Marko Tahvanainen
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-linux-distro-from-brazil-does-want-kill-you-marko-tahvanainen-uixef/
Dear Marko,
You have no idea what a gift you gave us today.
As we read your text, something magical happened here in Brazil. In a Telegram group where we gather - some here, others there, each in their corner after work, on Saturday afternoons or in sleepless dawns - your text arrived like a warm hug on a cold day.
We are exactly those “Refisefuqui” you described. Friends who meet on weekends, in digital backyards, united by a passion that doesn’t fit into business hours. We don’t have offices, we don’t have business meetings, we don’t have investors. We have coffee, we have code, we have heart.
And you, there in your grey and cold reality of the Nordic countries, felt exactly that. You felt the Brazilian warmth we put into every line of code, into every KDE tweak, into every effort to make installation truly “one button.” You sensed that we are not a company - we are people. People making technology for people.
You know what’s most incredible? You, with decades of experience in systems that weighed more than cars, with a resume that includes C3I and Ada systems, with all the baggage of someone who has formatted more drives than we can count - you understood that our greatest achievement isn’t technical. It’s love.
When you wrote that BigLinux “does not want to kill you,” you summarized our philosophy in five words. We don’t want to prove anything. We don’t want to be the hardest, the purest, the most radical. We want you to come home after work, install it, and it simply works. We want you to play your games, to travel back in time with old games, to show Petra (whom, by the way, we love knowing exists and has her own interests that you respect) that Linux is also about nostalgia and humanity.
You talked about Manjaro and Arch with the honesty of someone who understands that choosing a distribution means choosing a history. And you were right: we chose Manjaro as our base, but we added our Brazilian touch - that warmth that is missed in the Nordic countries. We put a door at the front of the building, as you so well said, because we believe nobody needs to climb through a window to deserve using Linux.
And you know what? You were right about us. Yes, we are amateurs in the most beautiful sense of the word: those who love. And this love makes us wake up on Sunday and think “what if we added one more desktop option?” or “can we make this installer even simpler?”
But it’s not all flowers, Marko. We’ve asked ourselves so many times why we do this… In many moments, we look at each other and say: “it must be because we’re idiots.” We’ve gone through trials, humiliations, gratuitous attacks. We’ve been ridiculed, ignored, treated as if we weren’t capable. You know that old “stray dog syndrome”? That Brazilian habit of thinking that what comes from outside is better and dismissing what is made here.
But the truth is that we love this here. We love every second.
We meet on Jitsi to discuss ideas, exchange messages on Telegram at any hour, record videos for YouTube showing the new version, showing that we are real, that we have nothing to hide. We don’t seek spotlights, we don’t chase fame. We do it for the simple gesture, for the simple pleasure of coding.
Bruno once said something that stuck: “Making BigLinux is our video game.” And that’s exactly it! We play, we level up, we face bosses, we die, we restart. And like millions of gamers out there, we don’t get paid for it. We get something better: the satisfaction of seeing someone like you, on the other side of the world, warming up with the heat we put into every line.
Always in search of the perfect system! Even knowing that perfection might not exist, it’s the pursuit that moves us. It’s the next level, the next challenge, the next boss.
Marko, your text will be saved. It will become a screenshot, a reminder, fuel for those nights when everything seems difficult and we question why we’re doing this. You reminded us: we do it because we believe. Because one day someone will need a system that works, that doesn’t judge, that is just there.
When you mentioned that your family finds it hard to accept your time with Linux, we identified immediately. Our families also ask “but do you guys make money from this?” No, we don’t. We get something better: we get reports like yours.
Thank you for seeing beyond the code. Thank you for feeling the Brazilian warmth even in the cold that “goes through the bones.” Thank you for trusting your system to a bunch of passionate people from the backyard who insist on dreaming.
Keep playing, keep exploring, keep being that incredible professional that you are. And if someday you want to feel some intense warmth, you know where to find us: we’re here, in the Telegram group, on Jitsi, on weekends, in digital backyards, making BigLinux with all the love we have.
With immense affection,
The Entire BigLinux Team
(Some “Refisefuqui” who woke up happier today knowing there’s a Marko in the world)
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P.S.: Give Petra a hug. If she wants to “research” games from the 2000s, we have an entire team here ready to help with the “scientific research”! 😉
P.S.2: We continue here. Always in search of the perfect system! Even if we never get there, the journey is worth every line of code.
Thank you for your time.
Ruscher
