oppression of immigrants."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you work at Microsoft or GitHub? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

As the gaming industry moves further away from physical game releases, digital copies of games are becoming more and more popular.

However, unlike hard copies of games, digital copies require that you download the game before you can actually play it. 

As long as you have an internet connection and the money to buy your games, you can download PS4 games from both the PlayStation Store and your PS4 Library.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

PlayStation 4 (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

PlayStation Plus 12-month membership (From $59.99 at Best Buy)

How to download games on your PS4 from the PlayStation Store

If you haven't already purchased the game you want to play, you'll need to purchase and download it through the PlayStation Store.

1. From your PS4's Home screen, navigate to the PlayStation Store app and press the X button to open it.

2. Select the game you want to download and press X. This will pull up a screen with information about the game itself, including its price (if applicable).

3. If you haven't purchased the game, select "Add to cart" and press X. If you've already purchased the game, or the game is free, "Download" will appear instead of "Add to cart" — in this case, select "Download" and press X. 

4. After you've added the games you want to your cart, select "Proceed to checkout" and press X. You may need to enter your payment information if it's not already saved.

5. After you've entered your payment information, select "Confirm Purchase" and press X. Finally, on the next screen, select "Download" and press X.

How to download games on your PS4 from your PS4 Library

If you've already purchased a game, but don't have it installed, the game will appear in your PS4 Library. You'll need to download the game from your Library before it can be played.

1. From your PS4's Home screen, navigate to the Library app and press the X button to open it.

2. In the left sidebar, scroll down to "Purchased" and press X.

3. Navigate through the list of games until you've found the one you want to download. Press X.

4. Select "Download" and press X. Your game should begin downloading automatically.

Keep in mind that in both cases, you won't be able to play the full game until it's finished downloading and installing. Your download speed can be affected by various factors, such as your internet speed and the amount of memory the game requires — bigger games will take longer.

If you move to a different country, you'll want to change your iPhone country settings to make the permanent switch — unlike traveling abroad temporarily.

You can easily change your iPhone's country in the Settings app, where you'll also be asked to change your payment method and billing address.

Before changing your iPhone's country settings, you will want to take measures to make your transition as easy as possible, such as cancelling subscriptions on your iPhone, including cancelling Apple Music. Once you change your country, wait until you've paid your last subscription bills, then resubscribe.

Additionally, you'll want to spend any store credit saved to your iTunes & App Store account, as it won't transfer over with you. You can also go ahead and proactively remove your current credit card, as you'll be prompted to enter new payment information once you select your new country.

You may have difficulty changing your country if you're part of a Family Sharing group. You can find and change your Family Sharing details in your Settings app as well.

Keep reading for instructions on how to change your iPhone's country.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to change the country on your iPhone

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2. Tap your name at the top of the page. This will bring you to your account details.

3. Tap on iTunes & App Store. 

4. The top of the iTunes & App Store page should show your Apple ID. If you're not signed in, tap to sign in at this time.

5. Tap your Apple ID and then tap "View Apple ID" in the pop-up menu. You may be asked to enter your password or Touch ID to proceed.

6. This will bring you to your Account Settings page. Select "Country/Region" to change your current country settings.

7. Tap "Change Country or Region."

8. Select your new country from the list.

9. You will then be asked to review and agree to the new Terms & Conditions associated with your new country. Be aware that this form may not be available in English. Tap "Agree" at the top-right hand corner of the screen to confirm your changes.

10. You can then proceed to enter your new payment information and the billing address for your new residence. Once this information is confirmed, you will have successfully changed the country on your iPhone.

Yet another shoe has dropped for one of the world's most famous computer scientists, Richard Stallman — the architect of the free and open source software movement (FOSS), who found himself pushed out of his longstanding roles at MIT and the Free Software Foundation last month after wading into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

On Monday, a group of 20 programmers who work on one of his most famous projects, the GNU operating system,  signed a letter condemning Stallman's behavior. They want the GNU project to distance itself from Stallman, its founder and leader.

