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?
Try to imagine yourself as that developer. You've written some software, either because you needed it for something and it didn't exist, or you thought it would be cool to do, or you were just bored and anxious to write *anything*. You're not interested in selling it for a variety of reasons. Maybe it's because it's only a hobby for you, maybe it's because you have philosophical issues with selling software, maybe it's this, that, or another thing... whatever. At any rate, you wrote, you gave it away, and now you get lots of people writing you bug reports of varying degrees of helpfullness, people sending you patches that sometimes fix things or add features, and sometimes just waste your time, and there have been more than a few people who said they'd take care of something, like creating RPMs and debs on an ongoing basis and then failed to do it, and occassionally someone who has nothing better to say than, "This sucks, it doesn't work. You're the guy who wrote it, so you must suck, too."
What could you possibly receive from a pleased user that would make you ignore all of the bad parts and think, "I'm gonna keep this thing going"?
Send that.
I like to play children's songs in minor keys.
"We're all sons of bitches now." --J. Robert Oppenheimer
That would be "person 2 programmer" beer system. Aside from contributing geek toys (presumably to be used in further coding efforts), it sure would be nice to be able to send freeware developers a 6-er once in a while. Of beer, red bull, Mt. Dew, or whatever it is they drink.
;-)
Beer addresses should be included in the documentation
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem
If you want to make the developer(s) feel good, send them an attaboy email. If you want to contribute and don't want to learn to code, send them an attaboy email and a cheque, or a case of interesting beer -- or maybe make a contribution to a charity they wish to support. An email saying "I really enjoy your software a lot, and I'd like to thank you for it -- are there any charities you particularly feel kindly for?" alleviates any possibilities that people would be offended by a cheque (though I don't know of any people who would, personally).
But really, unless the people you're trying to thank are really overloaded, actual user contact is very rewarding. Knowing that people use and enjoy your software is one of the main reasons I develop Free Software.
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.
visit my free wallpaper collection, wp.erasei.com
Unfortunately, because I'm a lowly grad-student, I don't really have the disposable income to send folks a check (unless I have a strong craving for a week's worth of Ramen).
What I did to do my part to pay those hardworking cygwin folks back was get my organization to purchase $7500 worth of their software. We had a little extra cash left on one of our research budgets, and were and need of a compiler for the ARM microcontroller. I recommended purchasing GNUPro Tools, which includes gcc. Yeah, I know it's freely available, and that I could cross-compile, but do the accounting people need to know that? So, in short, get your organization to buy some freely-available software, and send them a six-pack for good measure.
---
octave + distributed.net + matlab*P = community-supported-interactive-supercomputing
Check Number 0001
Pay to the order of: OSS Hacker
Amount: Forty-Dollars - 40.00$
Singed: Anonymous Coward
Memo: First Ch3ck!
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
Immortality? Name your first born "Cygwin."
Andrew
Yeah, probably the biggest value to an open source developer is seeing their product overtake a competeting commercial product in terms of market use. So, outside of sending money, anything you can do to increase use of the product (maybe you have access to some decent web real estate to help advertise?) I'm sure would be much appreciated too. Or, writing documentation. Or, maintaining a web page. Or .. well, the list goes on, but there are a multitude of ways to help open source developers other than contributing code! (Especially since many programmers arn't exactly gifted in the arena of documentation and language.)
"Old man yells at systemd"
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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I know you are running windows, but you could support the Cygnus team by purchasing the GNUPro toolkit. It offers some really useful stuff (optimized gcc, insight visual debugger, etc). Maybe it will provide the incentive you need to maintain a dual boot. It would certainly reward the developers monitarily (as would purchasing the boxed RedHat). Last one I purchased was $79.00 US. Remember, RedHat and Cygnus are the same entity now, so by supporting one you support the other by proxy.
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
Just buy a box or two of Red Hat Linux, even if you don't plan to use it. You'll be supporting the company that underwrites Cygwin tools.
