19 ms·

The FreeBSD Foundation falls short of its 2012 fundraising goal by 50%

186 points by profquail 14y ago

jloughry 14y ago
I had no idea they needed money until I saw this here. I went straight there and gave them some.
dazzawazza 14y ago
That's odd. I usually receive a donation letter about this time of the year. Anyway, chipped in. I couldn't get anywhere without FreeBSD running my servers.
- profquail 14y ago
  Thank you for donating! EDIT: The fundraiser letter is on the website, if you still want to read it: http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/announcements.shtml#fundraising http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/announcements.shtml#fundrai...
jbverschoor 14y ago
So where's Apple in this story?
- gecko 14y ago
  I think theres a misconception that OS X is in a huge debt to FreeBSD, or even runs it at its core. Apple runs a custom kernel, no relation to FreeBSD, with a mixture of *BSD user land tools--more NetBSD than FreeBSD the last time I looked, but certainly both. That's not nothing, but also not a situation where I'd expect Apple to be donating much.
  - profquail 14y ago
    Apple has a developer page that lists exactly which parts of FreeBSD they've used, and which parts of OS X are different (mainly, the parts of Mach they added to the FreeBSD kernel): https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/BSD/BSD.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000905-CH214-TPXREF101 https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwi... Some of the Apple additions/inventions are also merged into FreeBSD proper: http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/16/freebsd_adds_support_for_snow_leopards_grand_central_dispatch.html http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/16/freebsd_adds_suppo...
    - TallGuyShort 14y ago
      As some anecdotal evidence here - I used to run FreeBSD on my laptop, and when I would connect to wireless access points of use vulnerability scanning software (as a student) - I would often be identified as running OS X.
  - RaSoJo 14y ago
    But there are many other "Big Corps" specified on the FreeBSD portal. Aren't they obligated in some form or the other to be funding FreeBSD? 500k appears to be quite a nominal amount when you put all these "Big Corp" names together. Or is this fund raising set apart from what the "Big Corps" pay? Not sure how this works...
    - profquail 14y ago
      The 'Donors' page on the FreeBSD Foundation website shows both corporate and individual sponsors (and roughly, the amount donated): http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml Sadly, the number of corporate ($$$) donors has dropped off in the last couple of years...
      - dewarrn1 14y ago
        Netflix is conspicuously absent, for one. https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/software https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/software
      - cpeterso 14y ago
        I see Google on the list of corporate sponsors. Do any Google services use FreeBSD?
        gillianseed 14y ago
        Given how large Google is I'm certain they use FreeBSD in some form somewhere. Still it's kind of fun seeing Google who is predominantly Linux-based as a major sponsor and not Apple which likely ship code from the FreeBSD project in every device they sell. Also nice seeing Juniper contributing back but I can't see anything from Cisco...
      - emaste 14y ago
        A number of donations typically come in late in the year - it's really not possible to draw year-over-year conclusions until the year's over.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - yxhuvud 14y ago
    Isn't it also the case that while they may not have donated cash they have certainly donated code. At least in some instances. Clang comes to mind.
    - gillianseed 14y ago
      Well while Clang is open source and permissively licenced it's not exactly as it's a code donation aimed at FreeBSD. Apple needed a compiler frontend/backend as they were stuck with a very old GCC 4.2.1 due to them not accepting GPLv3, thus they hired Chris Lattner of LLVM fame and started working on Clang (which turned out great, now we have two excellent open source toolchains competing which benefits all end users). Likely FreeBSD is very thankful for the existance of a first-class non-GPL compiler frontend/backend toolchain like Clang/LLVM as it is in line with their licence philosophy, but that won't help if they can't generate enough funds to keep the project going. Having Apple contributing some money back (it's not as if they are strapped for cash) to the project from where they lifted a good chunk of code would not seem out of place. OT: yxhuvud, är du också svensk?
      - yxhuvud 14y ago
        I totally agree that it would reflect very nice on them if they sponsored the different BSD projects a bit. I was just pointing out that Clang redeems a whole lot nonsupport badwill. OT: Japp.
- recoiledsnake 14y ago
  I think the philosophy behind the BSD license is to write great code and to maximize it's usage across the world without expecting anything in return. This is especially good for standardization of things, like the TCP implementation that even Windows used. So, I guess the developers must be happy at it being widely used in the form of iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, even if BSD doesn't see a dime of the $100B+ in cash and billions more every quarter that Apple made leveraging it.
  - danieldk 14y ago
