ftp.acc.umu.se/.../Debians_Central_Role_in_the_Future_of_Software_Freedom.webm

I have to be honest
I'm really honored to be here

I don't say that to just every conference
I care a lot about Debian

This is my 3rd Debconf I've ever been to.

There have been a lot of them so I
obviously haven't been to that many

But I was at Debconf1

I just learned today that it was zero
based so that it wasn't the first Debconf

which I should have known but didn't for
some reason.

I was at the 2nd Debconf by accident
somewhat because I was going to Libre

Software meeting and just happened to book
my flights so that I could be at Debconf as well

I gave a regular track talk at Debconf10
about the GPL v3

because it was in New York City where I
was living at the time

and here I'm giving an invited speaker
talk or a keynote or whatever else it is called here

That really means a lot to me.

I'm a fan of Debian, I'm a user of Debian.

I don't actually consider myself part of
the Debian community

because other than filing a few bugs
over the years

I haven't contributed all that much to
Debian but I've relied on it and used it

and been a fan of it for so long
that I really love your project.

So I am really honored to be invited to
speak here

and I really believe that Debian is a
very special project for a lot of reasons.

First of all it has thrived for longer than almost any free software project in existence

in a lot of ways. There are top 10 lists of projects that Debian is certainly on as far as longevity goes, maybe the top 5

It's governance is one of the few

democratically elected and

democratically controlled

governance processes in free software

Everyone is a fan of talking about this

'benevolent dictator' stuff

which I think is really horrible

The fact that somebody would call

themselves a 'self appointed benevolent

dictator for life' is really disturbing.

You are democratic.

You elect your leadership.

You have referendums on major issues

that everyone can vote on.

That is amazingly rare, impressive

and important for free software.

The other thing that really impresses me,

in particular being somebody from the

non-profit world,

is that Debian has been staunchly

non-commercial for it's entire existence

Of course I don't mean that Debian

can't be used in commercial settings

DFSG free means that things can be put

into commercial products.

What I mean is the project itself has

always been non-commercial,

meaning that the people that work on it

are volunteering, and even if their

employers are paying them to work on it

they are part of a community

and are not doing their work inside Debian

as officially part of

some commercial activity.

Most free software projects these days

are controlled by

some commercial entity or another.

Debian is not.

I was at Debconf1 which was really

exciting for me.

I was a young executive director of

Free Software.

I showed this picture to Karen Sandler who

I work with and said how different I look.

She said I don't look different at all,

but, speaking as the person that looks

at that face in the mirror every morning,

there are a lot more lines on my face

than there.

That is a smooth looking baby face that I

had 14 years ago that I don't have anymore

I was pretty casual back then.

I'm not in short trousers any more.

It's hard to see and

you can see it in some of the other photos

that I was.

Even in this heat I haven't worn short

trousers in a very long time.

[bdale heckles] What's that?

Bdale, I was thinking about mentioning you

and now I have to because you are heckling

me [laughter]. Bdale is the one adult

in the room that can dress like

everyone else but I can't pull it off

I respect Bdale that he can.
The tie-dye still works for him.

And I stopped wearing t-shirts years ago

and here I'm sweating in my long sleeves

halfway between hacker and suit attire.

And there [in the photo] I'm talking to
Martin Michmayer

I'm going to do questions at the end Lars.
I'm not good with questions because I
get off topic easy.

I left 17 minutes at the end for questions
which Bdale just took 3 of [laughter]

There I'm talking to Martin Michlmayer
when I first met him.

A lot of things have changed since I
looked at this photo.

But one thing that hasn't changed
If you look, you see this face that Martin
is making.

He still makes that face at me every time
I talk to him, which sort of says

"You do not know what you are talking
about"

That hasn't changed, which is good.
[laughter]. I'm glad he is laughing in the
back there.

Some things have stayed the same.
Martin still thinks I'm full of it.
And I probably am, so that's ok.

I like people to keep me honest.

Other than jokes, the thing that hasn't
really changed since I was first
introduced to the Debian community

in person back in 2001, is the ethos of
this community is still the same one that
I remember

even though a lot of the developers
have changed.