<p>There&#39;s been some discussion recently of what motivates free software authors.</p><p><a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/PuTTY" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PuTTY</span></a> was originally just a Telnet client. It became really useful when I added an SSH backend, during my last year at university. I did that partly because I thought network security seemed like a good idea, but mostly because I had exams coming up, and it seemed like more fun than revising for them.</p><p>Three years earlier, <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/NASM" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NASM</span></a> started off as a long design discussion with about 17 people on an email list. Eventually the time came to write code. I volunteered to write an initial prototype for everyone to work on improving. Another member of the mailing list – also a student – suggested that he&#39;d write one too, and then we could decide which one to use. He was at Oxford and I was at Cambridge, so naturally I went all-out to make sure mine would be better. (He never finished his, as it turned out.)</p><p>In other words, my two biggest serious free software projects were motivated significantly by Oxbridge rivalry and by revision avoidance.</p><p>I&#39;m not quite sure that&#39;s how a university education is _supposed_ to bring benefit to the world, but I&#39;ll take it!</p>