    So, I guess the developers must be happy at it being widely used in the form of iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, even if BSD doesn't see a dime of the $100B+ in cash and billions more every quarter that Apple made leveraging it. I would be sad, since even 0.01% of that is $10M, which would amount to 20 such FreeBSD fundraisers. Of course, the BSD license allows you to take code an run with it, but it would still be very nice if Apple donated at least some amount that is absolutely insignificant to them. Judging from [1], they don't even donate a penny. Of course, in the past they used to donate code. [1] http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml
    - riffraff 14y ago
      arguably, apple just provided the future default C/C++ compiler (clang) with a BSD license that the BSD folks wanted for years.
  - sagarun 14y ago
    JFYI, Yahoo! sponsors most of the freebsd.org and other infrastructure related to freebsd.
coned88 14y ago
If 2012 is not done yet then how can we say it was missed?
Evbn 14y ago
Is there a website that consolidates data on tech nonprofit finances? Like givewell or whatever with a tech filter?
kstenerud 14y ago
I didn't even know they were fundraising. Added my donation. Edit: Not sure if you're aware, but the paypal donation mechanism is triggering your spam detection: This is an automated message. The message you sent (attached below) requires confirmation before it can be delivered. To confirm that you sent the message below, just hit the "R"eply button and send this message back (you don't need to edit anything). Once this is done, no more confirmations will be necessary. This email account is protected by: Active Spam Killer (ASK) V2.4.1 - (C) 2001-2002 by Marco Paganini For more information visit http://a-s-k.sourceforge.net/ http://a-s-k.sourceforge.net/ Also, it's encoding non-alphanumerics within the ASCII range in the forwarded message from Paypal. For example, "$" is being encoded as "=24", which makes it look like Paypal took two orders of magnitude more money than donated.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- profquail 14y ago
  Thank you for donating! I'm not affiliated with the FreeBSD Foundation, but I created a thread on the FreeBSD forums about the spam detection issue so hopefully the message will make its way to someone who can look into it: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=200149 http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=200149
  - eadler 14y ago
    The problem was that paypal payments come in "from" the donor rather than paypal, and paypal was exempted but not all e-mails that were from paypal but listed as from the donor. This has now been solved.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Why are they using still Challenge Response?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
diminish 14y ago
Do we really need FreeBSD anymore when we already have Linux? I am genuinely curious from a technical point of view what important differentiators there are in FreeBSD,i m not interested in license or philosophy differences.
- pestaa 14y ago
  We need FreeBSD the most because of both license and philosophy points of view, and Linux has still a lot to learn from the BSDs from a technical perspective, too. The only thing that keeps me using Linux is that nowadays a significant portion of self-proclaimed Unix software is in fact mostly Linux software with absolutely no interest being compatible with other Unix systems. And let me add that the community around BSDs are far far greater than any of the Linux ones I've come across.
- killahpriest 14y ago
  Why the downvotes? The dude is genuinely curious.
  - beagle3 14y ago
    I guess a) because he disqualifies the license as a reason, even though it is actually the reason GNU came to be, without which what most people call "Linux", that is - GNU/Linux would have had little to stand on. So license on its own is an interesting enough reason. b) because one second of googling would have shown that FreeBSD has numerous technical (his criterion) things that Linux does not yet at a comparable level, including (from the top of my head) ZFS, jails, dtrace. d) because there are also things which are not license or technical details which matter (project management style, for example) Comments like the GP can alternatively be phrased: "I'm a bigot about reasons things happen in the real world, and also I'm too lazy to look up if what I believe is actually true. Lazyweb, prove me wrong", and it would get about as many downvotes.
    - brass9 14y ago
      2 of the advantages you've mentioned (zfs,dtrace) are actually gifts from Sun Solaris. IIRC, linux had lost out on these gems due to licensing issues. Oracle seemed quite keen on developing the zfs-clone btrfs - but after they had gobbled up sun, interest in btrfs seemed to have waned.
sabat 14y ago
Just waiting for the first person to announce that *BSD is dying, a la the ol' Slashdot trolls.
- rsync 14y ago
  Well, here you go. We (rsync.net) are based entirely on the FreeBSD platform, and have been since we first offered offsite backup in 2001. Our principals have been server and desktop users since 1998. Further, we built JohnCompanies (the first VPS provider)[1] entirely on FreeBSD and jail. So with that disclaimer, we are compelled to point out that the high water mark of FreeBSD ... coherency ? completeness ? stability ? ... was 4.11 in 2005. John Kozubik posted this long and detailed rundown of the situation in January of 2012: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037294.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037331.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... and there was much agreement and nodding of heads. $50k over five years was committed by Kozubik to support a new development trajectory: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037369.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... There is a good litmus test going forward. If you see 8.4-RELEASE, and see 8.x supported as "production" and not "legacy" well into the 9.x lifecycle, things are getting better. If you see 10.2 and 11.0 and so on before you see 8.4 or 8.5 then FreeBSD is just a research project. [1] Yes, Verio was doing that weird virtualization thing with their e10ks (or whatever it was), but in October of 2001 we were the first to make available what anyone today would recognize as a "VPS".
