GUADEC: New funding models for open source software [LWN.net]

GUADEC: New funding models for open source software

Posted Aug 16, 2012 11:24 UTC (Thu) by ewan (subscriber, #5533)
In reply to: GUADEC: New funding models for open source software by danieldk
Parent article: GUADEC: New funding models for open source software

I think there'd probably need to be some sort of bidding-for-grants type process mixed in to decide how the money is distributed - some projects just aren't going to be in a position to make use of donations, and I'm not sure I'm wild about the idea of sending donations to (e.g.) Apple and Oracle based simply on the ubiquity of Cups and Berkeley DB.

Other than that, I think I'd be on board with the general idea - it'd be a similar experience to buying a boxed set of Red Hat or Mandrake years ago rather than just downloading the ISOs.

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Cups and Berkeley DB

Posted Aug 17, 2012 12:04 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Like it or not, the thing is that Apple and Oracle do some outstanding work for us GNU/Linux users, and it is Free software. Think about the developers there, not the megacorp that builds closed phones or databases. Sending a fraction of a dollar per donating user may not make a difference in their profits, but it might make a difference.

Then again these donations might convert a licensing issue into a cost/benefit decision ("Cups for Linux costs us xxx and we only get xx from them, so away they go"). Who knows. Anyway a grant evaluation process is nice.