Merry Christmas

[Collins Richey]

On 12/24/05, Kurt Wall <kwall at kurtwerks.com> wrote:
> List,
>
> Although I'm neither the first nor likely to be the last to do so,
> I wish you all the merriest possible Christmas.
>
> Those who don't recognize or celebrate the holiday will pardon me,
> I trust, for I intend no disrespect. It is, after all, a Christian
> holiday...
>

True enough, but the older I get the more I find that the spirit of
this holiday transcends the purely religious or Christian. Some of my
favorite talk show hosts are Jewish, and they are as excited about
Christmas as the (nominal or otherwise) Christians among us. It's a
fantastic time of year that prompts all of us to go beyond our usual
mundane world.

> I've been on this list or its predecessor for eleven years now, that
> is, since its beginning in the old CND Preview days. Some number of you
> can say the same. It's a shame I've only been able to meet a few of you
> over the years, but this is the nature of social relations on the
> Internet. Equally disappointing is the departure of some of the real
> lights of the list, such as Mike Andrew and Les Bell (who, I note,
> still maintains a Web presence at http://www.lesbell.com.au/).
>

I concur fully. It would be oh so nice to get to know all of you personally.

> As dep noted a long time ago, the old Caldera somehow created a list
> populated, in the main, by the nicest, brightest, most knowledgeable,
> generous, and helpful people (I might observe that Caldera did so in spite
> of themselves). By way of evidence, when I recently asked for Web hosting
> recommendation, I received several good suggestions, for which I thank
> you. More astonishing was that I received five offers to host my site
> free of charge on well-connected, professionally maintained servers,
> and two offers to host my site in return for help in admining the box.
> I can't imagine another non-disaster situation in which people who've
> never met would do such a thing. The offers floored me. I'm flattered to
> find myself in your company and look forward to another eleven years.
>

Except for the one well known group that is so full of themselves that
newbies need not apply, I've found the spirit of Christmas (ie giving)
to be the rule rather than the exception on this and other Linux lists
all year long. People are always ready to help and ask little in
return.

One of the greatest events of the year (IMHO): The same spirit that
has always pervaded this list is now appearing in the Ubuntu
phenomenon. They are rapidly replacing the 'group that is so full of
themselves' with the spirit of common humanity that we all know lo
these many years, and I love it.

> Merry Christmas!
>

Indeed!

--
Collins Richey
      Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code ... If you write
      the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not
      smart enough to debug it.
             -Brian Kernighan