The gift of free software
Doghouse – Sharing FOSS
Using your time to introduce someone to Linux can enrich their world and the free software community – and improve your own understanding in the process.
This column was inspired during the Christmas season. That season will have passed when this column reaches you, but the sentiment of gift giving lasts the whole year through. Over the course of 2024, there was a lot of focus given to income differences, with some people having a lot of money and some people having very little.
One gift that can be given that is the same for both the mega rich and the not-so-wealthy is the gift of your time. More or less, people are granted a fixed length of time on this planet, and when that time is up we die. So every hour is a gift to give to someone which cannot be given again no matter how much money you have.
One of the things that keeps me going are the people who have come to me from time to time and thanked me for the time I have spent with them, either individually or in groups, to help them get started with free software. Sometimes I did not even realize the influence I was having on them, but often they turned my direction into positive actions in their own life.
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