What free software means to me
Mar. 23rd, 2014 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mjg59I was awarded the Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software this weekend[1]. I'd been given some forewarning, and I spent a bunch of that time thinking about how free software had influenced my life. It turns out that it's a lot.
I spent most of the 90s growing up in an environment that was rather more interested in cattle than in computers, and had very little internet access during that time. My entire knowledge of the wider free software community came from a couple of CDs that contained a copy of the jargon file, the source code to the entire GNU project and an early copy of the m68k Linux kernel.
But that was enough. Before I'd even got to university, I knew what free software was. I'd had the opportunity to teach myself how an operating system actually worked. I'd seen the benefits of being able to modify software and share those modifications with others. I met other people with the same interests. I ended up with a job writing free software and collaborating with others on integrating it with upstream code. And, from there, I became more and more involved with a wider range of free software communities, finding an increasing number of opportunities to help make changes that benefited both me and others.
Without free software I'd have started years later. I'd have lost the opportunity to collaborate with people spread over the entire world. My first job would have looked very different, as would my entire career since then. Without free software, almost everything I've achieved in my adult life would have been impossible.
To me, free software means I've lived a significantly better life than would otherwise have been the case. But more than that, it means doing what I can to make sure that other people have the same opportunities. I am here because of the work of others. The most rewarding part of my continued involvement is the knowledge that I am part of a countless number of people working to make sure that others can tell the same story in future.
[1] I'd link to the actual press release, but it contains possibly the worst photograph of me in the entire history of the universe
I spent most of the 90s growing up in an environment that was rather more interested in cattle than in computers, and had very little internet access during that time. My entire knowledge of the wider free software community came from a couple of CDs that contained a copy of the jargon file, the source code to the entire GNU project and an early copy of the m68k Linux kernel.
But that was enough. Before I'd even got to university, I knew what free software was. I'd had the opportunity to teach myself how an operating system actually worked. I'd seen the benefits of being able to modify software and share those modifications with others. I met other people with the same interests. I ended up with a job writing free software and collaborating with others on integrating it with upstream code. And, from there, I became more and more involved with a wider range of free software communities, finding an increasing number of opportunities to help make changes that benefited both me and others.
Without free software I'd have started years later. I'd have lost the opportunity to collaborate with people spread over the entire world. My first job would have looked very different, as would my entire career since then. Without free software, almost everything I've achieved in my adult life would have been impossible.
To me, free software means I've lived a significantly better life than would otherwise have been the case. But more than that, it means doing what I can to make sure that other people have the same opportunities. I am here because of the work of others. The most rewarding part of my continued involvement is the knowledge that I am part of a countless number of people working to make sure that others can tell the same story in future.
[1] I'd link to the actual press release, but it contains possibly the worst photograph of me in the entire history of the universe
no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 06:26 am (UTC)keep up the good work
Date: 2014-03-24 08:18 am (UTC)congratulations
Date: 2014-03-24 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 09:49 am (UTC)Lol... you do look a bit like Sheldon Cooper's emaciated and effeminate younger brother. What's the story with the shoes and shrunken trousers? I'd plead with the article writer to at least crop most of your legs out, that would make a huge difference, the rest of the photo is really not that bad. No matter how bad the photo, you're an order of magnitude more photogenic than me.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 10:08 am (UTC)Congratulations!
Date: 2014-03-24 11:30 am (UTC)Thanks a million for all the wonderful work you have done
no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 11:42 am (UTC)Congrats
Date: 2014-03-24 02:18 pm (UTC)Re: Congrats
Date: 2014-03-24 07:15 pm (UTC)Congratulations
Date: 2014-03-27 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-27 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-27 10:57 pm (UTC)Your story is truly inspirational. I'm myself about to go to university in about 1.5 years and dreaming of having a job where I can develop free software and make it better && greater :-D.
Sincerely,
a fan.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-29 10:30 pm (UTC)Congratulations!
Date: 2014-03-31 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-05 01:09 am (UTC)