FLOSS/fund for free and open source projects

To be fair Microsoft have been making contributions. I’ve received two $1000 contributions from them in the past couple of years.

It’s obviously not enough to give up the day job, but it dwarfs all other contributions I’ve had.

In my experience developers as a whole are very stingy, even though they complain about companies not donating to open source all the time, and complain when companies do donate but the amount is too little for their liking. (For instance, when I google “microsoft foss fund payout” the first result after the official landing page is https://lobste.rs/s/wyvnuu/microsoft_foss_fund_winner_curl complaining about the amount.)

As a data point, my open source web app for a casual game received thousands of dollars of donations (not remotely covering the development cost if we go by hourly rate but that’s never the goal), while my open source developer tool with a couple thousand stars on GitHub received <$50 over several years. I don’t beg for donations in either case, just an inconspicuous link.

Disclosure: I donate a very modest amount to various projects every year.

I have a theory for why developers complain it is too low. A large recurring “donation” can be a bit of a trap.

In practice it can be an hidden freelancing or employment relationship.

Donators actually expect you to do things in return, for example with cURL they expect the developer to do security fixes.

Otherwise they will not get the “donation” the next month

It may not be written on a paper for legal reasons, but it is made for a good reason.

A true donation you do not expect for anything in return.

This could explain why they consider donation too low. A gift cannot be too small. But a gift where the giver has very high expectations in return may be too low.

I hate open source and would consider myself the chief anti-open source crusader online. I always try to avoid FOSS and pay indie developers for their software. However, in a few cases I've been forced to use FOSS solutions when there's been no other alternative, and then I donate to the creator of it. And I always see the same thing. Thousands and thousands of downloads over the years and the creator has earned only a hundred dollars in donations.

It's pathetic, and just shows that most people haven't evolved spiritually beyond being freeloaders whenever they can.

No wonder millions would rather stand in line the whole day to get free bread than pay just a little for their food.

> Otherwise they will not get the “donation” the next month

Claw back this month’s “donation” if I don’t meet your expectations — sure, that’s an air quotes donation.

No donation next month if I don’t meet your expectations — that’s just a bona fide donation like any other.

For every perceived freeloader is someone who selflessly donated their time and energy so that someone else could benefit from it and improve it if they wanted to.

This is a really interesting perspective! When have you been forced to use FOSS? What OS do you use? Is big-company FOSS ok for you?

Somebody who selflessly donated their time and effort to people who won't even make a symbolic donation as thanks. And the biggest freeloaders of them all are giant businesses and high salaried engineers working for them. Shareholders are laughing their ass off at open source developers helping them rake in millions and getting nothing in return.

In the real world, if somebody invites you for dinner you eat for free. If you get invited a hundred times for dinner without inviting back or bringing a bottle of wine, then you're a freeloader. And the guy inviting you is being taken advantage of, he's not being generous. Especially if you start charging other people for eating dinner for free at his house.

Funnily, I've noted in tech circles, that they many times in the real world do not understand reciprocity. They get invited or treated to something and say "that was great, thanks!". Then they keep getting culled from the invitation lists, because they never invite back.

I've had to use FOSS in cases when there's no paid option of equivalent features. When I do, I donate. When I donate I see how little other people have donated. People who certainly are richer than me, but are spiritually still stuck on freeloader mentality.

I'm not quite sure how these are supposed to balance each other? User who benefits and contributes nothing is balanced by the hardworking contributor? And there is certainly not a contributor for every user.