6 ms·

OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

161 points by skreuzer 13y ago

skreuzer 13y ago
They have set a goal of raising $150,000 for 2014 so if you haven't already, please consider donating http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html
sharms 13y ago
I love to see that Google is on their top donors page every year, it shows their commitment to supporting open source and the tools they have used to build their business on. http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/contributors.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/contributors.html
- corin_ 13y ago
  Without putting motives into Google's metaphorical mouth - and because I'm sure your logic is likely correct - even if they didn't use these tools and didn't care about open source, the good will they get for being seen doing this would probably be worth the cost anyway if they pulled it from a marketing budget.
  - VMG 13y ago
    if every tech company did this the world would be a better place
  - nolok 13y ago
    And yet you don't find any of the other companies we associate with "tech giants" there, nor on Freebsd's donors page [1], whereas Google is there every year. So no, I really don't think it's that easy to dismiss it (even though that wasn't exactly what you were doing). [1] https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors (click 2013 or 2012)
protomyth 13y ago
"We would also like to thank the many smaller donors too numerous to list here for their contributons to the foundation." If you go to the openbsd.org page, it does list the people who have given directly. I would like to see the foundation continue this tradition[1]. It's good to give first credit to the big donors, but it is kind of sad not to give credit to those paying every month[2]. It made me feel pretty good to get my name on the openbsd site's page and did encourage me to donate more. 1) with the donor's permission 2) reminds me a bit of Revision3's t-shirts sent to donors, but only the lump sum people who actually gave less than the monthly donors
- Groxx 13y ago
  Hm. I just realized that, while systems like this often display monthly donators, I've never seen one that showed the total donated by a monthly donator. If you've stuck with a monthly donation to X for a couple years, you could easily be in the hundreds, usually reserved for a relative few. It seems like this could be a good reward/incentive for monthly donors (which are probably worth more than one-timers anyway).
  - vidarh 13y ago
    The (tiny) AROS Development Fund does that: http://www.power2people.org/funds/aros/ http://www.power2people.org/funds/aros/
  - ama729 13y ago
    The developers of Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 Games) do a financial/game report every month (though I'm unsure if you are not talking about disclosing what each monthly donor give): http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135038.0 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135038.0
stormqloud 13y ago
It's awesome people came out. I signed up for the monthly paypal deduction. Many a tech can expense a minor $10-$20 per month subscription for a important project like openbsd.
nctalaviya 13y ago
that's a good news
zobzu 13y ago
i like to donate as much as anybody but i'd like to see the exact way the money is spent when i do. Too bad most projects don't document that at all.
- korzun 13y ago
  I'm with you but at the same time, who cares? I feel like they already earned every penny, not to mention as long as the project is alive it's money well spent.
- yosm 13y ago
  I am not sure if this is what you want, but they describe how they spent in the past years here: http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html
vinhnx 13y ago
http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html The URL is mistyped, 2104 to 2014
nnq 13y ago
Great. ...if only people wouldn't have made such a fuss about a meagre $100.000 (yeah, it's a lot of money for me too, but these amazing guys are developing an OS, for god's sake, not crafting another "ubercool" webframework-of-the-month) and posted so many "i'd like to see the exact way the money is spent" comments everywhere (transparency is a lot of times the opposite of freedom, you know - once people have proved you they can deliver something great, as they have done in the past, stop incumbering them with extremely annoying requests for transparency!).
- bkor 13y ago
  I find it equally annoying to request for money, but not be transparent about it. Equally annoying is that when a request is made, you're considered an annoyance. Deliver an OS has no relation to financial capabilities.
  - mrweasel 13y ago
    What would you do with the information? I think the OpenBSD foundation is transparent enough with their "Activities" page (http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html). What level of details would you like in a finacial statement from the OpenBSD project? Keeping it pretty broad seems like the right solution. Given all the unsolicited "advice" they got just regarding their power bill, posting every expenditure would result in extreme amount of nitpicking of even the smallest items (perhaps especially the small expenses). To be honest, I doubt that most of those who "Require complete transparency!" would even donate if a complet finacial statement was made. Most would probably find some small detail that they don't like an use that as an excuse for not donating. If you're concerned that money won't be spend on the project, I don't see how any promises about transparency would change your mind.
    - ams6110 13y ago
      A standard "Statement of Activities" and "Financial Position" (the nonprofit equivalents of a Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet) would be nice. These don't include every expenditure in detail, just the totals in broad categories. Yes, even that might generate some debate but when you're asking for donations you should not be offended if your benefactors would like at least some high-level insight into how their donations are being used.
octotoad 13y ago
Awesome. If the $20,000 quote on electricity costs is accurate, hopefully this will last them another five years or so.
- tobiasu 13y ago
  OpenBSD has more expenses than just an electricity bill.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    But what are they?
    - notdang 13y ago
      http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html
wcchandler 13y ago
I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4. In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swag with the principal of ~90% of all proceeds given directly to the defined organization... I'm sure it's been tried, but how unsuccessful have they been?
- delinka 13y ago
  OpenBSD sells this stuff in online stores. But the marketing sucks. You have to find the sorta buried link named 'CDs/Tshirts/Posters' on the main page - no "shop" or "buy" or "order" nearby. Clicking that link gets you a page you have to read to figure out that you still need to pick a store. Then the US store only had the latest three versions on CD. I've got to find another store that'll ship to the US if I want a t-shirt. OpenBSD swag exists, but you've got to be a determined purchaser to buy it.
  - wcchandler 13y ago
    Yeah, I was able to find that, too. There wasn't an easy way to purchase things on most of those sites. It seemed like half didn't incorporate an online shopping cart/ecommerce solution at all, and would rather you contact them via email or phone to make a purchase. This seems really backwards. And while OpenBSD may list them as a preferred vendor (or whatever nomenclature they used) how can I be assured the bulk of the proceeds from that sale will go to OpenBSD? I didn't find much (if any) indication that any amount of money was given back...
- keithpeter 13y ago
  This was raised on the OpenBSD Misc mailing list. The response from OpenBSD team members was along the lines of: this stuff takes time/effort away from the development work. Recall that the original funding request was asking for a Canadian company to basically pay the electricity bill, i.e. one or a small number of large sponsors. Now: I'd like a laptop that will work with the *BSDs no fiddling. No blob wifi, no need for acpi daemons to control fans &c

