I’ve posted this five years ago on social media, but it didn’t lose any of its relevance: Being active in a free software project is about much more than just code.
It really touches me to see how colleagues became close friends, sharing their lives with me. Talking about their hopes, sorrows, joys, fears, plans, successes, but also their problems and challenges they have to face. Many of them I only meet every once in a while, and some of them I didn’t meet at all yet, because they’re living on a different continent, thousands of kilometers across the ocean, in a different culture, speaking a different language.
Being active in a free software project is about much more than just code: It’s about people, trust, friendship – and making the best out of that combination to work on the same goal.