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chrismyers
March 18th, 2009, 01:35 PM
I believe that canonical should offer a subscription/donation service.

I would gladly offer a minimal monthly subscription to assist with funds.

What you (could possibly) get:



Automatic posting of the latest ubuntu printed CD when it is released.
Official member number.
A warm fuzzy feeling that you are making a contribution.


What canonical get:



Money. Not a lot, but this would show users commitment to Ubuntu & assists with costs.
Numbers & details of committed users.
TheLions
March 18th, 2009, 01:45 PM
i would donate a small fee of 50$ if i would have a job...
bruno9779
March 18th, 2009, 01:47 PM
What you are proposing here is the complete demise of the ideas behind open software and GPL
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 01:50 PM
You can already donate to canonical if they would require a donationa in order to use it then it's not a donation but a usage fee and that kinna goes agains the whole GPL thingy. Makes the open soruce community reall mad. Not to mention the Tux gets all steemed up.
chrismyers
March 18th, 2009, 01:57 PM
Ahh.. You misunderstand me.

Canonical would continue to offer all of the free software it currently supports. You would still get what you get now, even if you don't donate.

The subscription would merely be an acknowledgement & thankyou for all the hard work.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 02:01 PM
Like I said you can alredy donate to canonical, see the bellow link.

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations
JackieChan
March 18th, 2009, 02:26 PM
I don't plan on paying for Linux in any way, but if I have a small amount of cash laying around on a debit card I may just donate it.
slimx3m
March 18th, 2009, 02:28 PM
i understand your point..... but then some people might be confuse whether this linux is free or not.

so i think we could leave it the way it is. and if you want to donate you could go ahead and do it, if you don't then don't.
gn2
March 18th, 2009, 02:33 PM
I would be much more likely to donate to a small project to help keep it going, I've done so in the past.

Canonical is a business that sells it's services, not a charity.

As I do not require the services that Canonical is in business to sell, I will not give them my money.

So for me, none of the poll options apply.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 02:48 PM
I would be much more likely to donate to a small project to help keep it going, I've done so in the past.

Canonical is a business that sells it's services, not a charity.

As I do not require the services that Canonical is in business to sell, I will not give them my money.

So for me, none of the poll options apply.

Canonical is largely responsible for keeping the ubuntu project as well as Debian project moving at the speed they are. If not for them both projects would be moving a hole lot slooooower if not sitting in place. So you can't really say that your not effected by their service. So if in this crappy economy there is anyone out there with some spare cash feel free to donate. You may end up feeling good about it.
saulgoode
March 18th, 2009, 02:58 PM
No... There are other Free Software projects I feel more worthy, and more needful, of receiving my contribution.
gn2
March 18th, 2009, 02:59 PM
~ you can't really say that your not effected by their service. ~

I didn't say any such thing, all I said was that I do not need to buy what they sell.
Actually, I don't need what they give away free either, if I wanted to I could switch to another distro, it would only take about 30 minutes.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 03:08 PM
You should've tried Debian (a completely unsupported LINUX by any company) before Ubuntu came to existence, the Project was pretty much standing still with a single security update once every year (exaggerating a little here). Since Ubuntu even the Debian project started to see many more updates, patches and new versions.
saulgoode
March 18th, 2009, 03:32 PM
You should've tried Debian (a completely unsupported LINUX by any company) before Ubuntu came to existence, the Project was pretty much standing still with a single security update once every year (exaggerating a little here). Since Ubuntu even the Debian project started to see many more updates, patches and new versions.
Are you suggesting that the developers who left Debian to work on Ubuntu were the cause of Debian's slow progress? :P
Scubdup
March 18th, 2009, 03:43 PM
No... There are other Free Software projects I feel more worthy, and more needful, of receiving my contribution.
Which ones do you donate to, Saul? Perhaps they should get some publicity here too.

Personally I feel that Ubuntu's earnt some of my cash. I didn't donate but I bought some merchandise instead.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 04:35 PM
Are you suggesting that the developers who left Debian to work on Ubuntu were the cause of Debian's slow progress? :P

Nope, what i mean is that Ubuntu is largely based on Debian and many updates and improvements and new packages work on Debian. So the progression of other Linux distribution like Debian is also effected by Ubuntu project.
Vince4Amy
March 18th, 2009, 04:46 PM
Why should Canonical do this? They have tonnes of money as it is they are a business.


You should've tried Debian (a completely unsupported LINUX by any company) before Ubuntu came to existence, the Project was pretty much standing still with a single security update once every year (exaggerating a little here). Since Ubuntu even the Debian project started to see many more updates, patches and new versions.

Debian is SUPPOSED to be a stable system so of course it's not going to get updates like that.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 04:53 PM
I guess then it's a coincident that the Debian project picked up stem soon after Ubuntu came around... anyway donate, don't donate who cares... At least contribute to the project somehow.
Dekkon
March 18th, 2009, 05:01 PM
What you are proposing here is the complete demise of the ideas behind open software and GPL

Ahh, but if you don't donate, and/or help develop, then you are marked a freeloader by the community.
sujoy
March 18th, 2009, 05:28 PM
Ahh, but if you don't donate, and/or help develop, then you are marked a freeloader by the community.

no mate. no one is a freeloader. people develop in their free time, and it makes them happy that people finds their stuffs useful. at least thats the way things started. ;)

now if i can help a project with code/money, sure it will help the project, but if i cannot then just by using it i am motivating the developer to continue doing what he/she does best since people like me are actually using it out of our own choice.

as for donating, well i guess that once i start earning, i would donate to projects i like.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 05:35 PM
now if i can help a project with code/money, sure it will help the project, but if i cannot then just by using it i am motivating the developer to continue doing what he/she does best since people like me are actually using it out of our own choice.

