For me it was the philosophy behind Free (as in freedom) software. Call me a Richard Stallman fan, but I would love to live in a world were everyone is free to:
Run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
Study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Distribute copies of your modified versions to others.