Why do you do it?

[Joe Warner]

Hi,

I apologize if I'm not posting to the right list but this is for the FreeBSD 
developers.

Poul-Henning Kamp recently authored this months edition of the Daemon's 
Advocate on the Daemon News Ezine [1] titled "Why bother?"  This generated 
some interesting discussion among some members of our [2] local BUG.  I was 
going to respond with my opinion but I thought it would be better to ask the 
FreeBSD developers directly:

As far as the FreeBSD user community goes it's a no-brainer for me, FreeBSD 
touts a long list of reasons why someone interested in UNIX, computing, 
programming and/or networking would want to use it.  However, I've always 
wondered what motivates the FreeBSD Developers.  The general explanation I've 
heard is "Because we get to work on projects we're interested in as opposed 
to profit-based projects imposed by our employers which we may or may not be 
interested in."  Is it that simple or does it go deeper?  Why do you do it?  
What motivates you?

I hope this isn't a "Bikeshed" [3] and if this is the wrong list I'd 
appreciate being pointed to the right one.

Thanks

-Joe

[1]http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200410/dadvocate.html
[2]http://www.gubug.org
[3]htttp://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/misc.html#BIKESHED-PAINTING