In the letter, they wrote: 

"We, the undersigned GNU maintainers and developers, owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Stallman for his decades of important work in the free software movement...Yet, we must also acknowledge that Stallman's behavior over the years has undermined a core value of the GNU project: the empowerment of all computer users...We believe that Richard Stallman cannot represent all of GNU. We think it is now time for GNU maintainers to collectively decide about the organization of the project."

Stallman, the founder of the influential Free Software Foundation, is an icon of the programming world. He pioneered the concept of free and open source software (FOSS), whereby any programmer can create, contribute to, and give away software for free — offering viable alternatives to corporate-owned and created software. 

Today, FOSS runs the world: The Linux operating system, the biggest open source project of them all, powers the servers that make the internet run. Android, the most popular smartphone platform in the world, is based on open source code, too. FOSS has also created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of value via companies like Red Hat and MuleSoft.

But Stallman's larger-than-life reputation began to unravel after he inserted himself into the scandal surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. MIT was embroiled in the scandal for accepted millions of dollars in funding from Epstein. 

Stallman under scrutiny

Stallman had been a cornerstone of some of MIT's most prestigious computer science work since the 1970's, first as a student and, until last month, as a visiting scientist.

He jumped into the Epstein fray with an email defending the late Marvin Minsky, an MIT professor and legend of AI who was accused of assaulting Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's alleged victims.

That email, sent to the large MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) mailing list, saw him argue that even if Minsky did take advantage of Epstein's alleged victim Giuffre, that the act should not be characterized as assault or rape because "the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing."

And when a student pointed out that Giuffre was only 17 when she would have been forced to have sex with Minsky in the Virgin Islands — which would constitute the alleged act as rape — Stallman said "it is morally absurd to define 'rape' in a way that depends on minor details such as which country it was in or whether the victim was 18 years old or 17."

His remarks so disturbed MIT alum Selam Jie Gano that she posted them on Medium, along with other things Stallman has said or written over the years on his own personal website or cataloged by women-in-tech site Geek Feminism.

This included remarks by Stallman about pedophilia: "I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing."

He is said to have later changed his mind about that position. However, the statement still lives on his personal website where he keeps a list of his thoughts on news and social topics. 

Gano also lambasted Stallman for his attitudes by women generally, such as a sign on his door, in which he called himself "Knight for Justice (and also hot ladies)."

After Gano's Medium blog post went viral last month and the email string was published in full by Motherboard, Stallman ultimately resigned from both from MIT and the Free Software Foundation.

He described the uproar over his remarks on Epstein and Minsky as "misunderstandings and mischaracterizations" in his two-sentence public statement about his MIT resignation.

He wrote: "I am resigning effective immediately from my position in CSAIL at MIT. I am doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations."

This statement, characterized by critics as "remorseless," seems to have done little to quell the furor over Stallman's remarks. And now, a number of important contributors to the GNU project — his last remaining high-profile open source project — apparently want him out, too.

The 'last straw'

While the letter didn't specify exactly why the project's developers would like him to resign, one of the people who signed it told Business Insider that the Epstein comments were his personal "last straw."

"Yes, this was a last-straw situation for me personally. Others have their own personal opinions," Matt Lee, a free and open source software developer and co-founder of the GNU social project, told Business Insider.

The problem is that they don't have a way to make Stallman leave, given that he started and runs the project — except, perhaps, through the threat of their own mass resignations.

"We have no right to boot him out, but as one of approximately 400 people who maintain packages for GNU, I can no longer be a part of GNU with him running things. GNU would be effectively stalled if everyone were to stop in this way," Lee said. He added that he continues to support "the Free Software Foundation and the broader free and open source software community."

Right now, it looks like Stallman has no intention of leaving. Just days before this letter became public, Stallman updated his personal website to say, "I continue to be the Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project. I do not intend to stop any time soon."

Stallman did not respond to our request for comment.

You can change the print area of Sheets in one of two ways — by printing only certain cells, or by changing the layout on the page. 

Here's how to do both.

How to print selected cells in Google Sheets

1. Open the Sheets document you wish to print.

Photo: Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Standard Cognition CEO and co-founder Jordan Fisher

Future Meat production tanks for meat and fat

Future Meat leadership, Dr. Moria Shimoni, EVP of R&D; Yaakov Nahmias, CTO and founder; and Rom Kshuk, CEO