Hello.
Although we pirate for various reasons (ideology, no money to spend on entertainment, etc.) I wanted to know if the community actually donates money to any FOSS project? Nearly all of us use a torrent client based on libtorrent (qBit, Transmission, Deluge) or an open source Usenet client such as SABnzbd to consume our pirated content, yet I wonder, how many people here donate to FOSS projects?
I donated 15 euro to KDE in the past, as well as 10 euro to qBittorrent to keep the projects alive. I think that software that respects it’s users deserves to be rewarded for doing so. What is your opinion?
No. But I should. Probably time to start.
You’re kind of Robin Hood if you steal software and give the money to FOSS projects. 😄
No, but I’m disabled on a next to nothing/gifts from family budget. I sincerely appreciate those that can donate and share my work on git freely.
I donate hundreds of hours of my time every year maintaining several open source projects. Does that count?
Yes it counts and more than monetary contributions do
Agreed, do what you can but contributing if you have the skills and time for me is like being a superhero
Yes, it does
Yes, I donate once a year to the projects I use most. I allocate about 200€ and split it up among those.
I had plans to do something similar this holiday season for the first time. Normally I just donate to my local jail bond fund.
Yep to the EFF, a few GNU projects, and previously to random developers I liked.
I donate 10€ to Arch Linux and NixOS monthly because they let me run all my stuff and occasionally to projects I like. Especially the ones that save me money that would go into media consumption etc.
I donate 10€ to (…) NixOS
So… you’re essentially financing the next big ecosystem / vendor lock-in that will completely fuck and obliterate the fully open-source, free and not dependent on some-cloud-subscription-service operating system model we’ve going on today in Linux.
What the hell are you talking about? If you mean nixos’ dependence on aws, there are alternatives to that like cachix and in the worst case, you could still setup some distributed caching network like ipfs or something torrent based. AWS was simply the easiest choice at the time.
I mean that NixOS and immutability trend is the next Docker/Kubernetes that will eventually lead to make people dependent on some cloud based repository or other similar solution controlled by a single entity.
cloud based repository
Where do you think other distro’s repos are?
I’m headed to the store to pick up some milk and the new Arch update thumb drive, need anything?
Yes yes and yes! These people are a lifeline for people like me who can’t code. People like me gain so much. Free is fun, but if you can donate, even one $, €, £ or other.
Have considered this but i have not yet started looking up anonymous ways to donate. Suggestions where i could start - eg how to anonymize credit card information online? If not anonymize, minimize personal info at least?
You could use the cryptocurrency Monero. It’s specifically made to be anonymous.
thanks for suggesting Monero, however i dont use cryptocurrency because we are still very cash dependent where im from.
You can buy monero online and then donate said monero to foss projects also online
You can’t really anonymously use a credit card. Privacy.com will let you give bogus info to the FOSS project if you really don’t trust the devs having your name, but you’ll have to give Privacy a bunch of info which is arguably an even bigger invasion of privacy. I suppose it’s a matter of who you trust.
Most donations will go through an intermediary like PayPal so it’s not like you’re giving them your credit card info directly.
guess i can just use my credit card details. i trust the devs more than paypal. hahahahaha. i mean, they have done so much good already.
How about bank account that generate cards for you ? Then you can destroy it online
thanks for this suggestion. like one-time-use cards? nice. this is new to me. i will ask my bank if they offer this service.
If you have Revolut or N26 you can generate a card only load it for amount you want and delete it after use.
FOSS s such a wide area of practice. There is no detriment in supporting a FOSS keyboard or image editor. Perhaps for these, or for software that might sails across the lines you might consider Monero, or similar.
i was thinking of donating to the projects i use a lot - inkscape and kdenlive. thanks for suggesting Monero, which was also suggested by another user. unfortunately, i dont have cryptocurrency. maybe i will just use cc for these donations.
Yes just a couple of bucks here and there.
Almost BECAUSE they’ve done it for free, I like to chip in .
I never used to donate to any FOSS project, now I donate every alternative month since I realized what I liked about the internet and tech is being taken away by greedy corporates.
Yes, you should support open source when possible if the project(s) you use are beneficial to you! Your dollars are far more valuable to help out a small team of independent volunteers vs multi-billion dollar corporations that really don’t need it.
If you can’t donate money, donate your time / skills or do both! Make the world of software a better place, one small contribution at a time!
I donate to the OSM foundation as a basic member and 6€ monthly to organic maps. I spend a lot of time contributing to OSM as well. it’s great to be able to see and use my own work.
For anyone that wants to contribut and have some fun, use StreetComplete on F-droid.
Done and done!
Yes, I’m also planning to join there soon. I’m imagining Google to make maps a subscription service in a few years.
Just as an aside, donating does not have to be monetary. Helping (if possible) with development, triaging issues or helping with support/forums of any kind, along with in general filing good issues goes miles for FOSS projects, especially larger ones with only a few developers.
Yes… especially for newborn project it’s quite difficult to find volunteers or people just wanting to help out, test, triage reports, etc.
I don’t sail the seas too much, but I’ve been donating to FOSS projects ever since I left the church. This is my tithe.
Yes. To the uBO list maintainers and Jellyfin.
