Who Should Help LinuxFund Distribute $126,155.29? 380
Roblimo writes "The LinuxFund Web site was down for several months, and the project has essentially been out of business since last year. But MBNA kept the LinuxFund MasterCard going, and kept depositing money in LinuxFund's account -- to the tune of $126,155.29 when NewsForge reporter Jay Lyman finally caught up with the current and former project leaders and found out what was going on -- namely nothing. So does anyone have an idea what to do with this money? Want to suggest an individual or group to take over LinuxFund and run it right?"
Agreed... FSF. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
They were using these funds to provide grants to the free software community. They have had "interns" which work on individual open-source projects, but mostly they offered grants and microgrants to OSS developers who needed funding to work on a specific project. For example Software Suspend recieved some funding as well as XIPH.ORG. They've also sponsorsed community organizations such as CodeCon [codecon.org] and the Southern California Linux Expo [socallinuxexpo.org] when they were first starting out.
According to public records they were bring in revenues between $100K to $200K per year at their high point. Its definately a viable model for funding open-source projects it just looks like its in need of volunteer support.
Re:Agreed... FSF. (Score:3, Informative)
* Scarface: A 3D GTA Game
* Kavlon Coloring Book
Which would you rather have, a coloring book or NeoOffice/J? My vote goes to NeoOffice/J.
Give it back (Score:2, Informative)
I have one of these MBNA LinuxFund MasterCards.
Through my dealings with MBNA, I've decided they're one of the smarmiest credit card companies one can do business with.
It started as a fixed-rate card at an excellent interest rate. (With a one-year 0% balance-transfer rate to boot.) After a year, they switched it to a variable-rate account. The rate was still good, so I decided to keep it.
Every two months after that, they would sneak in a change in terms to the account. They would print this on a small piece of paper and hide it in the multiple pieces of crap along with the statement selling other overpriced junk. Luckily, I've caught it each time. These change of terms documents would explain that they were changing the interest rate to something ridiculous. Each time I would call and complain and they would set things right again, leaving my account at its current APR.
You may be thinking, "oh your credit sucks" or "that's what you get for not paying them on time". If that were the case, I wouldn't be complaining. Not only am I not late paying them, I'm not late paying anyone else. My credit score is fantastic too.
Things changed when I bought my first house a few months back. I got another one of these stating they were raising my APR to prime plus 19.99%. That's mind-bogglingly high! When I called them about this one, they refused to keep it at my low rate. They claim my new mortgage has nothing to do with it, but were unable to provide any reason whatsoever for the increase.
Luckily, these enclosures allow you to reject the change in writing, keeping your old APR. I did that, and have since transferred the balance elsewhere.
I would like to see all of the money raised through this program to be returned to the card members according to how much they each contributed.