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Ardour and JACK are fantastic pieces of software, and the love children of core developer Paul Davis, and many contributors. Paul is trying to make a full-time

Ardour and JACK are fantastic pieces of software, and the love children of core developer Paul Davis, and many contributors. Paul is trying to make a full-time living with it, but funding is still far away from even modest objectives (he blogged about it, see [1]). The donation sidebar currently says: - August goal: US$6200 (US$74.4k/yr) - Total till now: US$2923.52 If you're into Linux/OSX audio (and now Windows, with Ardour 5!) and can afford it, I encourage you to donate :) . See the "Ardour Finance" sidebar of the linked post. [1] https://community.ardour.org/node/8288 https://community.ardour.org/node/8288

K_REY_C 10y ago
I've purchased in the past just to support (and to keep going the illusion that I'll create some audio for /me/ in the future).
spriggan3 10y ago
That's not that much money, they need grants from OSS foundations, OSS like that need to get better at funding. How many millions the Mozilla foundation gave away this year ? and to only what, 8 projects ? The Gnome foundation could also help , instead of the financing dubious programs I won't name. But I guess it's better to waste money on hype rather than supporting well established projects.
- ronjouch 10y ago
  Agreed, qualifying 75 k$/yr in the US as "not much money" is hyperbole for a developer with 20 years experience of multithreaded multiplatform C++. As to funding from big OSS players, the problem is that Ardour is niche software, far away from the interests of those big OSS players. Regarding your examples, - Mozilla has interest and invests into web/infrastructure tech (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11956234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11956234 ), Ardour doesn't fit in here. - GNOME... can you name these dubious programs you are referring to? To my eyes, GNOME just tries to survive with limited funding.
  - ashitlerferad 10y ago
    The GNOME program aims at getting more people involved in OSS projects: https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/ https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/ Personally, I think it is awesome and appreciate the great contributors I've seen come in through the program.
    - wtbob 10y ago
      > Currently, internships are open internationally to women (cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people. Additionally, they are open to residents and nationals of the United States of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latin@, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. It's have been quicker to write, 'internships are open to everyone but white, heterosexual men,' but that would have been too honest. How utterly despicable. Perhaps Paul Davis could apply, and claim to be Pauline Davis for internship purposes.
      - ronjouch 10y ago
        > "It's have been quicker to write, 'internships are open to everyone but white, heterosexual men,' but that would have been too honest." Agreed. But I don't think it's despicable. Our field needs diversity, and in a dominated ecosystem you don't get diversity by just letting natural forces do their job, because the ecosystem is already dominated/biased. So to my eyes we need biased, opposed initiatives like this one, or PyLadies. Does it remove available funding for Paul? (In other words, are the total available OSS funds the result of a zero-sum game)? I don't think so: some support the goals of Outreachy and contribute to it, some like Mozilla just contribute to what's in their field. These programs are about OSS fundings but I wouldn't categorize them as part of the same set.
        ashark 10y ago
        > But I don't think it's despicable. Our field needs diversity, and in a dominated ecosystem you don't get diversity by just letting natural forces do their job, because the ecosystem is already dominated/biased. Serious question: was this kind of stuff necessary for the huge increases over the decades in the percentage of lawyers and doctors who are women? If not, then it seems it's possible (if not necessarily desirable) to let "natural" forces do their work for achieving gender balance, and least for careers requiring well-educated individuals that provide high compensation and confer high status (those are both higher status than developers in most circles, by far). But maybe there were lots of women-only medical conferences or something at some point. Maybe there still are, I really don't know. (I did a quick DDG search for this issue in law and medicine, but turned up nothing relevant aside from graphs demonstrating the shift)
pjmlp 10y ago
That is the biggest problem with FOSS for desktop use, you cannot hide it behind paywalls or consulting gigs, which makes very hard to make a living out of it. I always try to donate to the projects I use frequently, as if I just had bought a software package.

K_REY_C 10y ago

I've purchased in the past just to support (and to keep going the illusion that I'll create some audio for /me/ in the future).

spriggan3 10y ago

That's not that much money, they need grants from OSS foundations, OSS like that need to get better at funding. How many millions the Mozilla foundation gave away this year ? and to only what, 8 projects ? The Gnome foundation could also help , instead of the financing dubious programs I won't name. But I guess it's better to waste money on hype rather than supporting well established projects.

ronjouch 10y ago
Agreed, qualifying 75 k$/yr in the US as "not much money" is hyperbole for a developer with 20 years experience of multithreaded multiplatform C++. As to funding from big OSS players, the problem is that Ardour is niche software, far away from the interests of those big OSS players. Regarding your examples, - Mozilla has interest and invests into web/infrastructure tech (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11956234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11956234 ), Ardour doesn't fit in here. - GNOME... can you name these dubious programs you are referring to? To my eyes, GNOME just tries to survive with limited funding.
- ashitlerferad 10y ago
  The GNOME program aims at getting more people involved in OSS projects: https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/ https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/ Personally, I think it is awesome and appreciate the great contributors I've seen come in through the program.
  - wtbob 10y ago
    > Currently, internships are open internationally to women (cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people. Additionally, they are open to residents and nationals of the United States of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latin@, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. It's have been quicker to write, 'internships are open to everyone but white, heterosexual men,' but that would have been too honest. How utterly despicable. Perhaps Paul Davis could apply, and claim to be Pauline Davis for internship purposes.
    - ronjouch 10y ago
      > "It's have been quicker to write, 'internships are open to everyone but white, heterosexual men,' but that would have been too honest." Agreed. But I don't think it's despicable. Our field needs diversity, and in a dominated ecosystem you don't get diversity by just letting natural forces do their job, because the ecosystem is already dominated/biased. So to my eyes we need biased, opposed initiatives like this one, or PyLadies. Does it remove available funding for Paul? (In other words, are the total available OSS funds the result of a zero-sum game)? I don't think so: some support the goals of Outreachy and contribute to it, some like Mozilla just contribute to what's in their field. These programs are about OSS fundings but I wouldn't categorize them as part of the same set.
      - ashark 10y ago
        > But I don't think it's despicable. Our field needs diversity, and in a dominated ecosystem you don't get diversity by just letting natural forces do their job, because the ecosystem is already dominated/biased. Serious question: was this kind of stuff necessary for the huge increases over the decades in the percentage of lawyers and doctors who are women? If not, then it seems it's possible (if not necessarily desirable) to let "natural" forces do their work for achieving gender balance, and least for careers requiring well-educated individuals that provide high compensation and confer high status (those are both higher status than developers in most circles, by far). But maybe there were lots of women-only medical conferences or something at some point. Maybe there still are, I really don't know. (I did a quick DDG search for this issue in law and medicine, but turned up nothing relevant aside from graphs demonstrating the shift)

pjmlp 10y ago

That is the biggest problem with FOSS for desktop use, you cannot hide it behind paywalls or consulting gigs, which makes very hard to make a living out of it. I always try to donate to the projects I use frequently, as if I just had bought a software package.