Fans

“”The first thing is, we’re not fanboys,” senior editor Robin
Miller told me when I first started writing for Linux.com in 2004.
He meant that, although that incarnation of the site was obviously
about free and open source software (FOSS), its purpose was not to
uncritically support it. He wanted the site to have some
journalistic standards — a difficult and frequently unpopular
goal, considering how many parts of FOSS seem given over to fans. I
found the comment reassuring, because I have always been of two
minds about fan-like behavior wherever I’ve found it.

“Take, for example, the local Ubuntu meetup group. Closing in on
five hundred members, it’s probably the largest FOSS group in my
area, and I plan to attend some of its events this year. But I’m
mildly put off — no doubt unfairly — by the limitless, unbounded
enthusiasm of the organizers, who apparently have time to send two
or three messages a day to the meetup’s members.”

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