about yukidoke

the name

yukidoke is a japanese word meaning "melting snow" or "thawing season." It is usually used to refer to a season of change and rebirth. One could accurately describe the period after the cold war as a period of yukidoke.

We use the term yukidoke to refer a period of positive change brought on in the world of software development. We believe that the advance of free software has the potential to usher in a new season of better, brighter software and this website's goal is the promotion of this revolution.

what we do

yukidoke will provide free resources and act as a nexus to anyone involved in free software projects and will work to further the free software revolution in these and other ways.

yukidoke's first projects are being maintained by Benjamin "Mako" Hill. Visit his website to see what he is up to.

Be sure to check back often as this website begins to take shape over the next month. Feel free to email mako@bork.hampshire.edu if you have any questions or would like to get involved.

who are we

yukidoke was started by Benjamin "Mako" Hill in early 2001. Mika Matstuzaki is responsible for coming up with the name. Other members of the Five College Linux User Group (formly the Hampshire College Linux Group) have played an active role in trying to set up this site.

yukidoke is looking to get more people involved with the project. If you have a project you would like have hosted at yukidoke, please don't hesitate to contact anyone involved in the project. If you have critism or ideas for changes, please do the same. yukidoke is driven by the same level of community involvement that is seeks to promote. Please don't hesitate to become involved.

Currently, yukidoke is made possible through the work and resources of the Five College Linux User Group although it is moving to its own server sometime in the next two weeks.

yukidoke's philosophy

The motivation behind yukidoke is largely philosophical. While we believe that free software is superior to non-free (proprietary software) along pragmatic lines, our primary motivations in our free software advocacy and development are largely ethical.

If you are new to free software, check out the Debian Free Software Guidelines and the Free Software Foundation's Free Software Definition.

For information on why free software is better than non-free software, check out Richard Stallman's Why Software Should Not Have Owners and the older, longer, Why Software Should Be Free.

Before this turns into a link page to the Free Software Foundation, you'd be better off checking out their philosophy page yourself where you'll find great writings on free software philosophy, the majority of which are in conversation with our beliefs at yukidoke.

Mako, one of the founders of yukidoke has posted some drafts of papers on free software on his page of academic writings which, while rough, might shed more light on yukidoke's philosphy.