Contributing doesn't necessarily mean you have to do the actual hardcore coding, there are many ways you can contribute to the project. In a way we are all contributing right now by being active in the support forums.

A freeloader would be a person who downloads and uses the OS but in no way contributes to the project either by coding, support, bug reporting or help promote the OS.
Vince4Amy
March 18th, 2009, 05:43 PM
A freeloader would be a person who downloads and uses the OS but in no way contributes to the project either by coding, support, bug reporting or help promote the OS.

If that's what you're going to label people like who use the OS without doing any of the above I would encourage them to switch back to Windows. Just using the OS is contributing as it as improving the user base.
saulgoode
March 18th, 2009, 05:59 PM
Which ones do you donate to, Saul? Perhaps they should get some publicity here too.

Personally I feel that Ubuntu's earnt some of my cash. I didn't donate but I bought some merchandise instead.
My point was with regard to the poll's assumption that the only reason for not donating directly to Ubuntu would be an objection to "paying for Linux in any way". If you wish to donate to Canonical, I have no objection; I have similarly supported Slackware because I have benefited from Patrick's efforts and wish to see them continued.

Nonetheless, distributions are just one aspect of the Free Software initiative; to me the more important facet is the individual projects and the creation of a public software commons for shared development.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 06:18 PM
If that's what you're going to label people like who use the OS without doing any of the above I would encourage them to switch back to Windows. Just using the OS is contributing as it as improving the user base.

If Linus Torvalds had the same attitude as you do we all would be using Windows. Could you explain to me what good comes from a wide user base alone?
Mehall
March 18th, 2009, 06:27 PM
If Linus Torvalds had the same attitude as you do we all would be using Windows. Could you explain to me what good comes from a wide user base alone?

No it's different from Linux.

By making the Linux OSes more used, it encourages vendors/hardware companies to support Linux.

More users means more demand for OEM Linux and for nVidia/ATI/Ralink/everyone else to make their drivers better in Linux.
pdoma
March 18th, 2009, 06:40 PM
I'm sorry I didn't get that, what's different from Linux?

Don't know about you but I don't use any proprietary drivers on any of my Linux boxes.
Mehall
March 18th, 2009, 06:46 PM
I'm sorry I didn't get that, what's different from Linux?

Don't know about you but I don't use any proprietary drivers on any of my Linux boxes.

woops, that was supposed to be "No, it's different in linux"


If I didn't use proprietary drivers, I would have 640x480 resolution and couldn't use my WiFi card.

And if the hardware manufacturers contributed more, more commercial apps would be made for Linux, making more companies involved, meaning more things that Linux is missing would get covered quickly.
olejorgen
March 21st, 2009, 03:56 PM
As I no longer use Ubuntu and not even KDE/Gnome I would not donate to Canonical. I do donate regulary to other projects though. I've made a thread with donation links (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=977418).
blueshiftoverwatch
March 21st, 2009, 06:28 PM
I might "donate" to them if it meant getting a cool tshirt or something in return. But I probably wouldn't because Canonical is a commercial company that is run and financed by a guy who's made more money than I'll probably ever make in my entire life. There are projects and organizations out there that don't have access to that kind of money that are in my opinion more in need of donations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Also, if I really wanted one I could get a Ubuntu shirt or other article of clothing on Ubuntu's store site. So I probably should have voted no instead of maybe.

If Canonical was after donations one thing they could do to get more people to donate would be to work out something with Ubuntu Forums to where if you donated a certain amount to them you'd get a little badge or something under your name that would show up whenever you post.
Cerin
October 18th, 2010, 11:03 PM
Has anything been done about this? It's a great idea. Various NPR stations provide an option to make a recurring monthly donation. When I started thinking about how I use Ubuntu *way* more than I use NPR, and since I've donated to NPR, I'd really like to setup a small monthly donation. I saw http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved/donate but that uses Paypal (blarg) and is one-time-only.
andymorton
October 18th, 2010, 11:53 PM
I'd me more than happy to donate money when I can but I don't have a regular income so giving a certain amount each month wouldn't be something I could do.

andy
cariboo
October 19th, 2010, 12:01 AM
There is a donate button on the Shipit (https://shipit.ubuntu.com/) page, to help pay for the shipping.
TheLions
October 19th, 2010, 12:09 AM
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/necromancer-300x300.jpg

The Necromancer
lisati
October 19th, 2010, 12:20 AM
I'd donate if I could and had the inclination.


So you can't really say that your not affected by their service.
Fixed it for you :D What I was effected by is not a suitable topic for the forum. :D :D
(affect = influence, effect (usually) = result, effect (sometimes) = cause/implement)
Jim_Rogers
April 21st, 2011, 10:54 PM
Has anything been done about this? It's a great idea. Various NPR stations provide an option to make a recurring monthly donation. When I started thinking about how I use Ubuntu *way* more than I use NPR, and since I've donated to NPR, I'd really like to setup a small monthly donation. I saw http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved/donate but that uses Paypal (blarg) and is one-time-only.

I'd like to set up a recurring donation as well, but, as Cerin said, the Ubuntu donation page only allows a one-time donation.

I went ahead and did that in the hope that there would be some sort of response that would allow me to inquire about recurring donation, but there was none.

Anyone have any other ideas on how one might make a recurring donation to support Ubuntu?

Can it be done through PayPal? The PayPal donation link doesn't seem to have any options other than a one-time donation of $25, but maybe there's a way to change that (in PayPal) that I'm not aware of.

--Jim