Re: [gentoo-nfp] What could the Gentoo Foundation do with money?

[Ioannis Aslanidis]

I've seen you've been discussing this so I'll add my opinion here as
well. But before that, I would like to understand why it is bad/good
to run the foundation as a business.

On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 2:01 AM, William L. Thomson Jr.
<wltjr@g.o> wrote:
> For more of a fun thread. I am just going to list a bunch of ideas I
> personally have had wrt to what Gentoo could do with money. They are not
> listed in any particular order.
>
>     1. Provide all devs with a base development system

That would indeed help out some people in the process.

>     2. Sponsors devs to travel to events, seminars, summits, etc

This has been discussed last time... many people from Europe wanted
this to happen. Take as an example FOSDEM, a 50% sponsorship or have
the rest place sponsored by the foundation is not a bad idea.

>     3. Sponsors devs for educational purposes, certifications, college,
>        trade courses, etc

IMHO if the foundation really had lots of money, and only then, I
would opt for that. Maybe sponsoring a small percentage would help.

>     4. Hold an annual Gentoo Conference for all developers and users

Currently FOSDEM is supposed to be that... oh, wait, we missed it this year :(

>     5. Pay for infra services

I think infra is always the most needed, so yes.

>     6. Buy bitchen hardware and toys for infra

Only if necessary. It can get expensive pretty quickly.

>     7. Buy new hardware to install/certify Gentoo on ( PS 4, new procs,
>        big iron, etc)

Do we certify Gentoo (in the legal sense of the word)?

>     8. Increase schwag and freebie stuff to give away at events

I'd oppose to this one. There are better ways to do some marketting out there.

>     9. Sponsors development via Gentoo summer of code, or fall, winter,
>        or spring summer of code

If the job gets done correctly, a small compensation would be handy
for our contributors.

>    10. Donate/contribute to other projects and charities

First we should take care of ourselves, I think.

>    11. Purchase membership for Gentoo in other foundations ( Gentoo
>        being a member of Gnome foundation, or etc )

What would be the benefit of that? Could you develop?

>    12. Provide hardware to devs working on certain areas, device
>        drivers etc ( like buying a bunch of video cards for those
>        supporting binary drivers, or odd/expensive hardware )

This could work, but the hardware should be property of the foundation
then. When someone leaves the foundation, the hardware has to be
relocated.

>    13. Buy licenses to commercial apps so we can package and make
>        ebuilds available for them.

I think this is not worth it. It is them who should show up some interest.

>    14. Provide FREE release media

I'd be on the other side here. People can always download stuff for
free, but for what I've seen in other distro's, if you want something
'official' you have to pay for it. That's a way to get income for the
foundation...

>    15. Marketing and promotional materials ( flyers to hand out at
>        events, banners, booth displays, etc )

Strongly in favor of that.

>
> There are likely more, hopefully others will chime in on stuff I missed.
>
> --
> William L. Thomson Jr.
> amd64/Java/Trustees
> Gentoo Foundation
>
>



-- 
Ioannis Aslanidis

<deathwing00[at]gentoo.org> 0x47F370A0
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