  - diminish 14y ago
    Interesting to hear that rsync.net is based on FreeBSD. Just from curiosity, why don't you use a linux distro? What benefits does FreeBSD offer for you compared to Linux distros. What disadvantages would you count. (I mean if you ever had a chance to make a comparison).
    - rsync 14y ago
      Our current answer is that our platform is ZFS based, and given the muddy waters with Oracle and Solaris and so on, it's more responsible to deploy ZFS on FreeBSD. But JUST BARELY. We've had our ZFS roadmap in place since 2009, and only just finally deployed in 2012. Our intention originally was to switch to Solaris, with real support contracts and contractual commitments and so on, but then Oracle came along. So then we had to come back to where we've been all along, since the beginning of JohnCompanies[1] - with FreeBSD. [1] JC deployed with FreeBSD since the first VPS product rollout was based on jail, so that was that.
darkandbrooding 14y ago
I set up a monthly donation. I think the foundation would benefit from more marketing. Similar to other commenters, I wasn't even aware of the foundation prior to this HN post. Now that I know what to look for, the "Foundation" link on the freebsd.org home page is obvious, but I'd never actually noticed it before.
Nux 14y ago
Just donated. I feel the FreeBSD foundation could have made a bit more noise about this; I almost completely missed it ...
strongriley 14y ago
If they want to hit their goal, they should really hire Jimmy Wales to send uncomfortable pictures of himself staring you down. Worked great for Wikipedia...
jedberg 14y ago
Just donated! Didn't realize there was a donation drive going on. I'm a huge fan of BSD and would love to see it on EC2. :)
- cperciva 14y ago
  Uhh... FreeBSD is on EC2...
  - jedberg 14y ago
    Let me rephrase. I'd like to see it as a first class citizen along with Linux and windows.
    - cperciva 14y ago
      We're working on it, and progress is being made - FreeBSD is in the AWS Marketplace as of a few weeks ago, for example. Unfortunately I can't talk about things Amazon is doing to help with this, but I have seen ample evidence of Amazon's interest in and effort towards making this work.
hapless 14y ago
It is only the 9th. Look at the marks of this year against prior years: December 09, 2012: $260k ($500k goal) December 14, 2011: $210k ($400k goal) December 16, 2010: $210k ($350k goal) Early Dec, 2010: $195k ($350k goal) December 26, 2009: $250k ($300k goal) It looks like the last weeks of December are a big time for donations, and they're seeing an early surge relative to prior years. It surprises me that FreeBSD is even this well-funded. Who still uses it?
- flxmglrb 14y ago
  > Who still uses it? I dunno, everyone in the world running Mac OS X?
  - koko775 14y ago
    OS X has a BSD subsystem, but is based on the XNU kernel (Darwin). It's not FreeBSD in any realistic sense.
    - profquail 14y ago
      OS X does have it's own kernel (Darwin), but a number of it's subsystems were directly derived from FreeBSD. Apple's developer site has a page listing the pieces of FreeBSD which were incorporated into OS X: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/BSD/BSD.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000905-CH214-TPXREF101 https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwi...
    - huxley 14y ago
      The NeXT and Rhapsody kernels used NetBSD as the basis for their BSD subsystem, OS X used FreeBSD as the basis for its BSD subsystem. You are technically correct that it isn't FreeBSD but, for most intents and purposes, Mac OS X re-uses many parts of FreeBSD.
      - snogglethorpe 14y ago
        > The NeXT and Rhapsody kernels used NetBSD as the basis for their BSD subsystem NeXT started in the mid-80s (I first used a NeXT cube in 1988), and ceased to exist in 1996. NetBSD didn't exist until 1993... [My impression is that NeXT for a long time used the same "non-server" version of Mach that was generally used at CMU at the time (BSD code originally derived from 4.3BSD still in the actual kernel, not as a separate subsystem).]
systems 14y ago
paypal removed egypt ages ago and never add it back, cant seem to able to donate
- profquail 14y ago
  Can you donate through Network for Good? It's the preferred donation method anyway (Paypal is the backup): https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=5785 https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscri...
pebb 14y ago
Maybe it's time to charge for FreeBSD for commercial use.
soapdog 14y ago
Just donated 50 bucks! FreeBSD rocks!
giis 14y ago
Very surprised to see donors list -Netapp is there but not EMC!!! http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml
emaste 14y ago
A couple of more recent posts on the state of the fundraising campaign: "FreeBSD end-of-year fund raiser on target" http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/FreeBSD-end-of-year-fund-raiser-on-target-1766330.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/FreeBSD-end-of-year-f... "FreeBSD veteran confident of reaching fund-raising goal" http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/57855-freebsd-veteran-confident-of-reaching-fund-raising-goal http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/57855-fre...

