Dear Ubuntu User Reader,

I don't think many people get what I do for a living. The people outside the Free Software bubble don't get Free Software, period. And those within often complain about what I do because I'm loud in my writing. Everyone's a critic, it would seem.

I'm not alone. There are a few of us around: Bryan Lunduke, Rikki Endsley, Jono Bacon, Steven J Vaughan-Nichols… Although we wield different levels of brashness, we all walk the thin line between techno-journalism and Free Software marketing. It's perceived as a kind of grubby, morally ambiguous line to walk – especially distasteful for many straight-laced, prissy, Free Software prudes who work within the aseptic realm of pure code.

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