To Whom Should I Donate? 299
jasonmanley writes "I currently use DesktopBSD. The other day I gave some thought to donating money to the project, but then I got to thinking — to whom would I donate the money? DesktopBSD benefits from FreeBSD and KDE among other projects. What about software with a smaller focus, such as OpenSSH? In fact, there are heaps of other projects' software embedded in FOSS packages, and I would like to know who the community thinks should get the donations."
just choose your favorite project (Score:4, Interesting)
sometimes our time is as good as some cash.
To the Digital Standards Organization (Score:5, Interesting)
Coincidentally, on the day we signed the Hague Declaration [digistan.org], Microsoft announced they would support ODF in Office.
Luckily, Digistan does not want your money, just your support. Sign the Hague Declaration online, and help us by getting involved.
I would donate to the Perl Foundation (Score:4, Interesting)
Let the flamewars begin... (Score:5, Interesting)
Relevancy ? (Score:5, Interesting)
The little guys (Score:5, Interesting)
Rather than donating to a project with corporate backing, why not split your donation up and give it to a few smaller projects instead? You're more likely to make a difference there. Even the tiniest donation could give a lone developer the extra enthusiasm needed to fix that one last bug before calling it a night.
Re:A bit of perspective (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The little guys (Score:3, Interesting)
That's so damn right!
While my project wasn't FOSS, it was a browser strat game, keeping it running beyond personal interest for over a year longer was made to happen by the community support, we even almost finished up the next generation version of it (everything polished and updated, lots and lots of new content)
In the end in my case "life came", and i just didn't have the time nor motivation to keep maintaining it. But it did give the community almost a year more time to enjoy the game
As for donation suggestions, my 2cents:
something which increases productivity: User friendly application, something you use constantly and it saves you time.
Personally i'd look into putting cash on some of the "life saving" tools: Backup, Data Forensics/Recovery, Security apps, or maybe something which increases server performance or reliability
Debian, every time. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:There Can Only Be One (Score:4, Interesting)
It won't work if we tell you (Score:5, Interesting)
There are clearly a multitude of metrics by which you can assess the answer to your question.
Humanitarian: language translation / disability assistance software / tor.
Wanting to overthrow the evil empire: wine, firefox.
Wanting better hardware support: kernel developers.
Wanting to thank people: any projects you use/couldn't do without.
Really, it works best to just donate according to your own special favoritism. This way the projects get money in proportion to how much people/need want them. If you just wanted to pick the one project that will contribute the most to humanity, well, I can tell you already it's going to involve feeding hungry children and not improving your boot time.
If you like, you can imagine you are purchasing the software, and donate whatever is the highest price you would have been willing to pay for it (or at least use that to figure out the proportions in which you should divide your money).
Re:Some options (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, that depends on your own vision of things. One of the most useful software packages I found in the last 8 years (is it really already that long) was OpenBSD. At first I bought their CDs and T-Shirts occasionally. Then I started buying their CD on the 6 month release shedule and I just rounded it up to the next 100€ (back then CDs were 30€ or so) donating the difference. Now I even stopped doing that: I just have a monthly standing order to their account. I still buy the CDs occasionally, but it's not the rule anymore.
Why OpenBSD? Because I like the system (not on the desktop, but as a server it's nice). They created OpenSSH which benefits pretty much every Unix out there. Their security fixes propagate to other platforms and software.
So, no, "useful" is what you define it to be. I find OpenBSD useful because it's there, in the background, routing my packets, protecting my computers. I find that insanely more useful and important that anything else. (Note, that this has never stopped me from donating to other projects, including OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, OpenWebmail, and many others...)
Me Too! (Score:3, Interesting)
I sit and watch my 42" LCD with a tear in my left eye. With a 50" plasma, both my eyes would be on fire!
Donate much and regularly. Please.
On a serious note: In ten years of OSS programming I've only once received a user donation. It was $25 deposited into my paypal account and it meant a lot to me. Unsolicited donations are a pick-me-up that lasts for days.
Re:Donations - Not what you think!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Mostly Hosting / hardware and employing devs, some cash though.
XBMC - it's being ported to Linux! (Score:3, Interesting)
http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52 [xbmc.org] for more information on Linux XBMC or check out the Wiki -> http://www.xboxmediacenter.net/wiki/?title=HOW-TO_compile_XBMC_for_Linux_from_source_code [xboxmediacenter.net]
P.S. ffmpeg is a project that MANY others benefit from including XBMC, if they need money they are also a worthy cause.
Re:Me! (Score:1, Interesting)
for x in range(10000):
a = "hello"
b = ","
c = " "
d = "world"
The line they differed in was:
print "%s%s%s%s" %(a,b,c,d)
print a+b+c+d
and timed execution of both. The one with %s's took "real 0m0.347s", the one with +'s took mere "real 0m0.276s.
I don't understand it either.
The Open Graphics Project (Score:3, Interesting)
www.opengraphics.org [opengraphics.org]
www.openhardwarefoundation.org [openhardwa...dation.org]
Re:Making things complicated. (Score:3, Interesting)
However, when everything is free - this really doesn't work in the same sense. So I guess the option is donating or buying products from an open source company (like red hat). Another option would be instead of just donating - pay someone (possibly through a bounty system) to fix a bug or add a feature to some program.
Then again, there are some pretty cool projects that deserve a straight donation.
Re:The little guys (Score:4, Interesting)
You could always extend that to a more personal approach.
I'm a regular at a local Mexican restaurant. Instead of dropping my loose change anonymously in the tip jar, I show up with a few sixpacks of beer for the staff, and maybe some cut flowers for the hostess. I don't do this on a regular basis, but frequently enough to give everyone a good laugh. Now, my food orders are on the grill as soon as they see me pulling into the parking lot, and I walk out knowing the burritos I ordered were bigger than everyone else's, or my order included things that everyone waiting in line would pay extra for.
Substitute beer with hookers and blackjack (be sure the hookers aren't crossing state lines), airline tickets, gift certificates or whatever else you think may be appropriate, and you might discover those few cents can add up and have a greater effect than you'd think.