As a long term FreeBSD user I have to say that the Foundation has been great for me because they made it easy for me to donate money every year. I don't give a lot, only about $50, but I've donated every year because it's easy and they are polite.

Been using FreeBSD for years as well and donate to the Foundation annually. It's always my go to OS mainly because it's changes are never too dramatic!

Another thing is that they have a clear strategy and are open about how the money is spent. Generally speaking FreeBSD governance is one of the things I like most about it.

Discussed at the time a couple weeks ago:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=FreeBSD%20Turns%2026&sort=byDa...

I was a late bloomer and didn't start dabbling until 1999/2000ish. Great OS to learn on and still love it to this day.

I don't currently use FreeBSD, but I have fond memories of acquiring a FreeBSD 2.1.5 CD set as a kid. I was already tinkering with Slackware Linux, but FreeBSD was so much more well-documented. We did not have an internet collection, so good documentation was extremely useful.

Time flies.