Send them a couple of kegs of beer, and some chicks^H^H^H^H^H^H women to serve it to them, maybe some chicken wings, and some curly fries. Or just give 'em some hooters gift certificates.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
Your best bet is always asking... if you really want to make them happy, make sure you're getting them what they want.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
I'd just like a way to let them know that I like what they've done
Well, let's see, what do you look like in a thong?
Inventor of the LOLbalrog meme.
maybe OSS programmers who don't intend to gain money for themselves for their work should encourage donations to charity like Bram Moolenaar has done with VIM
http://www.vim.org/
and donations to childrens fund in Uganda
Simply because I code for the love of it, not for the money. Hell, I live out of a 2-story carboard box, code on an old 386 laptop weighing a hefty 50 pounds, and eat sewer trash for meals. And you know what, that Ferrari I bought during the dot-com fiasco just isn't fun to drive anymore. So please don't send me money, just send a simple chain email around the world 50 times to let me know that I have many, many friends.
(Money an insult? You have got to be kidding me! - or smoking some really good weed)
More OSS developers need to be proactive when it comes to getting $. People shouldn't have to ask this question. I think developers would be surprised if they used a little line that said something like "you don't need to, but it'd be appreciated if you sent a check to... ".
It's amazing what you can get sometimes just by asking. Anybody who's read Feynman should get the humorous reference in the title of this post.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
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!
Don't sell the 'attaboy' email short. It's a great motivation to get some feedback beyond "You suck!" and "It doesn't work. Do I need Windows 2000?" For most small-time developers, it's probably more of an inducement to keep working than a $10 check would be. And it costs you othing but time, so be lavish!
Not that anyone would likely be offended by money.
HERE
illegitimii non ingravare
More than just the "attaboy", get involved in the development process by reporting bugs. This will streamline the development process and make for a better product in future releases.
When the downloads increase, they'll be thanking you.
I don't see any reason why sourceforge and freshmeat or other sites like it could not handle donations, or rather tips for certain projects.
I know that if it was as simple as putting my credit card # in and selecting a project, and tipping $5, i'd have already done it many times. This could all be very easy.
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.
Check out Althea for a stable IMAP email client for X. Now with SSL!
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
I think most coders will agree with me when I say, "Send those guys/girls a case of beer!" Nothing spells appreciation as well as B-E-E-R. It doesn't even have to be good beer, it is really the idea that counts...although Guinness isn't ever a bad idea...
I release all the music I write for free. However, if you like it enough to send me a cheque, I certainly wouldn't be insulted, or complain. :) I'm sure the same principle applies to many open source developers. Often, things like web hosting, or simply the cost of a computer upgrade doesn't justify charging for software, but if one philathropist out there feels like throwing some money a developers' way, I don't see many developers rejecting the money?
"Old man yells at systemd"
but weed is better
While financial rewards and praise are all great, there is one thing that every open source developer would be happy to accept from you:
STOP USING WINDOWS.
Zealotry aside, the fact that you and a lot of other people use Windows, helps the people who constantly damage what we make and love, so by refusing to support them even if it is 3% more convenient for you than, say, Linux or *BSD, you help to hurt us, and there isn't much else that can compensate this. Next time when some hideous API will create horrible incompatibilities with our software, when part of format will get patented, or when frivolous lawsuit will be brought against some of us, we won't think about praise or money we got from you, we will just think that by using Windows you have added to their dominance and paved the road that they are marching on. It's not like we hate you personally for that, but we would appreciate if you will refuse to help our enemies.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I can see it now... Silicon Valley Jones, whipping people with his coil of network cable, stumbling over broken bridges and routers, fending off the mad Manager with his cult of marketing flunkees, trying to restore the 5 magic goose eggs to his paycheck. So remember... next time your manager calls you into his office, be sure to bring your coil of network cable and your own theme music.
Fortune and glory, sweetheart. Fortune and glory.
Inconceivable!