I think that we are all here because of Ferrium. Honestly.
HLP, the graphics upgrade project all the renovation work currently being done, NONE of those would have been possible without the release of the source code by its rightful holders, Volition.
Volition itself realised just how badly people wanted to improve FS2, because of Ferrium.
It stepped in, released the code, and even if it killed Ferrium on the short term, on the long term (and after a lot of work by the coders) we now have...
-Babylon project
-WC saga
-Redline
Media VP's, stunning viduals and all too many things to mention.
Kudos to Volition which saved all the coders from 3-4 years of coding into the wilderness, and then so much time re-creating all the missions from scratch (as there would be no way for the old missions to be compatible to a completely new game)
Kudos also to Ferrium and its originator, Kazan, who, by starting all of this caused the release of FS2 source files. This, of course is my theory, but I am sticking to it. Kazan and Volition saved Freespace from oblivion and gave it a new lease of life and a rebirth that we are all now experiencing and the modders are a part of.