 - The 'fosstards' built and shared a good deal of the ecosystem on which the Internet you are using runs.<p>- A large chunk of the rest is directly or indirectly enabled, possible or cheaper thanks to them.<p>- Every one I have met in person has been polite about their goals, and while they base them on fundamental principles I don't quite agree with, their reasoning as based on those principles is rock solid.<p>As such I think they deserve a little more respect than being called names, especially here. When was the last time you saw a start-up that used no FOSS software?