Comments on: FOSS: Investment not Charity

By: Craig Huffstetler

Craig Huffstetler — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:55:20 +0000

This:
http://www.stefanoforenza.com/ubuntu-appstore-in-the-workings/
Reminded me of this post. It does provide a funding model to the developers — at least, I would hope.

Sorry for drudging it up

Cheers!

By: Ubuntu: Canonical in Trademarks and Trade « DoctorMO’s Blag

Ubuntu: Canonical in Trademarks and Trade « DoctorMO’s Blag — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:36:17 +0000

[...] talked at length before about how you can’t really offer services for excessive prices in order to re-focus money on [...]

By: Dave Lyon

Dave Lyon — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:04:39 +0000

I agree. I think I’ve gotten a lot of benefit from others’ work over the years. I like the sound of the cofundos site- I don’t think I could ever pay enough alone for a feature I want, but with others…

A middle ground would be to take investments and acknowledge those contributions and maybe even how they were used. Like you said, most people have a mentality that they want what they’re buying now. Maybe with more acknowledgement for FOSS investors- my ideas at http://eazely.com/archives/apps/624- there would be enough goodwill to encourage more investments.

By: Donating vs. Investing in Open Source Projects: Semantics and Self-Esteem | google android os blog

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:25:18 +0000

[...] my travels recently, I happened across a rather thought provoking proposal from Martin Owens, an active contributor to the Ubuntu project. He suggested that people would be more likely to [...]

By: Craig Huffstetler

Craig Huffstetler — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:24:04 +0000

Great post. Kudos for pointing out the facts and pointing people int he right direction.

I do not think developing open source is “charitable.” I really do think it’s an investment of time.

In this day and age time does equal money (in a service economy); however, these FOSS developers, QA engineers, or *anyone* (really) who is contributing is choosing to use their TIME on a FOSS initiative (such as Ubuntu) is choosing TIME = FREE over TIME = MONEY. And that is an investment.

By: Vadim P.

Vadim P. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:47:56 +0000

I like your stance.

As pointed out, cofundos is a good place to start on that. Point the guy to spend his $50 on a project there.

By: jldugger

jldugger — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:49:31 +0000

yokozar: I don’t think that developing open source software is charitable. Specifically, I think there’s a distinction to be made between selfless sacrifice and being paid to write software under an open license. No clue if my mental distinction matters in taxes or the minds of others.

By: FOSS: Investment not Charity « DoctorMO’s Blag - Charity Central Guide

FOSS: Investment not Charity « DoctorMO’s Blag - Charity Central Guide — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:18:37 +0000

[...] is the original post: FOSS: Investment not Charity « DoctorMO’s Blag :400-million, buttons-turned, features, features-being, foss, million-more, northwest-arkansas, [...]

By: Jared Spurbeck

Jared Spurbeck — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:24:19 +0000

Were you aware of the existence of this website? http://cofundos.org/

They have a unique system for funding open-source projects.

By: ethana2

ethana2 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:12:17 +0000

If I were a company like Dell, I’d be investing in FOSS as fast as I fricking could to keep Apple from eating my lunch with caviar during a recession..