I would like to be able to pay for more Free Software. Usually people think the great thing about Free Software is that it is free as in free beer. They often neglect the fact that it is free as in free speech. This is probably because they rarely or never make use of this freedom. But since many freedoms benefit us only indirectly, it is still worth fighting for them. I don’t publish a newspaper, still I and society as a whole benefit clearly from having freedom of press.
Software freedom is important to me and I refuse to pay for software that doesn’t respect my freedom. That’s why I use the money I save to reward software developers who don’t want to control how I use my computer by allowing everybody to use, study, share and improve the software they publish.
Recently, I am contributing a lot to FSFE’s Free Your Android campaign. The free App Store F-Droid does not support paying for software because it does not want to track users. Instead they offer the option to donate to the developers of the apps through channels offered by the developers themselves.
Twidere is a great micro-blogging app that also supports StatusNet. Its developer (@mariotaku) has only an old computer that is barely capable of running the software needed for development. That’s why I decided to donate $25 to him. If you like, you can donate money to him, too.
