Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)

This article is really poorly informed, and I'm surprised at that as I 
don't recall Mr. Vaughn-Nichols being quite so hasty to publish before 
checking facts when I was Debian Project Leader.

Companies can and do support Debian, not only through donations of 
hardware, but conspicuously by supporting DebConf.  For years it has been 
the practice that a significant amount of DebConf's budget has gone 
sponsoring travel expenses to our annual conference, in direct 
contradiction to Mr. Vaughn-Nichols's assertion.

The DebConf organizing team has for the last several years published a 
detailed report, which includes budgetary matters.

We also make no secret of our sponsorships; journalists who attend DebConf 
would be hard pressed not to notice the ubiquitous T-shirts which list the 
year's numerous sponsors on the back.  (While many developers wear their 
hair long enough to obscure such a listing, this should not present an 
insuperable obstacle to the assiduous fact-gatherer.  At DebConf 5 in 
2005, for example, the sponsors were also listed in the official program 
of the conference.)

Not only is it not the case that "there's no one to write a check to", but 
big firms like Sun, Google, and HP have long known that, in the United 
States, Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI), is the 501(c)3 
corporation of first resort if you want to Debian out.

Checks from Google for Debian, PostgreSQL, and other Summer of Code 
projects come directly to SPI, and the funds held in trust for the member 
projects.  Michael Schultheiss, a friend and fellow Progeny alum, is the 
current SPI Treasurer (as was I, at one time), and could no doubt clarify 
many of these matters.  As could Sam Hocevar, Anthony Towns, or other 
folks named in the article.

That the piece calls itself out as an "opinion" should not relieve the 
author of all responsibility to check his or her facts.  That big name 
op-ed writers like David Brooks and Jonah Goldberg (just to name two 
examples) fail to hold themselves to such a standard does not make them 
worthy of emulation--it makes them figures to be transcended.