Florian Snow

General Information

I live in Nürnberg, work as a programmer, and I claim to be part of the last generation who did not grow up with computers. That is not quite true, though. We had a Commodore 64 when I was a kid, but I mostly used it for playing games. Around 1995, we got the first PC and I experimented with Windows 95 on it. Around 1997, we went online with our first modem and very quickly, I believed I was in serious danger of developing an online addiction. That never happened and a couple of years ago, I "completed reading the internet"™ (that means I get bored quickly after I am done checking my regular news sources). I support world domination by the Franconian hacker drink empire.

I have a background in a variety of different fields due to changing interests. I have a teaching degree, but I am not a teacher. I mentor interns and apprentices, my linguistic studies help me with high-quality editing and translation, and I enjoy design so I also gained some experience in that area.

My Free Software story

I have been involved in Free Software since about 1999. Back then, I still thought there was a Free operating system called Linux, I believed the Mac was generally the same as "Linux", and a little bit later, I thought Open Source was a cool idea. Since then, I have learned a lot, found out about differences and shared interests between Free Software and Open Source, I now know about the GNU operating system with Linux as its kernel, and I have become more and more involved in the community. Here is a timeline of the most significant events in my Free Software story:

• 1999: first experiments with Suse 6.2 (Chip special edition)

• 2003:
  • further experiments with Suse 8.2 (bought with a nice manual)

  • trying Debian Woody (3.0) for the first time

  • increasing interest in Free Software through the SCO case

• 2005:

  • first time reading Michael Kofler's "Linux"

  • GNU+Linux becomes my sole operating system

• 2005: increasing interest in Free Software through Microsofts OOXML shenanigans

• 2006: FSF member (continued)

• 2007: part of the German Gnome translator team

• 2009: part of the FSF Rapid Responders team (continued)

• 2012: after visit to RMS speeches FSFE sustaining member (continued)

• 2013: first time visiting a local FSFE meeting in Forchheim (with people from Rheinland)

• 2014: second time visiting a local FSFE meeting in Forchheim (with people from Rheinland)

• 2015: local group coordinator FSFE Franconia (continued)

• 2016:

  • first visit to FOSDEM

  • part of the German FSFE translator team (continued)

  • I coordinate the virtual European Coordinators' Meetings (continued)

  • part of the Wiki caretaker team (continued)

  • part of the FSFE PR team (continued)

  • part of the German FSFE team (continued)

  • took part in a campaign workshop

  • work on the video for the 15th anniversary of the FSFE

  • visiting the FSFE Summit

Contact me

Encryption

Please send me encrypted e-mails whenever possible. To do so, you can import my GnuPG key from a keyserver, but please make sure to verify the fingerprint before using the key.

• GnuPG key ID: F0A025D6E97D0E9F

• GnuPG fingerprint: 59F7 4EF9 BE39 705F DDAC 36E6 F0A0 25D6 E97D 0E9F

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