Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance.

Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. "Don't bother us with politics," respond those who don't want to learn.

Every decision a person makes stems from the person's values and goals. People can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is to help others as well as oneself, we call that idealism. My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better.

Sharing knowledge is the most fundamental act of friendship. Because it is a way you can give something without loosing something.

Control over the use of one's ideas really constitutes control over other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult.

People get the government their behavior deserves. People deserve better than that.

So, make a real effort to avoid getting sucked into all the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans. Because if you do that, then people with the money will dictate what you do with your life.