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?
Donations to the cross-platform Simple Direct Media Layer project are also being accepted at the libSDL.org site. (SDL, BTW, recieved a $1,000 grant from the Linux Fund, so you might want to look there too.)
Keep in mind that while most of these projects are developed for Linux, ports to Windows and sometimes Mac OS are usually included. So, even if you don't run Linux -- or any *nix -- you can still benifit.
Projects that you can support include...
New Breed Software creates software for both the Agenda handheld (Atari 800 emulator, Agendaroids, Aliens, ...) and X (Circus Linux, X-Bomber, ...).
www.linux-games.com (note the "-") also has a couple Agenda programs as well as Penguin Command, Castle-combat, Timewarp...
glTron? Nuf' said.
Chromium BSU is another action-diversion.
FreeCiv, PipeNightDreams...well, go see the entire list yourself.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
If anyone wants to check out an incredibly cool OSS app, go to www.openuniverse.org. It is basically a very good model of the solar system.