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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."

23 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. firefox mozilla by operato · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i'm sure if you put mozilla firefox on a visa credit card you'd be able to raise more money. with linux you could get all the high paid IT guys whereas with mozilla firefox you'd be able to get everyone that surfs the web including high rollers in other sectors but hey, what do i know.

    1. Re:firefox mozilla by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Firefox already has a sugar daddy - Google.

      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  3. Re:But how do they select projects? by RuBLed · · Score: 4, Informative

    You could nominate

  4. Re:But how do they select projects? by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I strongly suggest nomination of the Gimp; it both has enormous potential, and could stand a significant degree of improvement as compared to other graphics mangulators.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  5. Several advantages by iamdrscience · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not only do you get to fund open source projects by using this credit card, but because it's a linux credit card, it's more secure, right? Personally, I'm holding out for the OpenBSD credit card, but this is a good start.

    1. Re:Several advantages by AskChopper · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is it easy to switch from a regular card and get used to using this one though?!

      I know how mine works and am too frightened to make the change!

      Will it be compatible with my existing wallet or will I need to download a third party money clip?

      --
      The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. - Oscar Wilde
    2. Re:Several advantages by RuBLed · · Score: 4, Funny

      it's in your wallet.conf, edit it by 'sewdo'-ing and adjust the parameters as necessary.

    3. Re:Several advantages by IBBoard · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well this is the newer version, so I'm sure the interface has been improved and brought up to date. It may even perform better and look better without requiring all of the hardware updates of the new Vis[t]a credit cards.

      As for third party money clips, they are available but some of them are still in beta and were forked because someone decided it should fit twenty notes instead of fifteen.

      Rest assured that even if you do have problems after the change then there'll be a kind and helpful community that will work with you to help you resolve your problem, instead of having some generic helpdesk, an extortionate phone number or a complete lack of support.

  6. Important Question by DTemp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do well-educated geeks (the readership of this site), on average, make their credit card companies less money than the general public? I'm guessing yes.

    Generally speaking, I think people on here pay off their cards and don't get their payments in late. There isn't really much of an incentive for a bank to cater to this crowd... I've had Bank of America credit cards for a couple years, put on around $50K worth of charges, and have paid $0.00 in fees. They don't like me. My parents were actually told that if they kept paying off their monthly bill in full (and thus not allowing any interest to be collected), that their card would be dropped.

    But I admittedly don't know that much about the business model of a credit card issuer.

    1. 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.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:Important Question by JohnFluxx · · Score: 4, Informative

      DTemp,

          If you borrow $1000 from the bank, then the bank basically ends up $10,000 to spend.
          Check out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-905047436 2583451279

    3. Re:Important Question by asc99c · · Score: 4, Informative

      Have a look at the cost to vendors of accepting card payments, and you'll probably change your mind about whether they like you. For typical small merchants, there is a 2.5% charge on the purchase cost which the vendor pays to the credit card company. Plenty of stores will pass this directly on to the customer, especially price-sensitive online shops. No doubt the Wal-Marts are only paying closer to 0.5% due to their purchasing power, but it's still quite a bit of money.

      For your $50K of charges, your credit card company will have been paid ~ $1000 in fees. The breakdown of that between all the companies involved (Bank Of America, Visa or Mastercard etc) I'm not so sure of. Unless you're constantly ringing up customer services it's fairly certain they will be making a nice profit from your custom.

  7. 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?

    --

    Slagborr
  8. 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
  9. con job. by timmarhy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is a big con. why not donate directly instead of having your "donations" in the form of interest skimmed by the bank.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  10. 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

  11. Sound good for lunch meeting with microsoft rep. by Bearhouse · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bottle of wine, $25
    Lunch for two, $86
    Face on microserf's face when you whip out linux card to pay....priceless

  12. Re:But how do they select projects? by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's difficult to contribute to him though, as he's chained up in a basement somewhere. Katana wielding maniacs may be able to find and free him though.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  13. I stoped using mine by YGingras · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because MBNA gives so much money to other causes that are detrimental to freedom or information.

  14. Linux Fund is good by Salsaman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I got a donation from LinuxFund a couple of years ago to help with my development of LiVES. At the time it was very useful, though of course that money has long since run out.

    To all those people saying "why give money to LinuxFund, why not donate directly ?", well...go ahead...why don`t you donate to my project ? The fact is that people hardly ever donate at all, and I`d rather have a couple of thousand dollars from LinuxFund in one go, than get $20 a month or whatever through personal donations.