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Mystery Donor Pledges $1 Million To The GNOME Foundation (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the secret-santa dept.

Brian Fagioli, writing for BetaNews: This week, The GNOME Foundation made a shocking revelation: a mystery donor has pledged $1 million dollars. We don't know who is promising the money -- it could be a rich man or woman, but more likely -- and this is pure speculation -- it is probably a company that benefits from GNOME, such as Red Hat or Canonical.

"An anonymous donor has pledged to donate up to $1,000,000 over the next two years, some of which will be matching funds. The GNOME Foundation is grateful for this donation and plans on using these funds to increase staff to streamline operations and to grow its support of the GNOME Project and the surrounding ecosystem. While the GNOME Foundation has maintained its position as a proponent of the GNOME Project, growth has been limited. With these funds, the GNOME Foundation will be able to expand and lead in the free software space," says The GNOME Foundation.

60 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GNOME devs have their heads deeper up their own asses than pretty much any project in the history of software development.

    1. Re:Please don't encourage them by brickhouse98 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Knew it wouldn't take long for some douche to come in and blast Gnome. Somehow they do what every other DE does (ie. design what they want) yet take the most flack for it, not least of all from some AC.

    2. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's because they killed the best desktop environment ever, Gnome 2, and at the same time made app the Gnome Apps suck, and at the same time turned GTK3 from being the coolest toolkit with the best tech, gobject-introspection, into an unstable API no one can trust.

      Add SystemD and PulseAudio to it, and I want everyone working for RedHat to die, or at least have all their fingers broken.

    3. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsnails · · Score: 1

      They killed a good one. Not the best. KDE is/was the best.

    4. Re: Please don't encourage them by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Gnome would benefit from spending the money to hire people to fix bugs. It isn't so much the design that is bad, it's the weird bugs and awkward work flows that show up because no one really testef their stuff well. It's jusy quirky. Note that it's still better than the adfest Windows has become.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Please don't encourage them by OneAhead · · Score: 1

      Or better yet fork/maintain Gnome 2, if you wish to.

      I'm speaking as KDE user.

      It shows.

    6. Re: Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/22zaa3/the_gnome_foundation_spent_all_their_money_on/

    7. Re:Please don't encourage them by houghi · · Score: 1

      I use XFCE, because each time you run GNOME, they kill a kitten and each time you run KDE they kill a puppy. Fact!

      Seriosuly. I remember the time I was able to run anything I liked and not have everything installed twice. It should not matter if I runKDE, Gnome, XFCE, Whatever programs on any desktop I desire. The reason I use XFCE is becuase it needs the least of tweaking to get it how I like it the most (although still not perfect)

      You used to have different programs for different things. Now you have a kernel, that tries to do everything, running a bootloader, that tries to do everything, so I can launch a desktop launcher that tries to do everything, so I can see a desktop, that tries to do everything, so I can run a browser, that tries to do everything to visit a webpage that tries to do everything.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    8. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsie · · Score: 1

      Killed is a strong word. I run Ubuntu Mate on my laptop at home without any issues. Popular software doesn't die easily. If it's good enough people will pick it up.

    9. Re:Please don't encourage them by doom · · Score: 1

      Speaking of which, does anyone know a good way to revert libgtk? I'd like my old scrollbars back in firefox. And the old File-Save dialog was a hell of a lot better...

      I was wondering if firefox under MATE might work better.

    10. Re:Please don't encourage them by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      KDE is/was the best.

      Yah. They almost killed it with 4.0 but it bounced back and is the best again, including vs Windows and OS/X. Even Kmail kinda works again, RIP.

      Used Ark for the first time (always command lined that tell yesterday) and was blown away how smooth it is. There are just an endless number of nice surprises like that in KDE if you go explore. Mostly I just ignore everything fancy and use the basics, which are great.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    11. Re: Please don't encourage them by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Gnome would benefit from spending the money to hire people to fix bugs.

      Quickest way is, probably, port it to Qt.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    12. Re: Please don't encourage them by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Ouch, that's some tough love, right there.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsnails · · Score: 1

      Agree

  2. The future of gnome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard that the gnome UI has devolved into a single large button labelled "NO" but I can't say if that's true. You know, so as not to confuse the users. The last time I looked at gnome it was headed in that direction.

