Date: Fri, 07 Jun 1996 21:01:30 -0600 From: "Aaron D. Gifford" <agifford@infowest.com> To: hackers@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org, FreeBSD-current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: PONY UP! (was: The -stable problem: my view) Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960608030130.006e79c4@infowest.com>
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At 05:48 PM 6/7/96 -0700, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@FreeBSD.org> wrote: >In message <16972.834190075@time.cdrom.com>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" writes: >> >>Well, then I think it's time for you ISPs to start donating more >>resources to us. > >I would like to back this argument a little bit too. Quite frankly, >I'm proud as hell when you people brag about what you're doing with >FreeBSD. I'm proud as hell when I wear my FreeBSD T-shirt. > >I have bought more hardware of more weird sorts than anybody would >think they would ever need, and certainly more than I'd ever buy if >I didn't care about the quality of installation tools and methods >for FreeBSD and other such stuff. > >I could have started an ISP instead, I could have made money instead. >I know I have spent time to the tune of $100K on FreeBSD instead of >doing paid work. So far I have no problem with that either because, >most of it was fun, and most of the rest of it were just plainly >needed to get FreeBSD over a hurdle. > >What I'm more than a little bit disappointed with, is the number of >quite obvious commercial entities with their relative amounts of >success and dependencies on FreeBSD that have sent an email to >-core saying, "Hi, we owe you people something, what can we do for >you in return ?" > >If somebody were to be paid for doing FreeBSD work part-time, with the >understanding that "it may not be fun, that's why we pay you!" we could >get a lot of menial tasks done that simply don't get done because they're >not any fun to do in your sparetime. Things like regression testing, >documentation, upgrade procedures... > >Another alternative is to get sufficient money that one or more of the >really good FreeBSD people could actually sustain life doing nothing but >FreeBSD. > >Both of these things would help a lot, and it goes without saying that >any donation on that kind of scale would result in a higher level of >awareness for the donors problems and wishes. > >But even if you cannot afford that kind of donations, you can still >donate to us. The information for donating money is on our web-pages. > >How about donating $25 every time you install or upgrade a machine >with FreeBSD ? That would still be less than half the price of any >other thing you could install, say, MS-DOS 6.22 or Windows 95... > >So, guys, if FreeBSD is so useful to you and your business, maybe you >need to think about how you can be useful to the FreeBSD project. > >Poul-Henning > >-- >Poul-Henning Kamp | phk@FreeBSD.ORG FreeBSD Core-team. >http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk Private mailbox. >whois: [PHK] | phk@ref.tfs.com TRW Financial Systems, Inc. >Future will arrive by its own means, progress not so. > > I work for an small ISP here in Southern Utah that uses FreeBSD, and I like the idea of contributing back to FreeBSD, particularly the small donation every time one upgrades or installs FreeBSD. I do have few questions and ideas though. Questions first: If someone DID want to contribute money, how would this be done? To what organization would the money be sent? FreeBSD, Inc? Is FreeBSD Inc, a non-profit organization? Ideas: Why not add a web page or two on the www.freebsd.org site describing how to contribute money, hardware, labor, etc? The page might suggest a tiered donation scheme (perhaps something like $25, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1000, etc. donations per install or upgrade) where donors are listed on appropriate web pages according to their donation level. A $25 donor might just get a quick 1-line listing while the $1000 GOLD LEVEL donor might have the opportunity to place an icon, web link, and brief paragraph describing how they use FreeBSD. I understand that the donation scheme should probably be kept SIMPLE so that the amount of time to administer donations doesn't eat into the donation value. The advantage of a suggested donation scheme would be in prompting users (perhaps with guilt? <grin>) to participate, as well as making administration of donations somewhat simpler. I think that recognizing donors on a web page might encourage donations as well. A plus to having a tiered donation scheme is that everyone can donate according to their ability. Gee, this is beginning to sound almost like my local PBS station's fund drive! <smile> Oh well. I was just brainstorming. Aaron out. --=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=-- Aaron D. Gifford InfoWest, 1845 W. Sunset Blvd, St. George, UT 84770 InfoWest Networking Phone: (801) 674-0165 FAX: (801) 673-9734 <agifford@infowest.com> Visit InfoWest at: "http://www.infowest.com/" ICBM: 37.07847 N, 113.57858 W "Southern Utah's Finest Network Connection" --=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--
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