161 points by skreuzer 13y ago

They have set a goal of raising $150,000 for 2014 so if you haven't already, please consider donating http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html

sharms 13y ago

I love to see that Google is on their top donors page every year, it shows their commitment to supporting open source and the tools they have used to build their business on. http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/contributors.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/contributors.html

corin_ 13y ago
Without putting motives into Google's metaphorical mouth - and because I'm sure your logic is likely correct - even if they didn't use these tools and didn't care about open source, the good will they get for being seen doing this would probably be worth the cost anyway if they pulled it from a marketing budget.
- VMG 13y ago
  if every tech company did this the world would be a better place
- nolok 13y ago
  And yet you don't find any of the other companies we associate with "tech giants" there, nor on Freebsd's donors page [1], whereas Google is there every year. So no, I really don't think it's that easy to dismiss it (even though that wasn't exactly what you were doing). [1] https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors (click 2013 or 2012)

protomyth 13y ago

"We would also like to thank the many smaller donors too numerous to list here for their contributons to the foundation." If you go to the openbsd.org page, it does list the people who have given directly. I would like to see the foundation continue this tradition[1]. It's good to give first credit to the big donors, but it is kind of sad not to give credit to those paying every month[2]. It made me feel pretty good to get my name on the openbsd site's page and did encourage me to donate more. 1) with the donor's permission 2) reminds me a bit of Revision3's t-shirts sent to donors, but only the lump sum people who actually gave less than the monthly donors

Groxx 13y ago
Hm. I just realized that, while systems like this often display monthly donators, I've never seen one that showed the total donated by a monthly donator. If you've stuck with a monthly donation to X for a couple years, you could easily be in the hundreds, usually reserved for a relative few. It seems like this could be a good reward/incentive for monthly donors (which are probably worth more than one-timers anyway).
- vidarh 13y ago
  The (tiny) AROS Development Fund does that: http://www.power2people.org/funds/aros/ http://www.power2people.org/funds/aros/
- ama729 13y ago
  The developers of Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 Games) do a financial/game report every month (though I'm unsure if you are not talking about disclosing what each monthly donor give): http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135038.0 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135038.0

stormqloud 13y ago

It's awesome people came out. I signed up for the monthly paypal deduction. Many a tech can expense a minor $10-$20 per month subscription for a important project like openbsd.

