Canonical asks desktop users to "pay what you think Ubuntu is worth"

[litiform]

I think Ubuntu is worth more money than Windows. To buy Windows 7 Pro retail it's like $300. So I'd say Ubuntu is worth at least $350 retail.

Anybody know what portion of the price someone pays for a computer that comes with Windows goes towards Microsoft? Pretty sure it's less than $350. This might be a good amount to contribute. I can't afford $350 at the moment :0

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

The problem is, I do not want Pay Pal processing the payment in any way.

Why is that? You can pay as a guest, and it's not any different than using any other online credit card processing service. PayPal is a pretty solid, proven company. One time my PayPal account got hacked and someone started putting small monthly charges on there. If I remember right, PayPal contacted me about it, fixed the problem, and sent me a free password generator to help protect my security.

I added the bold font.

That and similar problems have happened for many years, if I remember right. I am old enough that I have to be careful; therefore, I try to avoid placing myself at risk. I know that my credit card is vulnerable; however, the more companies involved in the credit card transaction increases that vulnerability. I choose not to add Pay Pal to the processing stream.

[litiform]

Yeah, I cancelled all my accounts with Paypal. It was a joke. They freeze my money all the time. Then they like Oh, Sorry.

It just got to be too much so I won't even deal with them anymore.

[craig10x]

Don't know if you guys realize this, but you don't have to actually USE your own paypal account to make a donation or pay any website that uses paypal...i have a paypal account but i never use it anymore...

When you click on to pay, even if it detects that you have a paypal account from your information, you can simply tell it to bypass it and pay without logging in, and then just use any major credit card or a debit card for your payment...

You don't even have to HAVE a paypal account to use a credit/or/debit card to make the payment...

[forrestcupp]

My point which I guess I didn't make clear, is that the donations here go to Canonical, not the Ubuntu Foundation.

Source


Hence not tax deductible, which I just figured is worth mentioning.

I don't think you're right about that. Even your source says that the money goes to the Ubuntu Foundation and not for Canonical's business purposes. Canonical is just acting as the steward to distribute the money to the right places in the Ubuntu Foundation.

I added the bold font.

That and similar problems have happened for many years, if I remember right. I am old enough that I have to be careful; therefore, I try to avoid placing myself at risk. I know that my credit card is vulnerable; however, the more companies involved in the credit card transaction increases that vulnerability. I choose not to add Pay Pal to the processing stream.

I hear what you're saying, but if you don't use your account, like craig10x is saying, PayPal just acts as a credit card processing service. Whether you use PayPal as that service or not, any time you use your credit card online, you're using some 3rd party processing service. I doubt if using PayPal to do that is any less secure than any other one out there.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I hear what you're saying, but if you don't use your account, like craig10x is saying, PayPal just acts as a credit card processing service. Whether you use PayPal as that service or not, any time you use your credit card online, you're using some 3rd party processing service. I doubt if using PayPal to do that is any less secure than any other one out there.

Maybe I am not communicating this well.

My issue isn't with Pay Pal. It is with using 3rd. and 4th. parties to process the transaction. From what I have seen, Pay Pal is 4th. party. It appears to me that it uses other 3rd. party processing services. I could be wrong. I don't what any extra companies involved in a transaction.

If I could enter my credit or debit card on a secure webpage and Canonical worked with the credit card processor directly, it wouldn't trouble me.

[JDShu]

I don't think you're right about that. Even your source says that the money goes to the Ubuntu Foundation and not for Canonical's business purposes. Canonical is just acting as the steward to distribute the money to the right places in the Ubuntu Foundation.

I wasn't able to get the actual payment site working, but I believe that when you donate through the interface, the money goes to Canonical Ltd, and therefore it is not tax deductible for the donor. That's all I'm saying.

[DogMatix]

I can quite understand Canonical requesting donations and I realise they are a commercial enterprise. There is Ubuntu One & its music store as visible monetary streams. They have to cover costs or they are on a spiraling journey down the plug hole no matter how good their intentions. Maybe they are becoming a victim of their own success.

The added opt-out in Quantal dash of Amazon search results says to me Canonical don't want to rock the boat and lets not forget it's a voluntary donation they are asking for not a charge. Plus, Ubuntu is still free as in freedom not as in beer and there are lots of derivatives should you so desire.

[craig10x]

Don't know if this will help inspire your confidence about it old_grey_wolf, but i have used my credit card through paypal (not logging into my account with them of course) many times including FOREIGN transactions as well and never had my card compromised in any way...and it is very secure.

It's processed just like any other online site's credit and debit card transactions

[mr john]

Cannonical didn't write all the software in Ubuntu. So they are taking money for other people's work? It's legal, yes. But is it moral?