Open Source is Free Software

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16 points·briansmith··3 comments

Is there a "donate to your favorite project day?" Maybe there is and its not well known. If people would once a year, pay tribute to their most useful projects there should be some more movement in "donations".

If the geek community would participate in "donate to FOSS day" as enthusiastically as they do on "talk like a pirate day" things could get a whole lot better.

I think you're missing the point of the article. Contributions can take a wider form than just donations, and more to the point, there is no obligation to contribute.

A business plan, as the author says, should be based on selling the support expertise of the clever people who made the software than by begging people for money in some supposed moral obligation.

Case in point:

Red Hat is quite profitable selling support licenses to banks and insurance companies who want someone to help and someone to blame when their own guys can't fix hardcore issues.

They don't run around begging people for money.

On the other hand, there was an article on YC a few weeks ago that suggested people will be much more willing to help you, through donation of time or money, when you make it clear that your project needs it.

Not everyone is going to be Red Hat, who commit themselves to supporting a huge range of software.

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