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banuaba writes: "I am a Windows user. I've tried a couple of distros of Linux, and a BSD or two, but they aren't what I need in an OS. Sometimes in my job and my personal 'life' I need something with a little more power than Windows can give me, and when that time comes, I use Cygwin and have been wholly satisfied and enamored with the product they put out. My question for all you Slashdotters out there is this: I would like to 'reward' the Cygwin people for giving me a great product that fits my needs, but aside from an 'attaboy' email, I don't see how I could compensate them, preferrably financially. I don't have any coding skills of significance, and am not inclined to learn, I'd just like a way to let them know that I like what they've done. In the non-free (as in beer) software world, I would buy their next release. Is there any way to financially help them along? Should I just mail them a check? Would that be insulting to OSS developers, as a general rule? How or would you slashdotters who work on GPL'd code like to be compensated for your time and effort?"

The GNU Project maintains the Cygwin documentation; they have a whole page of ways you can help their efforts to spread Free software, which includes sending money, but quite a few other things, too.

I like Alan Cox's system of CD donations, but I've not met any developers yet who would be offended by a donation in money, bug-fixes, hardware, or positive word of mouth. Does anyone have interesting suggestions for thanking Free software developers?

As you may already know, 30,000 Napster users have appealed to Napster on the basis that they feel they've done nothing wrong in the recent Metallica-inspired crackdown on accounts. Rap artist Dr. Dre has turned in his list to Napster, and we can only assume that there will be appeals there, too. Also, after numerous attempts and promises from Metallica's publicist, we still haven't gotten Metallica to answer the questions that our readers asked on May 4th. We have made several good-faith efforts to work with Metallica and their publicist, but it looks like they're never going to respond. On the lighter side, The Onion has posted the sad news about Kid Rock, and someone sent this image to us. [Updated 18 May 2000 7:40 GMT by timothy] Metallica's publicists have promised to try to get our questions answered "early next week," and that would be both more fun and more satisfying for all involved, I'm sure, than stony silence and accusations. Attn: Lars: The real debate is online :)

jbiddick wrote in to tell us that CDNOW has merged with Columbia. I guesstimate that Columbia will save $7 Billion in postage by simply not snail mailing me any more crap. We'll see if I need procmail to pick up the slack.

Wonko42 writes "There's an article somewhere over here that talks about the Spam Recycling Center, an effort to prosecute illegal and fraudulent spammers. If you send your spam to them, they'll give you $5 credit at CDNow.com. Couldn't be a better deal, if you ask me. The results of this will be sent to CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, which will study the emails and figure out what evil things spammers are doing most and then send all the data to the Federal Trade Commission. "

The Dude wrote in to send us This Press Release that says there will be an MTV Music Video Premiere for John Williams 'Duel of the Fates' track from the Prequels and performed by the LSO. The video will feature as yet unseen footage from the film. They're pre ordering the CD over at CDNOW for shipment also on May 3. Yummy.

The Dude wrote in to send us This Press Release that says there will be an MTV Music Video Premiere for John Williams 'Duel of the Fates' track from the Prequels and performed by the LSO. The video will feature as yet unseen footage from the film. They're pre ordering the CD over at CDNOW for shipment also on May 3. Yummy.

Well folks, today it would be the twenty second anniversary of the day of my birth. Happy Birthday to me. (if you really want to give me a present, buy CD-Now CD for yourself! If, say a thousand of you do, I'll have enough credit to buy tunes until I'm 23!) More importantly, we're looking to get a couple more servers onto the SlashNET in the next few days. If you're interested, please contact Weez. I'm hoping to have the network up rsn. Virtual cake and ice cream for everyone *grin*

Several people have suggested this, but I figured I'd give it a whirl today. I was browsing CDnow last night looking to buy some CDs and realized that I'm broke and need some new tunes. And I since Slashdot isn't exactly paying the bills, maybe it could at least provide me some new music. If you follow This Link to CDNow, and buy some stuff, I get a 5% store credit! I know you guys listen to a ton of music, and CDNow is a cool site, so if you appreciate slashdot, say thanks buy buying your next couple of CDs through that link. It won't buy me beer, but it'll give me something to listen to while I drink it!