nctalaviya 13y ago

that's a good news

zobzu 13y ago

i like to donate as much as anybody but i'd like to see the exact way the money is spent when i do. Too bad most projects don't document that at all.

korzun 13y ago
I'm with you but at the same time, who cares? I feel like they already earned every penny, not to mention as long as the project is alive it's money well spent.
yosm 13y ago
I am not sure if this is what you want, but they describe how they spent in the past years here: http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html

vinhnx 13y ago

http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2104.html The URL is mistyped, 2104 to 2014

nnq 13y ago

Great. ...if only people wouldn't have made such a fuss about a meagre $100.000 (yeah, it's a lot of money for me too, but these amazing guys are developing an OS, for god's sake, not crafting another "ubercool" webframework-of-the-month) and posted so many "i'd like to see the exact way the money is spent" comments everywhere (transparency is a lot of times the opposite of freedom, you know - once people have proved you they can deliver something great, as they have done in the past, stop incumbering them with extremely annoying requests for transparency!).

bkor 13y ago
I find it equally annoying to request for money, but not be transparent about it. Equally annoying is that when a request is made, you're considered an annoyance. Deliver an OS has no relation to financial capabilities.
- mrweasel 13y ago
  What would you do with the information? I think the OpenBSD foundation is transparent enough with their "Activities" page (http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html). What level of details would you like in a finacial statement from the OpenBSD project? Keeping it pretty broad seems like the right solution. Given all the unsolicited "advice" they got just regarding their power bill, posting every expenditure would result in extreme amount of nitpicking of even the smallest items (perhaps especially the small expenses). To be honest, I doubt that most of those who "Require complete transparency!" would even donate if a complet finacial statement was made. Most would probably find some small detail that they don't like an use that as an excuse for not donating. If you're concerned that money won't be spend on the project, I don't see how any promises about transparency would change your mind.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    A standard "Statement of Activities" and "Financial Position" (the nonprofit equivalents of a Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet) would be nice. These don't include every expenditure in detail, just the totals in broad categories. Yes, even that might generate some debate but when you're asking for donations you should not be offended if your benefactors would like at least some high-level insight into how their donations are being used.

octotoad 13y ago

Awesome. If the $20,000 quote on electricity costs is accurate, hopefully this will last them another five years or so.

tobiasu 13y ago
OpenBSD has more expenses than just an electricity bill.
- ams6110 13y ago
  But what are they?
  - notdang 13y ago
    http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html

wcchandler 13y ago

I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4. In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swag with the principal of ~90% of all proceeds given directly to the defined organization... I'm sure it's been tried, but how unsuccessful have they been?

delinka 13y ago
OpenBSD sells this stuff in online stores. But the marketing sucks. You have to find the sorta buried link named 'CDs/Tshirts/Posters' on the main page - no "shop" or "buy" or "order" nearby. Clicking that link gets you a page you have to read to figure out that you still need to pick a store. Then the US store only had the latest three versions on CD. I've got to find another store that'll ship to the US if I want a t-shirt. OpenBSD swag exists, but you've got to be a determined purchaser to buy it.
- wcchandler 13y ago
  Yeah, I was able to find that, too. There wasn't an easy way to purchase things on most of those sites. It seemed like half didn't incorporate an online shopping cart/ecommerce solution at all, and would rather you contact them via email or phone to make a purchase. This seems really backwards. And while OpenBSD may list them as a preferred vendor (or whatever nomenclature they used) how can I be assured the bulk of the proceeds from that sale will go to OpenBSD? I didn't find much (if any) indication that any amount of money was given back...
keithpeter 13y ago
This was raised on the OpenBSD Misc mailing list. The response from OpenBSD team members was along the lines of: this stuff takes time/effort away from the development work. Recall that the original funding request was asking for a Canadian company to basically pay the electricity bill, i.e. one or a small number of large sponsors. Now: I'd like a laptop that will work with the *BSDs no fiddling. No blob wifi, no need for acpi daemons to control fans &c