Today is election day in the Netherlands. A very important election day, because today will decide if we here in the traditionally inclusive low countries will again fall for the exclusive policies of the hard right, or back to our base, to community and democracy.

One of the voices I follow is that of a former colleague from way back when, who writes about Dutch politics a lot. In today’s piece, she mentions Ubuntu, not as the operating system, but rather, she refers to its meaning.

The word “Ubuntu” comes from the languages and peoples of southern Africa, translates into something like “I am because we are”. Is about community above individualism, indeed, the idea that we become ourselves only within others and thanks to others. And that we therefore owe the other respect, owe others respect, we have the responsibility to help when needed because we ourselves have been helped so much. We owe community our very existence.

As of October 2025, Linux powers about 85% of all web servers. Among Linux distributions, Ubuntu is the most popular, with a market share of approximately 35%. This means that roughly one-third of all Linux servers run Ubuntu, making it the leading Linux distribution for internet servers.

The defining factor of Ubuntu, of Linux, of the internet itself, is Open Source Software. It’s embedded into the very concept of the internet, as a place where anyone can publish. Open source software is available for all humanity, to build anything you can imagine. All you need is an internet connection.

The makers of Ubuntu didn’t choose the name on a whim. On their website, we find this reference: Ubuntu is an ancient Zulu word meaning: “humanity towards others”. Also: “I am what I am because of who we all are”.

In our small software company, we run our own servers because we do complicated stuff that requires heavily customised platforms. We run Ubuntu exclusively. In our automations, the name of the user that is created is “ubuntu”.

We sometimes forget what the name means. But actually, every day we should celebrate that our very existence as a company is because of the world community that is Open Source.

Likewise, here in Holland, but again, across the world, we should celebrate that our very existence as individuals, getting up early to go to the election booths, is because of community, generations upon generations of it.

So, Ubuntu to you, to all of us. May you vote wisely.