Hi! Welcome to Moving to Freedom dot org. My name is Scott Carpenter.
the past
I started this blog to write about free software, free culture, and “assorted miscellany.”
I wanted to write about the process of moving from Microsoft Windows and other proprietary software to the GNU/Linux operating system and free software applications.
I figured writing about it in public would provide additional motivation to finally make the move, and… look! I’m on the other side now. Mostly. I’ve made a few compromises, but I’m mostly using free software for my day to day personal computing. (Work is another story.) You can read the move notes for more on the moving process.
While we’re dwelling on the past, there is also: “Stuff That Used To Be Here,” which highlights stuff from the first few years of the blog. There has been plenty of assorted miscellany.
the future
I don’t know where I’m going with this site. (Or in my life, really, but who does?)
I still care a lot about free software and free culture and plan to stay involved with the community and the movement. There are many people that write about the philosophy of “free” and related issues much more regularly and insightfully than me, but I might find some veins of advocacy to mine.
I had thought to pursue web fiction writing, as in “The Tale of Itsy Bitsy Fritsy,” but then started to wonder if that was a pretense to the wrong call.
Now I’m looking for the one direction in which all space is open to me.
So, I’ll be writing about anything, or nothing.
There are no rules to this thing.
a few more things about me
I live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area in Minnesota. (One of the United States.) Minnesota is a beautiful state, with many lakes, forests, parks, and trails.
I’m married and have a daughter. We have pets. (Here’s one. And another.) I’ve mostly kept my family out of these pages.
some things I like
music: Martin Sexton, Ryan Montbleau Band, Rush
television: Mad Men, The Wire, Dexter, Entourage, Flight of the Conchords, Arrested Development, Phineas & Ferb
movies: Haiku Tunnel, Toy Story 3 (and all Pixar movies!), Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Groundhog Day
books: Richard Bach (Illusions), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, etcetera), Brenda Ueland (If You Want To Write), Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Essays, etcetera), Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It)
Updated: 11 July 2010