186 points by profquail 14y ago

I had no idea they needed money until I saw this here. I went straight there and gave them some.

That's odd. I usually receive a donation letter about this time of the year. Anyway, chipped in. I couldn't get anywhere without FreeBSD running my servers.

profquail 14y ago
Thank you for donating! EDIT: The fundraiser letter is on the website, if you still want to read it: http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/announcements.shtml#fundraising http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/announcements.shtml#fundrai...

jbverschoor 14y ago

So where's Apple in this story?

gecko 14y ago
I think theres a misconception that OS X is in a huge debt to FreeBSD, or even runs it at its core. Apple runs a custom kernel, no relation to FreeBSD, with a mixture of *BSD user land tools--more NetBSD than FreeBSD the last time I looked, but certainly both. That's not nothing, but also not a situation where I'd expect Apple to be donating much.
- profquail 14y ago
  Apple has a developer page that lists exactly which parts of FreeBSD they've used, and which parts of OS X are different (mainly, the parts of Mach they added to the FreeBSD kernel): https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/BSD/BSD.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000905-CH214-TPXREF101 https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwi... Some of the Apple additions/inventions are also merged into FreeBSD proper: http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/16/freebsd_adds_support_for_snow_leopards_grand_central_dispatch.html http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/16/freebsd_adds_suppo...
  - TallGuyShort 14y ago
    As some anecdotal evidence here - I used to run FreeBSD on my laptop, and when I would connect to wireless access points of use vulnerability scanning software (as a student) - I would often be identified as running OS X.
- RaSoJo 14y ago
  But there are many other "Big Corps" specified on the FreeBSD portal. Aren't they obligated in some form or the other to be funding FreeBSD? 500k appears to be quite a nominal amount when you put all these "Big Corp" names together. Or is this fund raising set apart from what the "Big Corps" pay? Not sure how this works...
  - profquail 14y ago
    The 'Donors' page on the FreeBSD Foundation website shows both corporate and individual sponsors (and roughly, the amount donated): http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml Sadly, the number of corporate ($$$) donors has dropped off in the last couple of years...
    - dewarrn1 14y ago
      Netflix is conspicuously absent, for one. https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/software https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect/software
    - cpeterso 14y ago
      I see Google on the list of corporate sponsors. Do any Google services use FreeBSD?
      - gillianseed 14y ago
        Given how large Google is I'm certain they use FreeBSD in some form somewhere. Still it's kind of fun seeing Google who is predominantly Linux-based as a major sponsor and not Apple which likely ship code from the FreeBSD project in every device they sell. Also nice seeing Juniper contributing back but I can't see anything from Cisco...
    - emaste 14y ago
      A number of donations typically come in late in the year - it's really not possible to draw year-over-year conclusions until the year's over.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- yxhuvud 14y ago
  Isn't it also the case that while they may not have donated cash they have certainly donated code. At least in some instances. Clang comes to mind.
  - gillianseed 14y ago
