3w ago

My Spending on Donations to FOSS is just 1.3%, too low.

So someone recently told me I should cut back on donations to open source projects. So I broke down my spending since October 1st (with subscriptions annualized) and ... I'm not spending enough. My spending on FOSS is that 1.3% slither and adding in subscription services makes it 4.1%.

I'm not in a rush to start donations, since I don't want to add to the December-ness of FOSS donations. I just want to hear people's thoughts.

I currently donate to:

GrapheneOS
KDE
Mint (Update: Since drawing this graph this has been cancelled. Due to their security and the fact I don't really use them anymore)

In terms of priorities I have the following:

Contributes to the "security by default" of the Linux ecosystem.
Headquartered outside of the US, or at the very least a project that's a middle-finger to US big tech.
Something I actually use would be preferable (Currently I use Kubuntu (distro-hop aggressively pending) with DesktopPal97, CachyOS, GrapheneOS, ProtonMail/Drive/Pass, LibreOffice, Steam, Threema, Anki, Lemmy, Firefox, various Accrescent Apps, and various browser extensions)

The real tough part is that I don't want to use PayPal (Thiel/Musk), GitHub sponsors (Microsoft), or Bitcoin (I'm open to mining it in the background, but I don't like the idea of turning real cash into fake cash).

So what do you all donate to?

23 comments

KDE is one, a bunch of more esoteric ones for work stuff (paid by work, so doesnt really count), jellyfin, etc.
Right now I'm mostly saving it to purchase hardware, open hardware specifically. I want an MNT Pocket Reform really bad, and it supports their efforts that I want to see more of, so win-win.
Around the end of the year I look at what I'm running for a while and what I haven't donated to, and distribute accordingly.
- Wow, the MNT Pocket Reform looks so cool, but it's outside my budget.
  I'm busy saving for the Steam Frame myself.
  
  Im really, really into it. I'd carry it everywhere.
  But I also just recently got a t480 and a whole bunch of drives for my main NAS (which means moving the replaced stuff around to the backups), so not spending more right now for sure. Otherwise I'd have already ordered 😃
Not sure it quite qualifies here, but I threw a few dollars at Project Gutenberg yesterday.
I just started donating to GNOME, Guix, and LogSeq. I wish more people used OpenCollective. Sometimes I see orgs there, but I'm not sure if they actually use that account...
- Guix seems kinda interesting, but I'm not so much of a maniac to even consider using anything but the default package manager.
Whenever I find a particularly annoying bug in something I use a lot I go throw a 100 dollar bounty at the devs
- Seems like a perverse incentive if you ask me, but it's not like I haven't done the same thing with a browser extension one time.
You can also donate to lemmy devs and whoever hosts your instance, maybe other social media too? liberapay is your friend
- Honestly I use Lemmy but just like with Reddit my life would be better without it. So I probably won't donate.
So someone recently told me I should cut back on donations to open source projects.
Your being too nice, be more greedy??
- More I'm not managing to save any money and FOSS projects are low-hanging fruit. But then I did the math and they're more of a low-hanging blueberry than a low-hanging apple.
Thankyou you just reminded me to donate to Jellyfin 😊
Is the blue portion of your budget candles?
- I'm Australian.
or Bitcoin (I'm open to mining it in the background, but I don't like the idea of turning real cash into fake cash).
You don't have to! You can just mine and then spend it directly on goods/services.
- Yeah, as I said I'm open to that. Just gotta figure out how to do it.
Is there a website to aggregate donations that you guys use? A replacement for donating to each place individually
- Not really, no.
I currently donate to Frigate, but I definitely should donate more. Especially to KDE..
I donate to NetBSD foundation

23 comments