Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux?

Posted by tiagoma on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @05:00PM
from the ask-hn dept.

My company has a match program and I want to donate money to a good opensource cause and/or Linux itself.

It seems like the linux foundation would be a good cause, but my company program does not have a profile for that 503c and I cannot find details on their website on how to donate.

Anyone has any tips and/or can help me?

( 11 comments | 20 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by Jeaye on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @08:23PM (#15857770)

https://supporters.eff.org/donate

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by amorphid on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @11:01PM (#15858369)

+1 for the EFF.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by mattl on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @06:41PM (#15857249)

https://www.fsf.org/about/ways-to-donate/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by psy-q on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @09:01AM (#15861067)

Consider seeing if the particular pieces of software you use have their own donation system, then donate there. A donation to a smaller project could have a very large impact on its future.

The Linux Foundation is carried by billion-dollar companies and that's also the interests it serves, from what Icm hearing. I wouldn't worry about its survival.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by RomanPushkin on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @07:34PM (#15857540)

The right name for "linux" is GNU/Linux. Initially Linux was just a kernel, with lots of free software from FSF. You can donate to FSF at https://www.fsf.org/about/ways-to-donate/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by greenhouse_gas on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @08:53PM (#15857885)

How much do FSF employees do these days? I was under the impression that most of the pronto FSF projects (GCC, gnome) are worked on mostly by outsiders (redhat and others)

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Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by dublinben on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @08:59PM (#15857905)

One of the more important roles of the FSF is to provide the technical and legal infrastructure for the GNU project, and all programs that live under it.

They are not focused on directly employing programmers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by MilnerRoute on Friday December 08, 2017 @05:11PM (#15882527)

They also provide the FSF "Respects Your Freedom" certification to hardware that meets their rigid standards.

This year they added a handful of new products. I feel like they're doing some truly good work for us all.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by LukeShu on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @09:27PM (#15858018)

FWIW, the lead developer of Trisquel is employed by the FSF, though working on Trisquel isn't part of his job duties.

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Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by steanne on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @05:13PM (#15856537)

the linux foundation is not a 501(c)(3), it's a 501(c)(6). contributions to it are not deductible, so probably not eligible for your employer's matching program.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux? by cpburns2009 on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @07:16PM (#15857446)

If you're looking for more suggestions I'd say look into donating to your distribution of choice whether it be Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]