I have never liked to feed the trolls. Probably because of that I have never done so. Even more, probably because of that in this post I’m not pointing to any troll in particular, but all of them.
We live in a world where we try to tell users that they have apart from the very-well-known (or not that well) software solutions, there are others that are free (free as in the spanish mean: “libre”). We try to make users see that their rights do not end on the piece of software usage. They can contribute and make their own systems even better. They are part of their own system, and they make it being better, in any way: reporting bugs, designing, teaching, spreading the word, programming…
We usually see on technology sites where they talk about new stuff going on at our desktops (KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Linux, Hurd, GNU, MAC, Microsoft, Windows) that some people apart from doing their own decisions try to force the world to “hate” the rest of the systems because it is not his/her own choose.
It is really impressive for me to read statements like “I WILL NEVER LIKE QT LOOK”, or “I WILL NEVER LIKE GTK LOOK”. This is really amazing for me since if you can’t assure that you will be alive tomorrow, what can we assure as ABSOLUTE TRUTHS. There is NOT absolute truths from my point of view.
I just want to talk to trolls and say them that the system that they have chosen is as respectable as the one that I’ve made. They are only personal decisions. Of course a “choose” as I say has nothing to do a “choose-for-live”. It is very usual to use this app from this desktop or this other app from that desktop… as well as switching between desktops from time to time. That is part of the free software value.
This even goes further. Being capable of doing such decisions means that we are living in a really incredible world. We are able to make a decision of which system we prefer for ourselves and contribute to it. Being able to choose is the nature of free software.
I am personally a KDE developer, but I wanted to do this sometime, and I feel today is the day. I want to thank everybody that makes free software possible. All of you are doing a freakin’ incredible work and we are getting day-by-day a better desktop, doesn’t matter which one it is. Each one is taking its own path, but all of them are advancing for being better, and that’s the important thing.
I really think we are doing better and better, and we also learn from failures and previous errors. This helps us to advance and make software even better and rock solid.
What I really want to remind free software users is that they are not giving their rights to anybody. You are free to use what you want, and that makes you more free than you think. If you haven’t read any license from a propietary software, do it sometime, you will be amazed.
That’s all… I wish you all to be happy with the software that you use… and remember… do what you want… but don’t insult those that don’t use what you do. What makes your decision more important than theirs ?
