I'm a long time Free Software advocate. I lead a completely "Microsoft free" lifestyle. I've been running Linux on my desktop since 1994. I am delighted to see it improve so much every year thanks to the contributions of so many. I'm especially thrilled seeing so many young people joining this adventure. I'm grateful for the amazing amount and quality of the software I use daily, it is a real treasure.

Many people misunderstand the FLOSS phenomenon because they erroneously frame it in economic models they're familiar with. For me, it is actually pretty simple: I contribute one line, or one idea, one bug report, or one patch, whatever, and I get my "investment" back multiplied by many millions. A ten-million fold return in ten years is greater than 400% return/year. I don't know of any financial instrument that can yield so much with such consistency, year after year. Even when you think of someone like Linus, who has contributed many thousands of highly critical code lines -- his original code is now overwhelmed by code from many others. Even when you ignore goodwill, opportunity, connections, stock options, and focus on just the number of lines of code -- Linus got his investment back many times over (not to mention doing it for fun)

I want to thank each and every one of the contributors who are making this alternative and superior lifestyle a reality. Together you're changing the world.

Personal:
I was born in Israel. I now live in Northern California.

You may find more on my web site: http://yendor.com