When I started using Ubuntu Linux I knew what I was doing, I was making a choise. I was beginning to care about people that cannot pay for a proprietary software license or that were denied to access information technologies, and education. I believe that being poor it’s not a good reason for being kept in poverty.
The first copy I got included a small demostration video of Nelson Mandela explaining the meaning of the Ubuntu word. I remember from that day on that Ubuntu was an african word meaning “Umanity towards others” and “I am what I am beacuse of what we all are”.
Today, 4 years later, I see a big community involved in a project that would give a really competitive system to the world based on the GNU/Linux structure. Nothing wrong with that, I also gave my little contribute to reach this point.
Looking at ubuntu I see a very nice interface built upon an efficient system that is almost very competitive and compatible with all of the technologies out there, even proprietary technologies.
Here is the point I was missing and that was making me feel boring of using ubuntu or arch or fedora. The point is that it is not about the performances, and the compatibility or the user experience, it is about freedom of choise, freedom of supporting, freedom of sharing everything. Freedom.
Therefore the point is that I am not interested in using a technology only because it’s better than the others, I don’t care about accessing its code to improve functionalities or performances, I care that it must leave me my freedoms, and my rights as well as to others. I care about fairness and loosing this way was making me empty.
Today, during the Richard Stallman speech, I got the problem clarly. He come visits our office for a while and he was even clearer with us: support free software is a logic choice, 0 or 1.
Thanks Richard, you are the only one among Bill, Steve, Linus and you that probably have less money in bank, but I respect you more than all of them because you are fully coerent with yourself.