    Well while Clang is open source and permissively licenced it's not exactly as it's a code donation aimed at FreeBSD. Apple needed a compiler frontend/backend as they were stuck with a very old GCC 4.2.1 due to them not accepting GPLv3, thus they hired Chris Lattner of LLVM fame and started working on Clang (which turned out great, now we have two excellent open source toolchains competing which benefits all end users). Likely FreeBSD is very thankful for the existance of a first-class non-GPL compiler frontend/backend toolchain like Clang/LLVM as it is in line with their licence philosophy, but that won't help if they can't generate enough funds to keep the project going. Having Apple contributing some money back (it's not as if they are strapped for cash) to the project from where they lifted a good chunk of code would not seem out of place. OT: yxhuvud, är du också svensk?
    - yxhuvud 14y ago
      I totally agree that it would reflect very nice on them if they sponsored the different BSD projects a bit. I was just pointing out that Clang redeems a whole lot nonsupport badwill. OT: Japp.
recoiledsnake 14y ago
I think the philosophy behind the BSD license is to write great code and to maximize it's usage across the world without expecting anything in return. This is especially good for standardization of things, like the TCP implementation that even Windows used. So, I guess the developers must be happy at it being widely used in the form of iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, even if BSD doesn't see a dime of the $100B+ in cash and billions more every quarter that Apple made leveraging it.
- danieldk 14y ago
  So, I guess the developers must be happy at it being widely used in the form of iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, even if BSD doesn't see a dime of the $100B+ in cash and billions more every quarter that Apple made leveraging it. I would be sad, since even 0.01% of that is $10M, which would amount to 20 such FreeBSD fundraisers. Of course, the BSD license allows you to take code an run with it, but it would still be very nice if Apple donated at least some amount that is absolutely insignificant to them. Judging from [1], they don't even donate a penny. Of course, in the past they used to donate code. [1] http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml
  - riffraff 14y ago
    arguably, apple just provided the future default C/C++ compiler (clang) with a BSD license that the BSD folks wanted for years.
- sagarun 14y ago
  JFYI, Yahoo! sponsors most of the freebsd.org and other infrastructure related to freebsd.

coned88 14y ago

If 2012 is not done yet then how can we say it was missed?

Evbn 14y ago

Is there a website that consolidates data on tech nonprofit finances? Like givewell or whatever with a tech filter?

kstenerud 14y ago

I didn't even know they were fundraising. Added my donation. Edit: Not sure if you're aware, but the paypal donation mechanism is triggering your spam detection: This is an automated message. The message you sent (attached below) requires confirmation before it can be delivered. To confirm that you sent the message below, just hit the "R"eply button and send this message back (you don't need to edit anything). Once this is done, no more confirmations will be necessary. This email account is protected by: Active Spam Killer (ASK) V2.4.1 - (C) 2001-2002 by Marco Paganini For more information visit http://a-s-k.sourceforge.net/ http://a-s-k.sourceforge.net/ Also, it's encoding non-alphanumerics within the ASCII range in the forwarded message from Paypal. For example, "$" is being encoded as "=24", which makes it look like Paypal took two orders of magnitude more money than donated.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
profquail 14y ago
Thank you for donating! I'm not affiliated with the FreeBSD Foundation, but I created a thread on the FreeBSD forums about the spam detection issue so hopefully the message will make its way to someone who can look into it: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=200149 http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=200149
- eadler 14y ago
  The problem was that paypal payments come in "from" the donor rather than paypal, and paypal was exempted but not all e-mails that were from paypal but listed as from the donor. This has now been solved.
DanBC 14y ago
Why are they using still Challenge Response?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