  3. Should pay for a resurrection of Gnome 1. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before the HIG, spatial file manager, shell, disabling of double click to launch executables and other Gnome groans. Despite given head starts by Microsoft with Me, Vista, 8 and 10 Gnome is still a major reason we haven’t had a year of the Linux desktop in the 20 years Gnome has existed.

  4. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Gnome will not hire developers, just those idiot designer hipsters. They will not stop removing features until all the functionality is gone and screen has just plain white content.

  5. Glad its GNOME and not KDE by rojash · · Score: 1

    Couldn't ever get used to the weird French ways of KDE

    1. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Teun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It seems we use our computer differently and the advantage of Linux is we both find what we like.
      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      The biggest problem of Gnome is it is not a system but a whole bunch of loosely connected (or not!) applications.
      The desktop sucks at calling those applications and looks bad without options to reconfigure it.
      side from the configurability one of the biggest advantages of KDE Plasma is the file manager Dolphin, it is based on good old Konquerer but has more useful plug-ins.

      Regretfully no amount of money can make Gnome catch up, it was broken from the start.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    2. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      And yet to fail to provide any. It’s almost as if you have no proof of anything.

    3. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Raphael · · Score: 1

      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      You are a rather successful troll because you comment was quickly moderated to "+5 Interesting" although it is just a rant without substance. Congratulations for that!

      Regretfully no amount of money can make Gnome catch up, it was broken from the start.

      And of course you have a proof of that as well?

      --
      -Raphaël
    4. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by rojash · · Score: 1

      I think my wife would love KDE.

    5. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      The biggest problem of Gnome is it is not a system but a whole bunch of loosely connected (or not!) applications.

      The biggest problem with Gnome (besides the developers) is, it's written in C. Its libraries are written in C. C that is trying to be object oriented and just ends up being a mess because, you know, C does not have classes. It can try to have classes, just as a dog can pretend to walk on its hind feet like a human, but kids are not fooled.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  6. It was Microsoft. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you look at the strings attached to the donation, it should be obvious what's going on here.

    Gnome 4 needs to be the Gnome 3 of Gnome 3s! We want a user experience so new, bold and exciting that nobody will believe it! Not just out of the box but in a different galaxy as the box! Also, all applications must be fully usable on smartwatches!

    But hey, I for one welcome our open source sniff-and-spit smartwatches! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:It was Microsoft. by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      I did not find the quote in the article. Source, please?

  7. Probably Puting by Rashkae · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably Putin, trying to destabilize the Free Software movement and keeping the desktop fragmentation Gnome created (or, at least, greatly escalated) going.)

  8. Re:transparency by HanzoSpam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If if was Red Hat the donated the money, I can understand why it was anonymous. After what they did to us with systemd, there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

    --

    Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
  9. Better solution: Charity Share Brokerage by shanen · · Score: 1

    More general solution: Use a CSB (Charity Share Brokerage). People who want to use GNOME would be able to buy charity shares in related projects. Some projects might develop new features, others might pay for ongoing costs for the next budget period, other projects would provide support, and so on. If lots of people want to donate to GNOME, then it will flourish, but if not, then it will survive to the degree that some people are willing to cover the costs.

    This might remind you of Kickstarter, but it's actually an older idea that has evolved over the years. There are two major differences: One is a focus on accountability for the projects, with every proposal including the success criteria, and another is elimination of the jackpot effect. When a project gets enough funding, that's it. If there is extra enthusiasm for the project it should be transferred to the next step or a related project (rather than cause replanning of the current project).

    Latest wrinkle involves the question "Who shall assess those selfsame projects?" The problem is that the CSB has a vested interest in successful projects. The CSB's reputation is linked to successful projects, even though the CSB needs to be honest about the ones that don't do so well (so the CSB can learn to make future projects better). The donors also have a vested interest in declaring their own projects successful. Therefore I think the assessment should include two additional panels of judges:

    (1) Some people who read the original project proposal, but who decided not to donate to it. The CSB can recruit them with a closing option such as "I do not want to donate to this project, but I'm interested in the outcome."

    (2) Some random people who have never heard of the project. Rather than details on the three most obvious pools, let me just close with my usual ADSAuPR, atAJG.

