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I've seen you've been discussing this so I'll add my opinion here as |
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well. But before that, I would like to understand why it is bad/good |
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to run the foundation as a business. |
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|
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On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 2:01 AM, William L. Thomson Jr. |
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<wltjr@g.o> wrote: |
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> For more of a fun thread. I am just going to list a bunch of ideas I |
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> personally have had wrt to what Gentoo could do with money. They are not |
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> listed in any particular order. |
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> |
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> 1. Provide all devs with a base development system |
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|
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That would indeed help out some people in the process. |
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|
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> 2. Sponsors devs to travel to events, seminars, summits, etc |
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|
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This has been discussed last time... many people from Europe wanted |
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this to happen. Take as an example FOSDEM, a 50% sponsorship or have |
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the rest place sponsored by the foundation is not a bad idea. |
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|
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> 3. Sponsors devs for educational purposes, certifications, college, |
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> trade courses, etc |
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|
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IMHO if the foundation really had lots of money, and only then, I |
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would opt for that. Maybe sponsoring a small percentage would help. |
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|
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> 4. Hold an annual Gentoo Conference for all developers and users |
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|
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Currently FOSDEM is supposed to be that... oh, wait, we missed it this year :( |
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|
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> 5. Pay for infra services |
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|
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I think infra is always the most needed, so yes. |
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|
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> 6. Buy bitchen hardware and toys for infra |
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|
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Only if necessary. It can get expensive pretty quickly. |
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|
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> 7. Buy new hardware to install/certify Gentoo on ( PS 4, new procs, |
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> big iron, etc) |
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|
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Do we certify Gentoo (in the legal sense of the word)? |
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|
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> 8. Increase schwag and freebie stuff to give away at events |
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|
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I'd oppose to this one. There are better ways to do some marketting out there. |
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|
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> 9. Sponsors development via Gentoo summer of code, or fall, winter, |
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> or spring summer of code |
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|
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If the job gets done correctly, a small compensation would be handy |
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for our contributors. |
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|
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> 10. Donate/contribute to other projects and charities |
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|
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First we should take care of ourselves, I think. |
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|
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> 11. Purchase membership for Gentoo in other foundations ( Gentoo |
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> being a member of Gnome foundation, or etc ) |
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|
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What would be the benefit of that? Could you develop? |
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|
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> 12. Provide hardware to devs working on certain areas, device |
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> drivers etc ( like buying a bunch of video cards for those |
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> supporting binary drivers, or odd/expensive hardware ) |
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|
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This could work, but the hardware should be property of the foundation |
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then. When someone leaves the foundation, the hardware has to be |
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relocated. |
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|
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> 13. Buy licenses to commercial apps so we can package and make |
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> ebuilds available for them. |
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|
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I think this is not worth it. It is them who should show up some interest. |
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|
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> 14. Provide FREE release media |
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|
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I'd be on the other side here. People can always download stuff for |
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free, but for what I've seen in other distro's, if you want something |
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'official' you have to pay for it. That's a way to get income for the |
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foundation... |
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|
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> 15. Marketing and promotional materials ( flyers to hand out at |
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> events, banners, booth displays, etc ) |
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|
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Strongly in favor of that. |
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|
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> |
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> There are likely more, hopefully others will chime in on stuff I missed. |
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> |
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> -- |
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> William L. Thomson Jr. |
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> amd64/Java/Trustees |
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> Gentoo Foundation |
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> |
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> |
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|
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|
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|
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-- |
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Ioannis Aslanidis |
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|
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<deathwing00[at]gentoo.org> 0x47F370A0 |
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-- |
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