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Gold: $25,000 to $50,000 Microsoft Corporation Silver: $10,000 to $25,000 Facebook Inc. Google Inc. Arguably these are small amoun

Gold: $25,000 to $50,000 Microsoft Corporation Silver: $10,000 to $25,000 Facebook Inc. Google Inc. Arguably these are small amounts for all three companies, but what is the best way to calculate a fair share - not just for large companies but for anyone? For example, * How much does OpenBSD need? * How much does each company benefit from OpenBSD's work? * How much would it cost to license the software if it were proprietary? How much would it cost to build and maintain it in-house?

moviuro 11y ago
Some info here: http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html
seiji 11y ago
Those are hilariously small numbers. The accounting departments of those companies probably wouldn't even blink if one extra zero were added to the end. If you're funding open source products like this, companies should fund at least 3-5 full time senior engineer salaries per year. We should praise "donating" $3 million to $10 million per year. Anything less is a joke seeing these amounts are from multi-billion dollar companies built on free software. Imagine you lived next to a free buffet that only accepted donations. You ate there every day of the year, saved thousands of dollars over buying and making your own food, then thought you were being "generous" by dropping them a tenner at Christmas. Also, you're a full time tech employee who cashed out millions in stock and have several million dollar apartments in cities around the world. But, sure, you're generous by dropping them $10.
- cmurf 11y ago
  While I agree this is pocket change, at least these companies are putting in something. And Microsoft has become a top Linux kernel contributor, and Google, Facebook do hire full time programmers that work on Linux as well (and possibly BSD). My question is, where's Apple?
- tyho 11y ago
  You don't get to be a successful company if your accounting department doesn't blink if there are zeros appearing on invoices.
  - jenscow 11y ago
    "I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks"
- overgryphon 11y ago
  It's a little hard to describe Microsoft as a company built on free software. Another thing that gets lost here is that large companies certainly pay full time senior engineers to contribute to open source projects. They just work at the company, not for OpenBSD/RedHat/ect directly.
  - hackuser 11y ago
    > It's a little hard to describe Microsoft as a company built on free software. Ethernet (for utp), Wi-fi, ip, tcp, udp, http, ssl, imap, smtp, dns ... just thinking of networking/Internet tech off the top of my head ...
    - Locke1689 11y ago
      I suppose you're forgetting that one of the most popular Windows releases didn't support Internet connectivity out of the box.
alecco 11y ago
Tiny amounts. The OpenBSD folks contribute a lot of code those corporations use, like OpenSSH and plenty of security bugs fixed for many projects not their own. OpenBSD still is at a financial crisis and not enough people care. Not even the ones reaping benefits out of it.
- thaumaturgy 11y ago
  I love OpenBSD, I've purchased CD sets and made (small) donations, but they've been in financial crisis for as long as I can remember -- at least 2006. The truth is that it's entirely OpenBSD's fault; from the beginning, their attitude has been, "we'll just produce a lot of high quality code, and fix other people's bugs, and people should then donate to us out of good conscience." And that doesn't work. They've been openly hostile to projects like pfsense (or maybe it was Comixwall, I don't remember) and they've repeatedly declined to do anything that might bring more money into the project if it required even the slightest distraction from any of the principals of OpenBSD development. The sucky practical reality is that "hoping enough people care" isn't a really smart way to ensure financial security for a project.
  - tedunangst 11y ago
    > They've been openly hostile to projects like pfsense You may have the polarity reversed there.
    - thaumaturgy 11y ago
      I might, I'm working off of memory (and my brain doesn't have ECC). I recall someone working on a web frontend for pf getting a lot of abuse on openbsd-misc and then finally giving up altogether ca. 2009 or so. IIRC the common response from the old guard was, "people should just learn pf instead, it's easy."
  - hackuser 11y ago
    > they've repeatedly declined to do anything that might bring more money into the project if it required even the slightest distraction from any of the principals of OpenBSD development. That sounds like someone I'd want to support (assuming those principles are sound).
higherpurpose 11y ago
Indeed. It almost looks as Microsoft simply wanted to "one-up" the other two and...that's it. They should've been on the Iridium level.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

moviuro 11y ago

Some info here: http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html

seiji 11y ago

Those are hilariously small numbers. The accounting departments of those companies probably wouldn't even blink if one extra zero were added to the end. If you're funding open source products like this, companies should fund at least 3-5 full time senior engineer salaries per year. We should praise "donating" $3 million to $10 million per year. Anything less is a joke seeing these amounts are from multi-billion dollar companies built on free software. Imagine you lived next to a free buffet that only accepted donations. You ate there every day of the year, saved thousands of dollars over buying and making your own food, then thought you were being "generous" by dropping them a tenner at Christmas. Also, you're a full time tech employee who cashed out millions in stock and have several million dollar apartments in cities around the world. But, sure, you're generous by dropping them $10.

cmurf 11y ago
While I agree this is pocket change, at least these companies are putting in something. And Microsoft has become a top Linux kernel contributor, and Google, Facebook do hire full time programmers that work on Linux as well (and possibly BSD). My question is, where's Apple?
tyho 11y ago
You don't get to be a successful company if your accounting department doesn't blink if there are zeros appearing on invoices.
- jenscow 11y ago
  "I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks"
overgryphon 11y ago
It's a little hard to describe Microsoft as a company built on free software. Another thing that gets lost here is that large companies certainly pay full time senior engineers to contribute to open source projects. They just work at the company, not for OpenBSD/RedHat/ect directly.
- hackuser 11y ago
  > It's a little hard to describe Microsoft as a company built on free software. Ethernet (for utp), Wi-fi, ip, tcp, udp, http, ssl, imap, smtp, dns ... just thinking of networking/Internet tech off the top of my head ...
  - Locke1689 11y ago
    I suppose you're forgetting that one of the most popular Windows releases didn't support Internet connectivity out of the box.

alecco 11y ago

Tiny amounts. The OpenBSD folks contribute a lot of code those corporations use, like OpenSSH and plenty of security bugs fixed for many projects not their own. OpenBSD still is at a financial crisis and not enough people care. Not even the ones reaping benefits out of it.

thaumaturgy 11y ago
I love OpenBSD, I've purchased CD sets and made (small) donations, but they've been in financial crisis for as long as I can remember -- at least 2006. The truth is that it's entirely OpenBSD's fault; from the beginning, their attitude has been, "we'll just produce a lot of high quality code, and fix other people's bugs, and people should then donate to us out of good conscience." And that doesn't work. They've been openly hostile to projects like pfsense (or maybe it was Comixwall, I don't remember) and they've repeatedly declined to do anything that might bring more money into the project if it required even the slightest distraction from any of the principals of OpenBSD development. The sucky practical reality is that "hoping enough people care" isn't a really smart way to ensure financial security for a project.
- tedunangst 11y ago
  > They've been openly hostile to projects like pfsense You may have the polarity reversed there.
  - thaumaturgy 11y ago
    I might, I'm working off of memory (and my brain doesn't have ECC). I recall someone working on a web frontend for pf getting a lot of abuse on openbsd-misc and then finally giving up altogether ca. 2009 or so. IIRC the common response from the old guard was, "people should just learn pf instead, it's easy."
- hackuser 11y ago
  > they've repeatedly declined to do anything that might bring more money into the project if it required even the slightest distraction from any of the principals of OpenBSD development. That sounds like someone I'd want to support (assuming those principles are sound).

higherpurpose 11y ago

Indeed. It almost looks as Microsoft simply wanted to "one-up" the other two and...that's it. They should've been on the Iridium level.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]