    Whoops, almost forgot the main link to the original story: Large donors would be allowed to match charity shares on projects they want to support. In this case, the anonymous donor's big donation would be divided into small shares to match individual donations. I think the normal price of a charity share should be around $10 (but it should still be the individual donor's choice about whose matching donation is acceptable or not).

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  10. I could never do that by skoskav · · Score: 2

    I'd be terrified that they'd spend it all on sweets and comic books. I would at least demand some old bugs to be fixed.

    1. Re:I could never do that by HyperQuantum · · Score: 1

      I'd be terrified that they'd spend it all on sweets and comic books

      Or on 'diversity' projects.

      --
      I am not really here right now.
  11. Microsoft? by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    Look at what Gnome3 has done to fracture the user base.

    Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Microsoft? by StormReaver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

      Microsoft doesn't need to do a whole lot to sabotage GNOME or KDE, as both desktops are cutting off their own noses to spite their respective faces. GNOME has always been largely unusable and so ugly that even its mother could be forgiven for wanting to drop it into an exploding volcano.

      KDE's decline began with the stagnation of the IO Slave architecture, the rise of Windows Explorer's bastard child, Dolphin, and the neglect of one of the world's best file managers, Konqueror. Since most of KDE's main features have been either neglected or mostly gutted, it really no longer matters which foundation gets the donation. At this point, they have already failed as a usable desktop (GNOME), or are well on the way to failing (KDE).

    2. Re:Microsoft? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Look at what Gnome3 has done to fracture the user base.

      And they managed to do that all on their own, no reason to shake things up.

      Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

      It really just sounds like you're butthurt that this donation didn't go to the project of your choice and you're trying to come up with a way to make it seem like a bad thing. If it's a bad project and a large donation kills it off faster then great, if it's a bad project and a large donation improves it then that's great too.

    3. Re:Microsoft? by houghi · · Score: 1

      The best filemanager is still 'mc'. Works in KDE, Gnome, XFCE, CLI, Windowmaker, Enlightenment and whatever else you want to run it on.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Microsoft? by doom · · Score: 1

      dired, you posers.

  12. Given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2 by HiThere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suspect the donation is by Microsoft or Apple, given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2. There's also the increasing monolithic spread of systemd, and various other trends that I find "equally encouraging". Such as adaptations to facilitate running Linux as a subsystem under MSWindows.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    1. Re:Given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2 by nonicknameavailable · · Score: 1

      Gnome developers are removing functions after functions soon gnome shell is going to be a empty page

      --
      Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
  13. For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18.04 by mugurel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope 1M is enough to fix that mess. Successfully switching between user sessions is a matter of luck; Useful panel functionality is only provided through sometimes abandoned third party extensions; For anything other than the five-or-so options in the system settings you need to resort to something like a "tweak-tool"; Then there is the wildly unnecessary "swipe up screen" that get's in your way. All in all a very bad experience. I'm switching back to 16.04 for now.

  14. Re:You really want to fuck a traitor's corpse so b by Papaspud · · Score: 1

    I didn't realize how foul mouthed little girls sitting in moms basement could be, oh my! Get out your unicorn and give it a big hug......

    --
    Everything above is my opinion....YMMV
  15. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by apoc.famine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I tried to disable the stupid swipe up to log in for a bit, then realized you could just start typing your password and it would log you in.

    It's stupid as fuck, and everyone who came up with the idea, approved it, and implemented it should be shot.

    --
    Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  16. Dear Anonymous Donor by imperious_rex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's some other deserving open-source projects where $2M would have a wider benefit to the Linux community than GNOME:
    (in no particular order)
    1. Linux Mint/Cinnamon
    2. MATE
    3. GIMP
    4. Inkscape
    5. Firefox
    6. Scribus
    7. XFCE
    You're welcome.

    1. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by olau · · Score: 1

      Why? GNOME provides much of the infrastructure these projects are using? How would supporting a non-infrastructure project help the wider Linux community?

      Not disagreeing that more of these projects could need funding, perhaps except for Firefox which is funded by Mozilla. Look up their annual budget.

    2. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by imperious_rex · · Score: 1

      Good point. I often forget that GNOME and GNOME Shell are different things and I mistakenly conflate the two. GNOME is fine (more or less), but GNOME Shell 3.x is an unpleasant experience for many who prefer a more traditional desktop. You're right about Firefox/Mozilla. They're doing fine.

