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Linux Credit Card Re-Launches
An anonymous reader writes "The all-new Linux Fund Visa Card launched on July 24th. The Linux Fund began in 1999, and lasted until Bank of America bought MBNA and canceled the program earlier this year. Before that time the fund had distributed $100,000 a year on average. US Bank has inked a new deal to resurrect the program with new features. Currently, the project is open to ideas for supporting well-loved and community-supported software that is underfunded. The current list of supported projects includes Debian, Wikipedia, FreeGeek, Freenode, and Blender."
I wonder why they picked Wikipedia? All the others seem pretty geeky low visibility things that would have trouble raising non-geek funds whereas Wikipedia is pretty widely known.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Still, they decide, it seems. Why shouldn't there be a vote?
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
It sounds interesting and I'd like to participate, but unfortunately this is only available for citizens of the United States.
Has anyone seen or heard of anything similar for us Europeans?
Slagborr
They don't explain why, as a previous card holder, I should go back. I held the original card from 1999 (my first card, when leaving for college) until a few weeks ago when my replacement (non-branded version) came. The only difference I see so far is a less attractive card and that they switched from MBNA (now BoA) to US Bank for the United States. Since they failed for years to actually donate the funds contributed, the most satasfaction I got out of the card was when a waitress would complement that it was cute.
On their website, they gloss over the past and don't offer a reason why I should trust them again. I'm inclined to believe that new management will help ensure proactive measures are taken, but I'm also tempted to go reward some other charity.
"Open Source?" - Press any key to continue
How we know is more important than what we know.
Debian, Wikipedia, FreeGeek, Freenode, and Blender
So the money goes to projects that already have a big financial supporting community?
Wikipedias fundraiser usually works great, no? So does Freenodes. Blender has been 'bought into freedom'.
So, realistically speaking. How are the chances of small, say 1-5 people, projects getting support to actually be able to have a nice booth at a Linux Fair or similiar?
See my blog for my free opinions.
OK, so you want to help out the F/OSS community, that's great. If you've got the money to contribute, contribute. Don't waste your time supporting others with consumer debt. With the infinitesimally small returns these cards' so-called "rewards" programs generate, you could contribute the same amount or more directly, spend less money overall, and NOT be in debt to someone else.
I'm also going debunk the "geeks are smart enough to pay off their balance each month" myth. Bullshit. Personal finance is 80% behavior, and only 20% head knowledge. Being smart doesn't mean you'll win. There are plenty of brilliant folks out there that are absolute idiots with their money.
Nathan
I was going to say that geekiness does not translate to common sense. The smartest geek can be as good or as bad with money as the next person. Also, geeky people tend to get themselves in financial straights just getting educated. It takes a lot to feed a geek's brain after all. That's aside from family troubles, natural disasters, bad luck, recessions and taxes. But, you my friend have said all that in just 2 words.
Uh huh.
Can somebody mod this guy +1(Has a Clue Bat)?
Star Pirates
Bankrate.com shows Pulaski Bank & Trust offering a 7.99% card.
Yes, I recognize Pulaski doesn't donate money to Linux, but if you carry a balance, save yourself the money and donate directly to the project you want to support.
If you don't carry a balance and never intend to, these rewards cards are probably just as good as any.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
The link to apply for the credit card goes to a website running on Windows 2000 IIS. Do YOU trust your credit card information on a Windows 2000 machine?
I say things which affects my Karma negatively. (and I don't care) For instance; All religion is false.
Don't be too harsh, there is a billion dollar industry around convincing everyone that they do need these material positions. That there lives are crap without them. They use a variety of psychological manipulations to trick people into this.
Of course, the ultimate blame still lies with the consumer.
can you support what you are saying ? I don't care about photoshop or gimp...But gimp does work very great for many things... Can you tell me wich features professional needs that Gimp don't seriously if you want to put some information here add some meat around the bones because right now...this post is just useless. Or even...if gimp is so bad why don't we bring them some money so they could put more time on their damn fucking missing features? so then we could have a rock solid image application... As far as i know, i too eard that many professional are starting to adopt gimp. as image processing application. If you can't provide any link or number to what you say... I'll just add one more thing...the community of the gimp probably can just grow more everyday as linux does. Slow but steady... Thats like saying that linux isn't use more and more as a day to day desktop Os... Just freaking stupid...