diminish 14y ago

Do we really need FreeBSD anymore when we already have Linux? I am genuinely curious from a technical point of view what important differentiators there are in FreeBSD,i m not interested in license or philosophy differences.

pestaa 14y ago
We need FreeBSD the most because of both license and philosophy points of view, and Linux has still a lot to learn from the BSDs from a technical perspective, too. The only thing that keeps me using Linux is that nowadays a significant portion of self-proclaimed Unix software is in fact mostly Linux software with absolutely no interest being compatible with other Unix systems. And let me add that the community around BSDs are far far greater than any of the Linux ones I've come across.
killahpriest 14y ago
Why the downvotes? The dude is genuinely curious.
- beagle3 14y ago
  I guess a) because he disqualifies the license as a reason, even though it is actually the reason GNU came to be, without which what most people call "Linux", that is - GNU/Linux would have had little to stand on. So license on its own is an interesting enough reason. b) because one second of googling would have shown that FreeBSD has numerous technical (his criterion) things that Linux does not yet at a comparable level, including (from the top of my head) ZFS, jails, dtrace. d) because there are also things which are not license or technical details which matter (project management style, for example) Comments like the GP can alternatively be phrased: "I'm a bigot about reasons things happen in the real world, and also I'm too lazy to look up if what I believe is actually true. Lazyweb, prove me wrong", and it would get about as many downvotes.
  - brass9 14y ago
    2 of the advantages you've mentioned (zfs,dtrace) are actually gifts from Sun Solaris. IIRC, linux had lost out on these gems due to licensing issues. Oracle seemed quite keen on developing the zfs-clone btrfs - but after they had gobbled up sun, interest in btrfs seemed to have waned.

sabat 14y ago

Just waiting for the first person to announce that *BSD is dying, a la the ol' Slashdot trolls.

rsync 14y ago
Well, here you go. We (rsync.net) are based entirely on the FreeBSD platform, and have been since we first offered offsite backup in 2001. Our principals have been server and desktop users since 1998. Further, we built JohnCompanies (the first VPS provider)[1] entirely on FreeBSD and jail. So with that disclaimer, we are compelled to point out that the high water mark of FreeBSD ... coherency ? completeness ? stability ? ... was 4.11 in 2005. John Kozubik posted this long and detailed rundown of the situation in January of 2012: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037294.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037331.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... and there was much agreement and nodding of heads. $50k over five years was committed by Kozubik to support a new development trajectory: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-January/037369.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu... There is a good litmus test going forward. If you see 8.4-RELEASE, and see 8.x supported as "production" and not "legacy" well into the 9.x lifecycle, things are getting better. If you see 10.2 and 11.0 and so on before you see 8.4 or 8.5 then FreeBSD is just a research project. [1] Yes, Verio was doing that weird virtualization thing with their e10ks (or whatever it was), but in October of 2001 we were the first to make available what anyone today would recognize as a "VPS".
- diminish 14y ago
  Interesting to hear that rsync.net is based on FreeBSD. Just from curiosity, why don't you use a linux distro? What benefits does FreeBSD offer for you compared to Linux distros. What disadvantages would you count. (I mean if you ever had a chance to make a comparison).
  - rsync 14y ago
    Our current answer is that our platform is ZFS based, and given the muddy waters with Oracle and Solaris and so on, it's more responsible to deploy ZFS on FreeBSD. But JUST BARELY. We've had our ZFS roadmap in place since 2009, and only just finally deployed in 2012. Our intention originally was to switch to Solaris, with real support contracts and contractual commitments and so on, but then Oracle came along. So then we had to come back to where we've been all along, since the beginning of JohnCompanies[1] - with FreeBSD. [1] JC deployed with FreeBSD since the first VPS product rollout was based on jail, so that was that.

darkandbrooding 14y ago

I set up a monthly donation. I think the foundation would benefit from more marketing. Similar to other commenters, I wasn't even aware of the foundation prior to this HN post. Now that I know what to look for, the "Foundation" link on the freebsd.org home page is obvious, but I'd never actually noticed it before.

