The actual question to be discussed below is slightly different then the "Why are we here" in the title, but as philosophical and possibly even more important to us.
In this talk https://events.opensuse.org/conference/osc15/proposal/650 it was discussed, that communication is important and that more important than _what_ we are doing and _how_ we are doing it, is _why_ we are doing it. And it is important to put this "why" answer first. All the other stuff is just minor details which follows.
Which brings us back to the important question: Why are we here, or more precisely
_Why are we contributing to free/libre/open source software_ (the openSUSE project and upstream software in our case)
I already asked a few people and got several good reasons:
1) Because I want to help FLOSS to make the world a better place. (related: Because it makes me proud, knowing that many people using it for all kinds of tasks)
2) Because software should be free (since I have already written it, distributing it is free, it is useful to other people and they are even contibuting (ideas and some patches) back)
3) Because I want to use the best (in some of the dimensions of best) software (related: because I do not want to use proprietary software crap)
4) Because I can make it to do what I want.
5) Because there is a Challenge (while doing something that is useful and cool)
6) Because it is Fun
Note: The numbering above is meant to help reference the items and not as a ranking.
Feel free to add other good reasons or tell which ones you like best or add other thoughts on the topic (If you dont feel comfortable discussing this in public, just mail me and I might add it to a later summary)
Ciao Bernhard M.