Fedora 10 around the corner!

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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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