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curl receives $10K USD donation
- judge2020 7y agoCrazy to think that curl is in nearly every piece of tech sold today[0], and is used in a large amount of the software on those tech products, yet $10k is the biggest donation it's received. 0: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/09/17/the-worlds-biggest-curl-installations/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/09/17/the-worlds-biggest-cu...
- 1over137 7y agoHow is it 'crazy to think'? To me it seems entirely expected that many are happy to leech off free work. Unfortunate, but expected.
- criley2 7y ago>free work >leech Pick one.
- coldtea 7y agoFree just means "given away without demanding money". Demanding (or asking) and needing/appreciating are two different things. So "given away without demanding money" does not necessarily imply "and it's a decent behaviour to leverage that free source, make millions off of it, and never give anything back". It only implies that it's perfectly legal.
- criley2 7y agoFree means "without cost or payment", so turning around and suggesting that someone who rightfully uses a software provided under a "without payment" model is actually "leeching" because they do not offer payment just cannot logically follow. Leeches take what is not theirs to take, that's the whole point. When you follow all the rules, you're not a leech, you're a user. If curl does not want users to have access to their software for free, then change the model. It's not even shareware or nagware or anything. It's just free. But to insult users who follow the rules is ridiculous.
- dr_kiszonka 7y agoI agree with your points. Maybe a better word for a "leech" would be a "freeloader?" I agree that if projects such as curl wanted payments, they would use different licenses. However, to me at least, it feels wrong when successful companies, e.g., BAT FAANG, use free software without giving anything back.
- jjeaff 7y agoIf you compare it to other free things, it does seem odd. For example, kids are making a small living, sometimes a small fortune, playing video games live online with much fewer viewers/users than many open source projects like curl.
- microcolonel 7y agoWhatever I've made public, I don't set any expectations for it that would allow me to be let down. It'd be great if it helped me directly in the long run, but I don't expect it to come back.
- amelius 7y agoI suppose open source projects could change their license such that big FAANG companies have to pay for their use, and individuals and small business could still use them for free. I see no downsides: if my company ever grew to FAANG proportions, I'd be happy to pay a few million dollars (then pocket change) to open source projects I used.
- wenc 7y agoNot sure if it's unexpected because there's no expectation of a donation (at least not a widely known one). I use wc but I don't donate to GNU/FSF (I'm sure some people do but almost no one I know does). (just using `wc` as an example -- I'm well aware that `curl`'s utility is much greater. I use curl once in a while.)
- chillee 7y agoI think it's more related to how "normalized" it is. You don't really view wc as solving a problem you had - you view it as something that's always been there. It's worked for decades, and will likely continue to work for decades. People are only likely to donate to something that's solving a problem they care about.
- Operyl 7y agoI enjoyed this blog post from Daniel too: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2019/04/29/what-is-the-incentive-for-curl-to-release-the-library-for-free/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2019/04/29/what-is-the-incentive...
- tyingq 7y agoHe does mention sponsors that contribute (though amounts aren't shown) outside this program. https://curl.haxx.se/sponsors.html https://curl.haxx.se/sponsors.html
- microcolonel 7y agoThank you, Indeed. It's easy to get bogged down and do nothing but cynically watch assets at the core of your business fail in slow motion, because they're in the commons; so acting anyway is laudable.
- tyingq 7y agoSomewhat off topic, but it's very odd that the US won't let him visit, and the reasons aren't clear. https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/07/28/administrative-purgatory/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/07/28/administrative-purgat...
- alias_neo 7y agoThere is no indication in that post, that he was denied entry, simply that he was denied ESTA. Some countries nationals are allowed travel by ESTA (such as mine, the UK) but certain conditions preclude it, so you apply for a visa, which is what he is in the process of doing during that post.
- Liquid_Fire 7y agoNot in that post, but there is another post from a year later saying his visa application still hasn't been processed, and even a page to track how long it has been which is approaching the 2 year mark: https://daniel.haxx.se/us-visa.html https://daniel.haxx.se/us-visa.html
- alias_neo 7y agoThat is, I'd say, an unreasonably long time.
- fluffything 7y agoThey also spoke at a lot of conferences in 2019, and are going to speak at a lot as well in 2020. None of those conferences are in the US, and they are only attending Mozilla all-hands outside the US, so...
- fluffything 7y agoThey should just update the curl license for all newer versions going forward to require any US based company to pay 1 million dollars to his account per binary distribution of curl. The "What could possibly go wrong?" list would be quite long, but not being able to travel to the US is probably costing them money.
- alias_neo 7y agoInteresting footnote at the asterisk, that the Linux Foundation "didn't bother to respond". I thought of all entities, LF would appreciate something like curl.
- caseysoftware 7y agoThe LF hasn't been about tools and software for quite a while. It's disappointing. I wish they'd change the name at this point. At least it would be honest. > 100% of donations received go towards funding diversity programs. Ref: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/donate/ https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/donate/
- alias_neo 7y agoThat's a real shame because other than the note at the bottom, it doesn't really make clear where donations are going. I'd honestly admit that my belief was different to reality, and I'm not entirely certain what "funding diversity programs" means in this context.
- dankohn1 7y agoI work with the LF and have now followed up with Daniel about partnering with us. Diversity efforts refer to scholarships at LF-organized events such as https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/attend/diversity-scholarships/ https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-eu....
- caseysoftware 7y agoAre diversity scholarship applicants to KubeCon generally Kubernetes contributors?
- dankohn1 7y agoNot necessarily. Here are some of the past ones: https://www.google.com/search?q=Diversity+Scholarship+Series+site%3Acncf.io https://www.google.com/search?q=Diversity+Scholarship+Series...
- Havoc 7y agoGood for them I wonder why there aren't more shotgun style donations for these small ulities. Ie say 100k split over 100 most popular ulitities for security bounties etc That would probably make a tangible impact on overall Internet security
- caseysoftware 7y agoThe author is Daniel Stenberg, the lead developer of curl. A few months ago, I caught an amazing keynote where he walked through some of the crazy things you can do with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mxq013Dy4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mxq013Dy4 If you use curl, consider contributing via their Open Collective page: https://opencollective.com/curl https://opencollective.com/curl Even if your employer doesn't have an "open source fund," many companies allow you to expense < $50/month with minimal approval.