A few days ago, Blender celebrated its 20 years of Open Source. It is hard to quantify the impact this has had on the hundreds of thousands of people who used this software to create art and better lives for themselves. It's hard to quantify how the industry has been shaped by this David-turned-Goliath weathering financial storms and trailblazing the path to creative freedom through the tumultuous seas of proprietary and disenfranchising tools and practices.
The October 13 2002 picture of the moment Blender sources went public. Being congratulated by FSF Europe chair Loic. pic.twitter.com/Q2fnI6UNbE
— Ton Roosendaal🔸 (@tonroosendaal) October 13, 2022
It's hard to gauge the tens of thousands of lives changed, but I can attest to mine: Blender's power, but most importantly its openness (and the incredible community that this fosters) was fundamental to the building of my career, to the life I lead now, and to each step I took out of a geopolitically dealt "bad hand" and into independence and dignity as a writer, artist, and creator.
It was 1991 that we bought our first SGI. It was a company investment, NeoGeo B.V., which I was running with bizz partner Frank van Beek.
Early 1994 I wrote the first lines of Blender code. The donut was a Nurbs primitive since the beginning.— Ton Roosendaal🔸 (@tonroosendaal) October 12, 2022
Thank you, Ton, for your visionary leadership and for the impact you've had on my life and thousands of other, and thank you to the thousands of contributors and community members who helped make Blender the incredible tool it is today. Happy Blender open-source birthday to the community at large! Here's to 20 more years (and then 20 more!)
Bonus Content:
Here's my Bcon20 talk going into more details about my Blender path. Even more has changed in the two years since, except one steadfast thing that still accompanies me daily. Hint: it rhymes with Mlender.