You sound a bit too critical to me. It's a nice incentive for small developers and I can't see how this could be regarded as a waste of taxpayer money, given t

You sound a bit too critical to me. It's a nice incentive for small developers and I can't see how this could be regarded as a waste of taxpayer money, given the small scale of it. It's similar to temporary funding for lyricists or artists, by far not enough to live by, but not bad as an additional incentive or 'token of appreciation'. In comparison to investment funding, 1.2 million for various OSS projects is nothing. So why not just create another project of passion (I agree with you on that), and get a few extra bucks from the government for it? I wish I could participate, but as a German living abroad I can't.