Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting on 2022-02-13: The "why" for hardware purchasing

[Robin H. Johnson]

On Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 04:37:31PM +0100, Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
> You're essentially writing what you want, but not why you need it. :)
>
> (And no, "we must spend money" is not a good reason.)
>
> Care to explain a bit please what the needs and criteria are? I mean,
> if this were a grant proposal it would be shot down immediately.
For those who aren't in #gentoo-infra, and also might not read the wiki
regularly, I have fleshed out the "why" on networking & computing:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Infrastructure/Shopping_list#Networking_Executive_Summary
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Infrastructure/Shopping_list#Computing_Executive_Summary

The above speaks from the Infrastructure perspective.

I'm also the Treasurer, so I'd like to speak to the financial
perspective.

The Foundation has used up all of the tax credits from prior years (much
of which came from catching up tax payments). Replacing aging hardware
that has exceeded the depreciation cycle can lower our tax burden for
this year, provided the purchases are made before June 2022.

FY2021 has no purchases
FY2020 has the purchase of catbus & parts for guppy
FY2019 had the replacement for the console server
FY2018 had parts for database servers & jacamar
FY2017 had no purchases
FY2016 has the purchase of the hypervisors mentioned in the wiki pages above.

Further, the FY2016 purchases have reached their full 6-year
depreciation in FY2021.

Subject to advice from the Foundation's CPA, the purchases of the new
systems might be split over the FY2022 & FY2023 fiscal years (e.g.
before & after 2022-07-01).

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Treasurer
E-Mail   : robbat2@g.o
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