This is, in a way, a reply to something that has annoyed me for a long time now, and which, reading other tech blogs such as those in Planeta Asterisco, I see a lot of.
A recent example (though far from the worst) is this post by Carlos Rodrigues, about the news that the FSF will release a 100% Free Software Ubuntu variant. The accusations - both by Carlos and others - are of two kinds: that those guys are fanatics, fundamentalists, talibans, etc., and the even more common “yet another distro? it’s because of this that Linux will never conquer the masses!”
And things like those are said, quite often, by Linux users (though it’s fashionable for them, these days, to say that Linux isn’t ready for the desktop after all, and use Windows or MacOS X instead, and Linux only on servers… but I digress).
Now, about the first… we all care differently about different matters, right? What is important, even a matter of life and death to some, can be irrelevant to many others. Each of us has different priorities. This is normal.
What I don’t find “normal” - or, more precisely, healthy, or right - is when you call anyone who cares even a little more about a subject than you do, a “fanatic”.
Think about it. Do you consider yourself perfect, or something? Do you care about subject A exactly as much as is correct, and anyone who goes a milimeter beyond that is already guilty of taliban-like fundamentalism? Is the maximum allowed “caring” defined by how much you care?
I don’t care about software freedom as much as Richard Stallman and others, but I understand why it’s important to them. I understand where they’re coming from. And I respect them for it. Others, however, call them “fanatics”… simply for caring a little more than they (those others) do.
I don’t care much about how well decorated my place is, but I don’t call my GF “a fanatic” because she cares about it more than I do.
I’ve always thought U2 was a pretty average band, with some good songs, and never understood how so many people almost worship them… but I don’t call those “fanatics”.
I don’t care the least bit about soccer, but I don’t call those who do “fanatics”, unless they’re actually hurting people or damaging property (and even then, they’re more morons than “fanatics”).
I eat meat, but I don’t call vegans “fanatics”.
Is this so hard to understand? Is it so “cool”, or so “mature”, to not care? (sometimes, the P* members seem to be in a “competition” to be the one who cares the least about everything…) Are people so conceited that they believe they care about everything exactly the right amount? That caring a little more than they do is unacceptable?
Hmm, this is already too long… there is now a part 2, about the “so many distros harm Linux” thing. 
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“I don’t care about software freedom as much as Richard Stallman and others, but I understand why it’s important to them.”
Fundamentalists and zealots don’t just “care”, they try to shove their beliefs down other people’s throats at every single opportunity, destroying the credibility of the community as a whole.
Then, people like me get that funny looks whenever we bring up the Linux/FOSS subject in a conversation, like we have leprosy or something. You can thank the likes of RMS for that.
Carlos, when did that happen to you? Have you been accosted in the street by Free Software fundamentalists, threatening you with eternal damnation if you don’t repent? Have they bothered you at home, like Jehovah’s Witnesses? Have you ever seen a ragged, foul-smelling, long bearded street preacher ranting about the evils of binary-only drivers?
Do you know of any Free Software-related violence? Lynch mobs? Killings?
More realistically, have you ever been insulted in a forum, or in a chat room, or anywhere, for not using Free Software exclusively?
Have you ever been prevented from using Windows whenever you want, however you want?
Somehow, I doubt it. Those “Free Software guys” have never done anything to you.
They simply have other priorities. They care more about some issues than you do, and, for some reason, that makes them “fanatics”.