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Proposal to Fund Debian Sparks Debate

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the much-ado-about-something dept.

lisah writes "The announcement earlier this week of 'experimental' group Dunc-Tank's plans to bankroll the work of certain Debian developers has sparked some controversy across the open source community. The leaders of Dunc-Tank say their primary motivation is to see that Debian version 4.0, also known as etch, is released on time this December. Debian developer Lucas Nussbaum, however, says that research shows that 'sometimes, paying volunteers decreases the overall participation.' Dunc-Tank member Raphaël Hertzog countered that the opposite is true and 'many Debian developers are motivated to work when things evolve,' a veiled reference to Debian's notoriously slow release cycle. Dunc-Tank member and kernel developer Ted Ts'o took the idea a step further and said, 'If money were among anybody's primary motivators...they probably wouldn't be accepting a grant from Dunc-Tank; they could probably make more money by applying for a job with Google — or Microsoft.'"

3 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. How is this any different by aliscool · · Score: 5, Interesting

    than bounties paid by Ubuntu or Drupal to contributers?
    Dunc-Tank.org is organizing and raising money to step in and fund full time coding to ensure a deadline is met...
    I work a lot with Drupal and see this on the message boards often. "I'd like to see this feature built and I'm willing to pay XXX for it" Someone builds the feature and cashes in. Innovation and capitalism at work.
    I think Dunc-Tank.org has a great thing going here and wish them well with it.

  2. Volunteering by gatzke · · Score: 3, Interesting


    In college I volunteered at the Atlanta Kids Science Museum.

    About a month in, I realized all the other workers were not volunteers, they were getting paid. For doing the same stuff I was doing.

    That really destroyed my motivation. Why give away your time for free when others that are less motivated and less qualified are getting paid?

  3. Re:Nonsense by tacocat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Perhaps a solution can start with a simple process something like:

    1. Development community identifies who they consider to be the top contributors. Perhaps Debians popularity contest software can help weigh in on what's most often installed on machines.
    2. Users are given the opportunity to make donations (eg: via paypal) to the community in a general fund.
    3. top contributors are given a strict percentage of the general fund (adding up to 100% of course)
    4. Additionally, you can opt-in for specific projects/products/packages to get their contributions directly. In case you really like a specific project -- frozen bubbles!!
    Probably not enough there to retire on. Probably some will feel they deserve more than the next guy. But the advantages are:
    • It's better than not getting anything at all
    • You know the rules before you begin -- everyone gets the same percentage.
    • Who gets the percentage is collectively determined and user installation base can be a factor.
    • Even if you aren't top dog on the porch, there is still a mechanism for you to get some contributions.

    I have no doubt that it isn't going to be perfect. But it's an organized way of saying thank you to the developers and helping them to see the benefits. For most companies it would be far cheaper for them to simply make an annual donation to a tax deductable organization than it would to manage the contracts or employee benefits.