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Linux Credit Card Re-Launches

Posted by kdawson on from the we're-in-the-money dept.

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."

7 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Wikipedia? by niceone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Wikipedia? by owlnation · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.
      Yes, this is very questionable. Particularly with the relentless controversies that pursue Wikipedia like a pack of hounds. And will continue to do so for a long time to come.

      Also, while the wiki template is open, large parts of the content are very much not open in any true sense. You can very easily get your IP address banned if some Wikinazi disagrees with your opinion, no matter who knowledgeable or correct your opinion is. Entire countries have had their IP addresses banned. This in not in any way open by my definition.

      In addition the relationship with Wikipedia and the for-profit Wikia is not as distinct as anyone claims.

      There are a great many open source projects that really benefit the community. There are projects that are struggling and this funding would help them. Wikipedia is not one of them.

      Wikipedia shouldn't be funded by anything other than advertising (especially since a significant percentage of its content is already advertising copy anyway), or by donations from those who are so inclined to spend their money that way. I'm sure political parties and NGOs would cough up something for ensuring their views continue to be "freely" expressed. Especially the right-wing ones.
    2. Re:Wikipedia? by Taxman415a · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's pretty funny how comments bashing Wikipedia get modded up with such ease even when they have nothing insightful or informative to say. "You can very easily get your IP address banned if some Wikinazi disagrees with your opinion, no matter who knowledgeable or correct your opinion is." In addition to fulfilling Godwin's law for us, it's false. One actually has to work pretty hard and behave pretty poorly to get blocked and it's really easy to get unblocked unless you're misbehaving. It's really nearly impossible to get blocked just for disagreeing with people. Any admin that did that would get blocked themselves. The reality is you have to misbehave to get blocked.

      "There are a great many open source projects that really benefit the community. There are projects that are struggling and this funding would help them. Wikipedia is not one of them." - Oh yes, Wikipedia just gets millions of hits per day because it's pure trash, thank you for letting us know that it doesn't help anyone. I do however agree there are lots of deserving projects out there and that's why this credit card program is a great idea. It lets people donate without giving up cash flow. Even if you carry no balance, merchants still pay in the range of 4% to the cc company for the service and part of that fee is what goes to this donation.

  2. And for us non-USians? by Svenne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

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    Slagborr
  3. Why trust them? by NovaX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  4. Re:Important Question by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Generally speaking, I think people on here pay off their cards and don't get their payments in late. Uh huh.

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    How we know is more important than what we know.
  5. Debt is DUMB. Donate directly--don't use this card by gblues · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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