Time we all said a big collective “Thanks!” to the Free Software Community
A recent blog from someone I ‘met’ on seesmic about the problems with getting microphones working with Flash on Linux made me think that it’s high time we said a big “Thanks!” to all who involve themselves in the Free Software Community.
Playing the blame game
Sometimes it seems all too easy to blame “the community” for a problem when in fact the reasons for the problem in the first place stem from very different origins than any lack of effort or technical prowess. So, without a billion-dollar-backed department telling you how good they all are, I thought I would just take the opportunity today on my blog to say “Thanks!”.
Thanks for what?
It’s a thanks for being involved - for whatever your reasons. It’s a thanks for all the tireless hours of engineering, re-engineering, coding, blogging, advocating. It’s a thanks for those who answer inane questions from ‘noobies’ who don’t read the FAQs. It’s a thanks for doing your best to ignore the flamers who bitch about how the free software program X sucks more than the (most probably) pirated copy of proprietary package Y they use.
It’s a thanks to those who realise that life can be a whole lot more interesting and rewarding than if you just focus on immediate gain and to those who realise that what we are all building here is something which continually proves that a better world can be built by working together than by competing against each other.
A special thanks
It’s also a very humble “Thanks!” to Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, who simply had the guts to make a stand on a particular topic and without his tenacity we would not, without a doubt, be communicating to each other as we are right now.
From the infrastructure of the internet itself to the blogging software I’m using, his General Public License has stood the test of time and has provided us all with the freedom to express ourselves as we wish and to whom we wish without the need for gate-keepers telling us what we can and cannot do.
It’s also another very humble “Thanks!” to Richard’s ‘right hand man’ and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen. Eben’s work on the GPL v3 has shown the world that it is indeed possible for the community as a whole to be involved in makng the laws of this land instead of continually being told by someone else that this is what you can and cannot do.
Say your thanks
No matter what is thrown at the community it keeps growing stronger day by day and is testament to what can be produced by freely working together instead of forcibly working against each other.
So if you’re feeling in a thankful mood, feel free to do as I have and post a blog of thanks, leave a comment here, or just think thankful thoughts for a second or two!
Most importantly keep doing what you’re doing and try if you can to give a little thanks before casting any blame. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants whom without their hard work we would not be enjoying the ever-increasing freedoms we have today, and for that I am truly thankful.
