This UDS was my most intense so far. We got some very good work done, but I need to decompress a little before I blog on that.
The choice of venue was personally interesting to me in a way that (like my last UDS in Prague) I had not anticipated. As many of you will know already, a long time ago (in what seems almost like a different life) I was in the US Navy. I spent Christmas 1991 and New Years Day 1992 in Barcelona.
For those of you to young to remember, January 1, 1992 was a day that marked a significant change in the world. It was the first day in roughly 75 years in which there was no Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). We had heard the news that this was happening, but many of us wondered how much of this was real change and how much of this was cosmetic.
At the pier across from us there was a merchant ship of the former USSR. I still remember coming topside and being surprised to see there were already sailors up on the ship’s stack with a cutting torch cutting the hammer and sickle of the USSR down off their ship. That was the moment when it really hit me that the world had changed in a way that really couldn’t be reversed.
There is a connection to Ubuntu here too, beyond the physical location of UDS. Whatever your opinion of my country (I’ll tell you in advance I don’t intend to have a debate about it’s goodness/badness and will not publish comments either way), I felt I was there making a sacrifice in the service of freedom. In that time and place it was the best way I knew how to do it. Today I do stuff like take an unpaid week off of work and go to UDS to help make Ubuntu better. This is also done in the service of freedom.
There are a lot of people all over the world who don’t want others to be free. Keep in mind that what we do in Ubuntu is part of a larger struggle to make sure these people do not succeed when considering if it’s worth it to do one more bug triage, patch fix, or whatever it is you do to make Ubuntu better.
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So just one word for what u are doing!!
Merci
Thibaut from france
Right said. There is still a lot to do to get real freedom for all.
cheers,
se
Very inspiring words, I must say this is probably one demonstration of how we are always bound to never forget what we are set to do. Renergize ourselves and above all, believe that we can overcome.
Thanks for sharing what you know with us who have lived a little less. This empowers us to march forward in this ongoing struggle to make all aware of Software Freedom.
Many, many thanks for what you have done, and are doing today!