You should make a topic asking why people write FOSS in their free time, that’s a good idea. I’ll prolly just link to this though as I haven’t much free time as of late.
I think it’s most likely because there are 50 million tutorials, videos, etc. etc. out there for python. Almost none with any form of pretentiousness I think “the cool kids” are all about java, haskell…I think(?). You don’t have to join a community to partake (I’m not a member of any community really). I’m so not one of the ‘cool kids’ and actually they pissing me off is kinda why I wanna make stuff to GPL. I’m pretty sure you’ve come across writings on how the GPL is bad for innovation, takes food out of developers kids mouth, etc. etc. Yeah, those jerks. Tee hee, I don’t know why they’re all so concerned because it seems everyone who writes one of those pieces is basking in their status as the next Sergey Brin don’tchaknow On the other side of the coin, you have the massively entitled who try to tell you you’re a bad person if you don’t give to their liberapay or patreon account so they can write Free software for $120 an hour. WTF?! I’m a working class stiff and they want a donation from me so they can keep living the lifestyle they apparently deserve more?! Shyyyyyt! I do want to state that these are examples I have personally been exposed to by random posters on reddit, etc. and I’ve never officially seen such asshattery from a major project like KDE, mozilla, etc. etc. (with the exception of two B lister projects that fancy themselves major which I will not name here).
Either way, elitist attitude in many forms is in the culture and I don’t like it. I love that writing Free software is open to anyone anywhere. And that’s all I want to do. HA HA! is my hard drive full of half baked and abandoned projects? Yup! Is what I’ve posted to repository bad…like reeeeally poorly written horribly bad, hellz yes! Have I been working on the same project for like almost a year and a half that likely would have taken an actual programmer a day, if that? Errm…yeah huh. But it’s my time and I agree with the philosophies of, and thus, run Free software. I want to make more just to GPL it. I mean, c’mon, fake pee apps are never going to be the next angry birds, but I wanted it and so it got made. Cool (well, I think) stuff gets made when people have no other motive but to make cool stuff.We, all humans, need to make more cool stuff
…but mostly my motivation comes from being a shit disturber
In all honesty @Sarah_Scarlett I came to a boiling point where I remember that I “literally” flaked out on the couch & said ‘who cares’ to floss project\s, but I sincerely hope you don’t.
I also don’t care for the name of free projects.
I watched Stallman on youtube. Endlessly hoping that between the popping episode I had, and the wikinomics-advocacy that I pined after - that I would find the true path.
But in the end I had to listen to what Canonical employees were saying - as they were at the coal-face and being puritanical with floss and UX doesn’t always, err, …blend.
It came down to the fact that I needed money for equipment, let alone eat, and that’s not something in my country that floss provides.
It’s strange I once read that if you contact america (lets say the CIA) as a VIP refugee, what they do is listen, learn from you - but never get you to move to america.
I sometimes feel that most things from america/FSF/RMS are unfortunately, like this.
If you take the jono story - he got there through side-stepping stallman & and now lives with luxury in Califormia.
Firstly, I just have to state that I’m not an American. I’m Canadian (and yes, there’s a difference)
I’ve never been a part of FOSS a project nor am I likely to ever. That sounds cavalier but it’s not intended to be, I just don’t get on in those environments very well.
My reasons are probably vastly different than yours, but we appear to share that sentiment.
I was speaking more about people striking out on their own. When I say people, I mean people in general and not just developers, IT workers, etc. etc. I use the term Free software because I am a Free software enthusiast, many of my convictions being influenced more by McLuhan than Stallman. Both invaluable influences. It’s just how I choose to identify (not an expression of worship) and I’ll keep doing so.
I graduated college a paralegal and I work in security but I want to make Free software that I think is needed. Just as you needn’t be a chef to make a Sunday roast, I believe one needn’t necessarily have a background in technology to make Free software. That is my belief and I’m currently in the process of experimenting to see if it bears out as a truth.
Why is it that people from the USA are pretty well the only ones that are considered Americans when that is true of everyone from Alert in Canada to Ushiuaia in Argentina?
I think this may because America is not a country but a continent and while people from Canada identify themselves as Canadian, people from Argentina as Argentinian, people from the USA describe themselves as American usually.
This probably explains the confusion.
I describe myself as being a Black Country man first - to anybody who understands what that means, then English then British and then European.
I am sure @neuro would Identify him self as British and European but not English. He is Scottish; I don’t know which he sees him self first as but he would probably be upset if I said he was English.
While I love a lot about the USA and Canada (I lived in Toronto for two years) I would have to say I agree with @Sarah_Scarlett: that there are significant differences between the two. I am not going to be drawn here on which, if either, I prefer but recognising these difference are more than superficial.
Do you have a problem with open-source, foss and floss?
I have been involved in several open-source projects and believe in freedom of information not only in software but science, engineering and anywhere else it can be done. I think there should an assumption to openness unless there is a good case to avoid it, and I agree at times there are.
But I am not saying you should not use closed source. Use what works for you.
If you have objections to open source however I think this could be an interesting discussion.
Because the continents of North America and South America — collectively “the Americas” — only contain one country with the word “America” in it. Those citizens of the places you mention are in North America or South America, but they are not in the United States of America.
This, 100%. I and my coworkers recently had a culture clash with my old boss (American MWO, we take allied forces). He had to be removed months ago. All is well at work now and I’m a happy worker bee but it was an interesting experience to say the least. It was like working in a fiefdom He honestly could not see anything wrong with what he was doing (and I do believe him given the obvious differing standards of normalcy). I actually have quite a lot of sympathy for Americans. Also, they kinda grow on ya too
Unless you share that server with others, that’s not going to help in terms of privacy. All a nefarious person needs to do is watch the traffic of your server rather than your home connection.
I thought about doing that with my own server but opted instead for private internet access for this reason. I’ve found them pretty good, but mostly forget to connect to the VPN, since I’m too lazy to setup an auto connecting script or disable internet when not connected. Netflix also doesn’t work when connected which is really annoying. They know what country their billing me in, just give me that version of Netflix no matter my ip address.
I think “the cool kids” are all about java, haskell…I think(?). You don’t have to join a community to partake (I’m not a member of any community really). I’m so not one of the ‘cool kids’ and actually they pissing me off is kinda why I wanna make stuff to GPL. I’m pretty sure you’ve come across writings on how the GPL is bad for innovation, takes food out of developers kids mouth, etc. etc. Yeah, those jerks. Tee hee, I don’t know why they’re all so concerned because it seems everyone who writes one of those pieces is basking in their status as the next Sergey Brin don’tchaknow 
On the other side of the coin, you have the massively entitled who try to tell you you’re a bad person if you don’t give to their liberapay or patreon account so they can write Free software for $120 an hour. WTF?! I’m a working class stiff and they want a donation from me so they can keep living the lifestyle they apparently deserve more?! Shyyyyyt! I do want to state that these are examples I have personally been exposed to by random posters on reddit, etc. and I’ve never officially seen such asshattery from a major project like KDE, mozilla, etc. etc. (with the exception of two B lister projects that fancy themselves major which I will not name here).
…
He honestly could not see anything wrong with what he was doing (and I do believe him given the obvious differing standards of normalcy). I actually have quite a lot of sympathy for Americans. Also, they kinda grow on ya too 
and thanks for sharing.