Alon Swartz and Liraz Siri started TurnKey GNU/Linux in 2008. Like many aspiring young hackers of their generation, they grew up at the dawn of the modern Internet and were hungry to unlock its secrets. They soon discovered free software and the community of highly talented philanthropist programmers behind it, without which the Internet as we know it would not be possible.
This was a revelation and a deeply transformative educational experience that would eventually inspire TurnKey years later, first as a side project and later as full time mission to give back to the tradition that gave so much to them while maximizing the amount of good they could do with the resources they had to work with.
Why is promoting free software important? Because the benefits of free software extend well beyond price or economical utility. It's about freedom. Freedom to have full control over your computing. Freedom to inspect the inner workings of the software you use. Freedom from hidden NSA backdoors. Freedom to learn and innovate without having to ask anyone for permission.
Because unlike with proprietary software, free software is free to use, modify and distribute. You can make it better! It comes with full source code. There is no secret sauce, nothing you are not allowed to understand. You can learn how computers work inside out by studying source code for any component of the GNU/Linux operating system. It's a priceless educational resource that allows aspiring hackers to learn from some of the best programmers in the world. Artists who love their craft so much they literally do it for free. Who apply to software engineering the noble scientific tradition of open, borderless collaboration that underlies modern science and technology.