    3. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      8. Krita
      9. Blender
      10. Konqueror
      11. Kate
      12. Inkscape

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  17. Re:See a psychologist immediately by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

    You are mentally ill and need clinical help.

    This.

    Y'know, when I look at the deranged crap on this thread, I kind of miss the "you are all cows" posts.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  18. Re:transparency by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

    After what they did to us with systemd, there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

    No there wouldn't. Because after all the fantastical "we'll switch to BSD" angry nonsense the result was that instead of doing that or even forking the upstream and getting out from under RedHat's domination of the majority of the Linux community the result was to just STFU and accept systemd. Proof that RedHat OWNS the desktop Linux community (the vast majority of it anyway, inbefore the 'oh i use slackware' or 'oh i use gentoo').

    Red Hat OWNS the Linux desktop? I don't think so. Currently it ranks 50 on distrowatch. Even Fedora is in 8th place, behind Debian, Ubuntu, and others.

    And speaking of Debian and Ubuntu, they also adopted systemd, after Fedora was the first to do so. Whatever you think of systemd, you can't just blame Red Hat for it.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  19. Re: transparency by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    What the hell are you babbling on about? This is in no way related to the open source nature / status of the code.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  20. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    You are an idiot. We have been using far better WMs than Windows' shitty "explore" she'll for literally decades. Only an incompetent idiot would try to claim that Windows has a better desktop / WM than Gnome or KDE. In other words does Gnome suck compared to KDE? Absolutely. Does it suck compared to Windows? Give me a break. Windows is a toy OS with a WM that barely qualifies as an "also ran" in the race.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  21. Re: For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 1 by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    That is ridiculous. Stay with the current release and switch to KDE.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  22. Re: $1000000 not enough by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    You are clearly confused; systemd and alternatives are two different packages and both work great already.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  23. More like by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    a company that sells Linux support as a business model? Redhat pushed systemd knowing it was untested and bad ideas so they could sell more support.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  24. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    Said claim was made in the first two sentences. You truly are a precious fucking idiot.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  25. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry you are too stupid to understand what you read. I assume it is because you have no idea what a WM is, and don't realize that claiming the "desktop experience" is superior is, by definition, claiming the WM is superior.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  26. improve documentation for advanced users by e70838 · · Score: 1

    I am a gnome 3 user since 2013. I have installed it on the computer of my (old) mother who lives far away. For remote administration, I use wakeonlan and x11vnc through a ssh tunnel. I often also connect remotely to my personal computer. This is already more complicated since 16.04 LTS. I wonder how gnome will again make my life more complicated with 18.04. Remote connection is a family of basic scenarios that should be clearly explained.
    If I want to add support to a new file extension (like http://torvalds-family.blogspo...), where shall I start? Again a very weak documentation (or I have not found it).
    The file indexer is a nightmare (I have a big disk with many small files (like git repositories). Nothing about how to mitigate this issue in the documentation.
    I want to share the Document (and Image) directory of the main computer or the house with the 2 other ubuntu computers. What are the best solutions (I have setup nfs but everything is not smooth).
    For basic usages (usages that were common and easier 20 years ago) of an advanced user, gnome introduces a level of abstraction that needs to be documented, otherwise, we have to find half working workarounds.

  27. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by johnsie · · Score: 1

    Phew!! Looks like I just saved myself 1M by entering a single apt-get install command into the terminal. Happy days!

  28. Wasted money! by Saija · · Score: 1

    The way Gnome have managed one of the most loved and used DE out there from simple to use to be a fsking nightmare of usability and feature-cropping simply left you wonder why inject all that big money there?

    --
    Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
  29. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by doom · · Score: 1

    I hope 1M is enough to fix that mess.

    I wouldn't think so-- you can look forward to more ego and "we know best" design decisions.

    You can also look forward to the "mystery" leaking just when they've gotten addicted to the sugar.

  30. Re:Wont change anything by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Remember when they go $40 million invested into Gnome and basically just produced one theme? Nice one, but hey.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  31. Re:hmm by zwarte+piet · · Score: 1

    Apple white with a smile.

  32. Re:A Million ain't what it used to be by renegadesx · · Score: 1

    A million dollars wont even get you a shitty dewlling you can only barely call a house in Sydney, Australia. It's insane.

    --
    Make SELinux enforcing again!