Nux 14y ago

Just donated. I feel the FreeBSD foundation could have made a bit more noise about this; I almost completely missed it ...

strongriley 14y ago

If they want to hit their goal, they should really hire Jimmy Wales to send uncomfortable pictures of himself staring you down. Worked great for Wikipedia...

jedberg 14y ago

Just donated! Didn't realize there was a donation drive going on. I'm a huge fan of BSD and would love to see it on EC2. :)

cperciva 14y ago
Uhh... FreeBSD is on EC2...
- jedberg 14y ago
  Let me rephrase. I'd like to see it as a first class citizen along with Linux and windows.
  - cperciva 14y ago
    We're working on it, and progress is being made - FreeBSD is in the AWS Marketplace as of a few weeks ago, for example. Unfortunately I can't talk about things Amazon is doing to help with this, but I have seen ample evidence of Amazon's interest in and effort towards making this work.

hapless 14y ago

It is only the 9th. Look at the marks of this year against prior years: December 09, 2012: $260k ($500k goal) December 14, 2011: $210k ($400k goal) December 16, 2010: $210k ($350k goal) Early Dec, 2010: $195k ($350k goal) December 26, 2009: $250k ($300k goal) It looks like the last weeks of December are a big time for donations, and they're seeing an early surge relative to prior years. It surprises me that FreeBSD is even this well-funded. Who still uses it?

flxmglrb 14y ago
> Who still uses it? I dunno, everyone in the world running Mac OS X?
- koko775 14y ago
  OS X has a BSD subsystem, but is based on the XNU kernel (Darwin). It's not FreeBSD in any realistic sense.
  - profquail 14y ago
    OS X does have it's own kernel (Darwin), but a number of it's subsystems were directly derived from FreeBSD. Apple's developer site has a page listing the pieces of FreeBSD which were incorporated into OS X: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/BSD/BSD.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000905-CH214-TPXREF101 https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwi...
  - huxley 14y ago
    The NeXT and Rhapsody kernels used NetBSD as the basis for their BSD subsystem, OS X used FreeBSD as the basis for its BSD subsystem. You are technically correct that it isn't FreeBSD but, for most intents and purposes, Mac OS X re-uses many parts of FreeBSD.
    - snogglethorpe 14y ago
      > The NeXT and Rhapsody kernels used NetBSD as the basis for their BSD subsystem NeXT started in the mid-80s (I first used a NeXT cube in 1988), and ceased to exist in 1996. NetBSD didn't exist until 1993... [My impression is that NeXT for a long time used the same "non-server" version of Mach that was generally used at CMU at the time (BSD code originally derived from 4.3BSD still in the actual kernel, not as a separate subsystem).]

systems 14y ago

paypal removed egypt ages ago and never add it back, cant seem to able to donate

profquail 14y ago
Can you donate through Network for Good? It's the preferred donation method anyway (Paypal is the backup): https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=5785 https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscri...

pebb 14y ago

Maybe it's time to charge for FreeBSD for commercial use.

soapdog 14y ago

Just donated 50 bucks! FreeBSD rocks!

giis 14y ago

Very surprised to see donors list -Netapp is there but not EMC!!! http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml

emaste 14y ago

A couple of more recent posts on the state of the fundraising campaign: "FreeBSD end-of-year fund raiser on target" http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/FreeBSD-end-of-year-fund-raiser-on-target-1766330.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/FreeBSD-end-of-year-f... "FreeBSD veteran confident of reaching fund-raising goal" http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/57855-freebsd-veteran-confident-of-reaching-fund-raising-goal http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/57855-fre...