As we all get ready for tomorrow's release, I wanted to congratulate everyone in the community on Fedora 10, and say a few words of thanks as well. For Fedora 9, I wrote an enormous congratulatory email tome. I'm pretty sure that if printed and left somewhere without anyone keeping an eye on it, it would actually collapse into a singularity and devour the entire planet. So I'll try to keep it more brief this time, even though it's tough for me to pack all my gratitude and pride in this community into a tiny space. First, I'd like to thank Brian Pepple and FESCo, Francesco Ugolini and the FAMSCo, Dimitris Glezos and the FLSCo, Karsten Wade and the FDSCo, and all the other steering committees and groups that kept up a steady presence of open, public meetings throughout the release to ensure that work was progressing well and transparently. These folks step up not just to do productive work on their own, but to make sure that other community members can do the same, with just as much organization as is required, but no more than is needed. You folks represent the best of what free software communities can achieve in executing the best-laid plans. A big thank-you to "Marvelous" Mike McGrath and our intrepid Infrastructure team, without whom Fedora would have been in a shambles following the intrusion this past August. These folks rebuilt our entire community platform, spending many sleepless nights so our nights would be restful and secure. And they did it all with the same software we make available for everyone worldwide -- proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that free software is truly the best way to achieve stability, scalability, and availability. There are not enough gold medals in the Olympics for you guys, as far as I'm concerned. A huge shout goes out to our Ambassador teams worldwide -- over 600 Ambassadors already, and more every month. Just as they have been for years, they're out there bringing local communities together around free software. Every day they are cultivating a grassroots effort that brings an increasing number of contributors into the world of free software, and at the same time brings the four foundations of Fedora to the people -- "Freedom, Friends, Features, First." Speaking of which, another big burst of gratitude goes to Máirín Duffy, Nicu Buculei, and the rest of our awesome Artwork team. Their work spans the length of every release, because it's not just a desktop background theme -- even though they produce another miraculously beautiful one of those every time, like Fedora 10's "Solar" theme. They also produce designs for every part of our community, like software project sites, banners, stickers, fliers, press contact letters, and posters. If you haven't seen them already, you're going to love the new Four Foundations media; it's spectacular. Thank you(*) also to the hundreds of translators work on the projects where Fedora provides the upstream. Because of them, free software will be even more useful in the hands of millions more people around the world. I sometimes switch my computer to a different locale just so I can see Fedora, in a sense, through someone else's eyes, and I'm always surprised and gratified to see how thorough that experience is. Kudos to our Websites team, now led by wunderkind Ricky Zhou, and their dedicated work to make sure that our redesigns and content make it out in one piece, on time and smoothly. Thanks to Will Woods, James Laska, Jon Stanley, and the rest of our QA team and the vital Bug Zappers for taking on some of the hardest problems out there: The elusive search for quality and robustness in our releases and our processes, and ensuring that our users and developers have a positive experience using the Fedora distribution. I spent a month or so helping triage bugs earlier this cycle, and I hope everyone will pitch in a bit for Fedora 11 to do the same. Packagers, where would be without you? You help keep the software available for everyone 24/7, always making sure that whether someone's a wee-hours developer or a day-job professional, he or she gets the software needed to do the work. Thank you for providing over 10,000 reasons (and counting) why Fedora is for anyone and everyone. Thanks to our Documentation team, particularly some of our new folks, for spinning up brand-new, easy ways for people to get involved in projects like wiki gardening, the release notes, and our various end-user guides. I am very much looking forward to your good work continuing into the next release. Thank you to Jesse Keating, Josh Boyer, and our whole Release Engineering team for keeping a close eye on our schedule and actually getting our releases out the door, from Alpha to Beta to Preview to "Cambridge" itself, and everything in between. I still don't know how you guys get all this done and still have time for email, family, and the occasional frosty beverage, but my hat's off to you guys. I want to personally thank three very special individuals who work incredibly hard behind the scenes at least as hard as they do in front of them -- the indomitable Fedora Program Manager John Poelstra, who has not only shepherded innumerable Fedora meetings successfully, but who maintains a great attitude and is such a joy to work with on a personal level; the amazing Tom 'spot' Callaway, who not only juggles Perl in his sleep and maintains an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Anuran, but also manages Fedora Engineering inside Red Hat with a sure and steady hand; and Max Spevack, my predecessor and now manager of the Community Architecture team, who's always ready to lend an effort wherever it's required that day. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank you, the reader, if I haven't already. You're part of our community too, and without you we would be diminished. Free software isn't just about bits and bytes, it's about people, about doing something real, something tangible, something lasting for your fellow human beings. And with your help, the Fedora Project has been able to lead in free software innovation for over five years and ten releases now. Each and every one of you -- pat yourself on the back for a job well done. OK, I failed miserably at making it short, and I am certain that I left someone out in my desire to thank everyone. If it was you, Dear Reader, please accept my humble apologies and know that Fedora would not be where it is today without your hard work and perseverance. Thank you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of your fellow community members and the millions of users whom you've helped. Now, let's all look forward to Fedora 10, and beyond! = = = (*) 謝謝, merci, אַ דאַנק, ευχαριστώ, धन्यवाद, muchas gracias, நன்றி, tak, kia ora, terima kasih, شكرًا, ขอบคุณ, ありがとう! -- Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/ gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717 http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/ irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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