Retrospective

I was going through Slashdot and saw an article (http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/28/037256). It starts with the author saying that He's been using GNU-Linux for the last 10 years. I realized that I have been using it for more than that... about 13 years now!

I've seen it come up from a difficult to install, geeky (the list goes on) to what it is today; a competitive desktop OS! I've gone through so many distros, spoilt so many working systems and played around with some FOSS. I got particularly interested in GAIM (now Pidgin) through a senior and friend at college.

So where am I finally when it comes to it. I'm a big supporter and consumer of FOSS, but my contribution has been minimal. Recently I reported a couple of bugs in the Geos library while building it on the Sun Studio tool chain. So basically that's the nature of the contribution I've made.

I do feel that the amount I'm taking from this unlimited pool, can not match the few drops I'm putting in. But I guess a lot of people are pouring in buckets one after another. That's what allows people like me to get away and still be at peace.

There was a poem I composed long time back... I'll post it some other time. It ended something like this:

Then a flash ripped me apart,
As I tried to run,
With guilt still within my heart...

Lets see how far the Icarus flies!