I am a Free Software fundamentalist. I only want Free Software on my and on your system, not for practical reasons—and there are many of those—but because I believe in the ideology of Free Software. Notice that I did not say “Open Source”. Yes, I know that “open source” is a superior development methodology and has many technical advantages over closed source, but I don't use Free Software because it is practical or better. Yes, I know the arguments--I have read Eric S. Raymond's books, as well as everything else about “open source” which I can get my hands on. I have to talk about the benefits and advantages of “open source” everyday in my work as the community lead for ProcessMaker, an “open source” business process management application.
I, however, am talking about my personal reasons for using Free Software and they have nothing to do with the arguments of the Open Source Iniative, the Linux Foundation, and their ilk. Sure I recognize the validity of their arguments and happily employ them when I find myself talking to someone who cares about those things, but in my heart of hearts don't use free software because its better or more powerful. In fact for me, free software is far less convenient and offers me few true advantages. Frankly, using free software can be a real pain in the nether regions at times. I don't know how much of my life I have wasted trying to get GNU/Linux to run correctly on my hardware. I don't even want to calculate how many hours I have spent hunting for solutions on forums and futilely reinstalling and reconfiguring my system in an ever-ending attempt to get a system that just works.
Let's be frank. Using Microsoft Windows would be a lot simpler. The first machine that I installed GNU/Linux on was a Thinkpad i1412 back in 1999. It took me over a week to get X-Windows to run and the winmodem never functioned correctly. In the 11 years which I have owned that laptop, I never once changed the Windows 98 operating system that came with the machine, but I ended up reinstalling GNU/Linux over and over. First I tried Mandrake, then Red Hat, then Mandrake again, then Ubuntu, and finally Debian. Each reinstall was a desperate attempt to find the system which would solve some problem. Over the years I have become quite a guru at configuring GNU/Linux, but it was never my goal in life.
My goal was to create a better society based upon individual liberties and social cooperation, which would engender a more just and equal society where everyone has access to the same digital tools and privileges. That vision has lead me through many strange paths in life and still sustains me as I today struggle to use free software to promote transculturalization of technology into indigenous languages and cultures of the Andes and linguistic revitalization through free software tools. I still recall that day back in January 1996 when I first heard a computer science professor stand up during a talk about digital money in the internet and expound of the virtues of the free software movement.
Maybe because I was a history major with a bent for social justice, the philosophical notions of the Free Software Foundation struck a cord in a way that no operating system or compiler ever could. Don't get me wrong, I am a geek. I whip out lines of code in HTML, C/C++, PHP, Python, JavaScript or GTK+ when I want to, but I never would have dedicated my life to the cause of free software, if all it was a better development methodology or access to cool tools for tinkering. No, I dedicated my energy and passions to promoting free software, because I believe passionately in the ways it can empower us individually and help create a better and more just society. I know that vision doesn't drive most people who create free software, but it drives me and I will be eternally grateful to Richard S. Stallman and the other idealists at the Free Software Foundation who lit the spark which kindled into a fire in my heart.
I have worked on a number of causes in my life. I worked for a year in a homeless shelter for women in Mexico. I spent another year at a shelter in Austin, providing refuge to illegal immigrants. I helped organize students against the War in Iraq and Afganistan. I helped organize students against the use of sweatshop labor to make college apparel. I spent two months of my life setting up computers for NGOs and community groups in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I spent another two months in Sucre, Bolivia setting up computers in a boy's orphanage. I am an activist at heart, and the activism closest to my heart has been promoting t he use of free software in diferent cultural and linguistics contexts.
En el mundo de software libre, hay varios repositorios de código para desarrolladores de proyectos de software libre que ofrecen hosting gratis y herramientas web para gestionar sus proyectos. Estos sitios no sólo eximen a un proyecto de los costos de hosting permitiéndole enfocar sus energías creativas en el código de su proyecto, sino que también le ayuda a atraer una comunidad para su software sea utilizado y apoyado. 