I think this article points out something that we have lost sight of with any OS. We so easily ridicule (myself included) Linux or Windows without thinking of the people that work countless hours trying to make this the best OS they can. While the article is really aimed at the Linux user, I feel that this could apply to the Windows user as well.

Linux really used to have a spirit and a small but very active community. It was almost like a little garage. Everybody was working on some part of the car. Adding tires, polishing and tuning the motor…. New people came and were amazed. Hey, this is a cool idea! How can I help? Give me that screw driver. I will fix the mirror. Next Linuxfocus came into the garage. The Linux “car” is a nice one! It is a bit difficult to drive but we like it so we will contribute by documenting how to use it.

Everybody who was using the Linux “car” was also contributing to it in some way. It was very exciting.

Today the Linux “car” is still free and everybody can come into the garage to drive it but some people just come in because it is cheap. They take it and go. Recently some came back tell those who were still in the garage “This is a piece of shit. The breaks are not optimal”. Why did they do that? Well first of all we live in a democracy so everybody can say his/her opinion straight into anybodies face!? The real reason is however that they were used to do this all the time.