Fedora 10 Cambridge released

Been a regular Fedora user all throughout. Now when I think about it, I have often thought about this, retrospection is a part of me, why ? Why did I choose choose linux, the answers that I get has remained kind of same through all these years. And defines me as a person.

Eric S Raymond has written a very famous book on the open source movement The Cathedral and Bazaar. Open source is like a bazaar. When you go to shop in a mall a Food World, the experience is quite impersonal, there are labels , there are price tags and if you have your wallet, its a deal. Sometimes its quite convenient. No hassles , I can finish my monthly grovery in about half an hour, all that I need under one roof.

If you have on the other hand experienced shopping in a haat or a bazaar, the experience is quite personal. You have a chat with the vendors , meet people discuss things over the corner chai shop. Each experience has its place , its not like this is good that is bad. Earlier I used to hate Windoze, now I dont have a judgment , sometimes in the flow, I might say nasty stuff about windoze but deep down , I dont care.

For me Linux is a much more intimate experience, you have to work with it, scan the blogs , spend some time to make it work and at the end of the day you can really say its mine. There is that involvement unlike windoze. In Windoze someone takes the call in Seattle and others just follow, in Open source if you care enough you can participate in communities and through them actually make a difference. If not participate understand the motivations of decisions.

I have never done much in the communities, but the realization , the freedom in thought, that I can, if I want is a big deal. I value it. Given a choice I will always like to get involved in things I care about, and software is something I care about, I truly believe it is a great tool to make our lives better, make it more personal, unlike the experience with windoze, and when I do that I am quite demanding, if I am not involved I dont care. I dont expect my Windoze partition to perform, I expect my Linux box to remain up for days together and still not feel sluggish. Thats the way I am. And that reflects in the choices I make.