Slashdot Mirror
Acknowledging Great Free Software
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?
Having developed a bit of free software, I don't think any of us would be offended by money. However, if you expected to be treated specially for your contribution, then I might be offended. But if was purely a contribution without asking for special treatment, then by all means, send it along.
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theyll take your money, chances are they are hungry. Mail em a check, if you think theyll be mad, make it anonymous, but I doubt they'll decline. Hell, fed ex em a case of beer, thatll thrill em ;)
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How about making a donation to the EFF in the developer's or project's name? In light of any number of recent events, that may be one of the best ways to help free software. And I'd be honored by the gesture, with no sense of awkwardness at all, if I were in the developer's place!
I have to agree with this. Especially for small projects that don't have the fame that other projects have. I'd say, if the project is small, (*blatant plug to my project below*) then they would just like to know if people actually *using* their program. Spreading the word helps these projects. But if a project is already well-established, like Cygwin, money will probably ensure that the project continues. I say this because if a project is as big as cygwin, the developer has probably heard all the praise in the world, might be forced to support the project full-time thus cutting into their "regular" job, and isn't normally paid for the project.
Money would mean a lot to both kinds of projects, but would probably be more appropriate for a larger project. Praise and telling-your-friends-about-project-x is good for smaller projects. However, if you can code (which I know the author of the article can't), that is the biggest contribution to any project.
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I think that a great way for a non-coder to help with an open-source project is to provide documentation. Heaven knows that most projects need this pretty badly. I think these are the best to write 'new user' documentation anyway. Stuff with screen shots rocks :)
PS - Use the FDL