I've got so much out of Free Software, i've used it for years and years, SUSE enterprise was the first distro I used and the first peice of mail i got outside the country :D, i've used so many distros ive lost count (Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Funtoo, Slackware, SUSE, Fedora, and more) but I keep coming back to Fedora.
I'm pretty optimistic this year for GNU/Linux specifically, I think there's some good improvements and switches about to happen around the corner.
(I still think this category should be "Free Software" with RMS as the background! xD)
From what I have seen, paying for software like games and such is very much worth it. Donating to companies that make an OS in tandum with a community is also worth it. But buying software from garbage companies that pump ads into your stuff, then, in trying to remove the ads they sue you, is stupid and not worth my shit.
As soon as windows is not needed anymore, I'm not going to touch it. Sadly enough I need it for 4 games that I can't run in wine because of hardware age.
Free software for me is just a playground of creativity and freedom. Things you had before using technology that is proprietary. Proprietary stuff saturates by convenience. Free Software brings technology back to its original motive. Problem solving and progress shared by everyone. Liberating in every sense of the word. Cannot imagine a better world without it being prominent.
Been a big Suse guy myself with some Debian and BSD mixed in.
The biggest thing personally is running my own web services. I provide better than any of the "cloud" providers can owncloud and Kolab have been a blessing. Hard to beat 10TB of storage.
The open source scene is getting better on mobile and look forward to where it goes.
I too like 'free' software, I feel as though free software is one of the very few things in this world that is truly free but with what intention? Like the guy before me said, the intention with a motive mind. Technology and Engineering back to its roots, however I also believe the movement of proprietary software is just as engaging as free software (Games) so at the end of the day, we win either way!
It's amazing how awesome the people who put together the GNU Core Utils are. The people who developed and maintain them have saved me thousands of hours of writing system tools. Plus they allow me to be very productive and accomplish so much. No doubt I have a debt to pay forward. Can't wait to continue improving my skills so one day I can give back for the current users and the next generation.
I know many people here are very practical minded about their computer usage with a "use what works best in all occasions" mentality but I really like to stay free even at the cost of much more time and effort on my part. Free software is where all of the exciting development happens too and I'm eager to see and try cutting edge software right up until my system breaks. There is very little practical about any of this. I just enjoy it.
One thing I'm very disappointed in is the perpetual (or current) failure of free or even open source software to get well established into the messaging scene. Yes there's Pidgin, but I'm talking more about protocols than just a simple multi-protocol client. I really hate how Skype has dominated for the last many years —at least on desktop— while all sorts of other silly stuff has been running on mobiles too. I didn't have a problem with MSN Messenger, I thought It was quite nice (or rather the protocol) since people could run their own clients (which were F/OSS) instead of being stuck with some proprietary and/or limited-feature program.
It seems only common sense to me that a messaging system would be the minimum place where people would use free or open source software, when in reality it seems to be the opposite. E-mail isn't really software, but it is at least a protocol that has been open. Unfortunately, nothing has really evolved since then which is unfortunate since e-mail is very limited. There's some pretty nice stuff being developed now, but it still needs to catch on with the entire population.
I've come full circle. I started out on open source and learning new things and fell in a Gaming trap and stuck with Windows for such a long time. Back into open source on Ubuntu Gnome and having a blast again, it's kind of like gaming, tinkering and getting rewarded for success...nerdy rite.
While I am not a great at much I do watch technologies and Linux is really getting better on all sides. I am convinced Linux will never be THE desktop OS because people on the whole are idiots with computers and can not even keep Windows working ok let alone an OS they did not grow up with.
My crystal ball is. What is to come is Windows and OS X will devolve into walled garden OS's that people with no clue use apps on. Most of the PC's / Laptops will be dead in the water because phones and the cloud will be enough for an average user to do there facebook and googling on. They will use screens, keyboards and mice. But the phone will be the OS and local storage and the rest in the cloud.
Desktop PC and Laptops that do real work outside a browser will be Linux's domain and thats where we will be. With no professional Windows and OS X. A lot of stuff will be done with Linux and Windows and OS X will be VM's to test and develop on.
I LOVED it when SyncBack Free popped up a browser tab every other day. I loved it so much, I paid for the full version. Have I tainted my love and made her a whore? "Backup Successful" never fails to give me the warm fuzzies.
