The law that governs nonprofit foundations requires that during its probationary period, at least 1/3 of its donations must be in the form of smaller donations from individuals, or it risks losing its tax-exempt status. Ironically, because of some very-generous donations, it now must make up for that with $30,400 in smaller donations by 12/31/2004. More info on their predicament an info on making donations are available on their web site.
Now that’s what I call a stupid law.
Just sent in a few bucks…
– j
Ugh! Why does it always have to be paypal. I just don’t like paypal, something about them never sat right with me. Looks like I’ll be writing a check this afternoon.
Even if you have never used FreeBSD, donate something. It is the sense of fellowship that all free/open source projects share that keeps us together. When one is hurt, especially one this big, all others feel the effects in some way.
Donated $5. All I could spare, alas.
Hmm.. to start with.. FreeBSD is not really x86 centric: they do support other architectures as long as there is some interest and people willing to support it. Their idea is not really to compete “against” the other BSDs or Linux though. In second place, FreeBSD’s code is open to be used by the other BSD’s, Linux, Apple and even (rarely) Microsoft.
They’ll get some money that way.
I just did, but who knows if they’ll post it…
-bogey
I just donated $25.00. I figure as much as I like FreeBSD, I can at least donate that much. Now to figure out a way to tell the wife…
” While
we are pleased to report tremendous success in supporting Java
development initiatives, our negotiations with Sun Microsystems have
yielded few results.
The seemingly constant restructuring at Sun has made it difficult
to find and retain consistent contacts in their licensing program.
The latest blow to our efforts was the recent notification of
Sun’s desire to revoke and renegotiate the FreeBSD Foundation’s
SCSL license. From what we can determine, Sun is re-negotiating
all SCSL licenses to standardize their Java revenue model.
Even after receiving notice of the termination of our license
attempts to contact Sun to renegotiate the license have gone
unanswered. For now, it is safe to assume that the Foundation
will engage in another lengthy, and potentially costly, licensing
negotiation before our binary distributions can continue.”
Sun revoked FreeBSD’s license? Does anyone know details?
cheers,
dalibor topic
Donated $100. Lot’s of good info on their site, I really hope to see things continue in a positive direction for them.
Well..the law is stupid, but at admittedly they could do A LOT with 30K bucks.<BR>
Anyways.. just to make things clear they are not looking for A big donator… they are looking for many small donators, the cap is 8K… sending more might bring trouble!
why on earth hasn’t freebsd posted this in more places other than just a newsletter? I had no idea till i saw this on here.
why on earth hasn’t freebsd posted this in more places other than just a newsletter? I had no idea till i saw this on here.
1) There is no such thing as just “FreeBSD” that is doing things
2) It is the FreeBSD Foundation that posted that message and the foundation is a “different” entity from the FreeBSD project that manages the OS.
3) They also state that they are not worried even if the required amount is not raised. Their track record is enough even tho it might take a little longer.
4) Like you really care with your track record…
You have to tell your wife how you spent 25 $ ? Thank God, I’m single 🙂
just sent in a few bucks also, and i’ll make sure all my friends send some…
ill donate some $$ never used FreeBSD but i admire the BSDs and im willing to help, hope fully this gets sorted before the deadline
just donated $15
hopefully it helps
Had $1 that has been siting in my paypal account for months. Figured this was a good use for it so I emptied the paypal account of the dollar. I do not use FreeBSD but appreciate their work in the community. I am sure there are others here that have a dollar or two that have been sitting in their almost empty paypal accounts that they no longer use that could go for this or another good cause.
change the law – it is a disincentive
Someone should post this on /.
Sent 50 bucks via check today. Best wishes to FreeBSD and it’s wonderful team!
I’d rather donate to the DragonflyBSD team if they are accepting donations. Current progress in FBSD is disappointing .
Remember that any donations made to the FreeBSD foundation go towards helping BSD, and any of the BSD code in FreeBSD can be used by the DragonFlyBSD team.
change the law – it is a disincentive
Guys stop missing the big picture on the law. Picture it, I’m a millionaire (the name is Joey Bucks) who just made another $750,000 in a stock market transaction. I donate that stock, and thus the capital gains, to my favorite tax free company named “Joey Bucks’ Beach Improvement Fund” who’s sole purpose is to beautify the wretched Hamptons, Long Island shoreline. Are we getting the picture? The 30% is there to ensure that the ridiculously rich aren’t creating phantom tax shelters to stash their millions or billions of dollars.
Just donated $6. That’s as much as I can
Can’t wait to see FreeBSD 5.4 come out with backported ULE. Also FreeSBIE 1.1 seems to be a nice desktop flavor, which is based on 5.3. Only if they ship with KDE, that’s gonna be better.
Wrote a check of 20 USD.
I just sent in a donation of $100 USD.
I want to point out that I only skimmed over the newsletter when I first received it through the freebsd-announce mailing list and only thought of contributing. It took this OSNews.com story and the encouragement of its readers to get me to actually contribute. So, way to go OSNews.com!
I Love FreeBSD. I’ve been using it on my servers and desktops since FreeBSD 4.0 (March 2000).
Sent 15$
Never used FreeBSD (I run Linux) but I sent 10$ anyway. My guess they’ll have more than enough way before the deadline
I don’t use FreeBSD that much (on a single router) but I just sent them 20$. Hey, it’s for a good cause. I know I’ll get lectured by my girlfriend but I can live with that.
I’ve used FreeBSD at home and my last two jobs, since FreeBSD 2.2. It’s been rock solid and a delight to work with. The least I could do is drop in my $50 donation. Keep up the good work!