How Does All Of This Get Paid For?

[mapes12]

Hi

I've been a Ubu convert since Gutsy 7.10 and now have 8.04LTS as my main OS across 3 Ubu boxes in my home network. Without drolling on how much I have embraced this free OS I can't help but wonder how all of this is paid for?

I'm just a home user pulling in all kinds of MB bandwith to try out different versions and upgrading and playing around with my test machine and my systems. Just the other day I setup a fresh Ubu box that needed 384MB of updates (386 packages) to update from the iso image. I did this 3 times in one 24hour period.

I obviously know I pay for my own download bandwidth but who is kind enough to host, pay for and maintain all the repo's that host this stuff that we good people take for free???

[dragos240]

Ahem *cough*donations*cough*.

[JillSwift]

Support contracts (http://www.ubuntu.com/support/services).

Cool swag (http://shop.canonical.com/).

Donations to the developers of applications and utilities outside of Canonical.

(Oh, and Shuttleworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth)'s deep, deep pockets.)

[KiwiNZ]

Hi

I've been a Ubu convert since Gutsy 7.10 and now have 8.04LTS as my main OS across 3 Ubu boxes in my home network. Without drolling on how much I have embraced this free OS I can't help but wonder how all of this is paid for?

I'm just a home user pulling in all kinds of MB bandwith to try out different versions and upgrading and playing around with my test machine and my systems. Just the other day I setup a fresh Ubu box that needed 384MB of updates (386 packages) to update from the iso image. I did this 3 times in one 24hour period.

I obviously know I pay for my own download bandwidth but who is kind enough to host, pay for and maintain all the repo's that host this stuff that we good people take for free???

Give us your Credit Card details and all our debts will be taken care of :P

[juancarlospaco]

Yeah, thanks to Canonical, Ubuntu, Debian, and related people.

I try to help at launchpad,
i want to buy from canonical shop but i can't,
theres a problem with local cards to buy on internet
(local bank says nothing to do with it)
:)

[aysiu]

That is a good question, actually. Whoever is hosting the server or mirror is who pays for the hosting and bandwidth. If you're downloading updates off the main server, Mark Shuttleworth is paying for it. A lot of mirrors are at academic institutions, so I would assume the students or the university's state, province, or national government is paying for it.

I would very much like to see this idea get implemented, though, so that the main servers are not hit so hard:
Idea #7792: Use BitTorrent as primary protocol for apt-get (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7792/)

[Bodsda]

I would very much like to see this idea get implemented, though, so that the main servers are not hit so hard:
Idea #7792: Use BitTorrent as primary protocol for apt-get (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7792/)

I can only see that being practical if you have the storage/bandwidth/clients to get a decent share ratio on every single package. If I can download the iso in 20 mins, but it takes 3 hours to download fluxbox because nobody is seeding it, I would be rather distressed.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of ISP's throttle torrent downloads.

[aysiu]

I can only see that being practical if you have the storage/bandwidth/clients to get a decent share ratio on every single package. If I can download the iso in 20 mins, but it takes 3 hours to download fluxbox because nobody is seeding it, I would be rather distressed.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of ISP's throttle torrent downloads.
Well, it would have to be implemented intelligently.

The BitTorrent protocol would be only the default, not the only way to install updates, and it could be structured in such a way as to automatically fetch packages directly off the server if there are not enough seeds.

[juancarlospaco]

Just build a Local Repo and download apps from 127.0.0.1
:)

[Tipped OuT]

Support contracts (http://www.ubuntu.com/support/services).

Cool swag (http://shop.canonical.com/).

Donations to the developers of applications and utilities outside of Canonical.

(Oh, and Shuttleworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth)'s deep, deep pockets.)

lol "Cool swag"??

[philcamlin]

Ahem *cough*donations*cough*.

and mark shuttleworth because hes a millionaire :popcorn:

[JillSwift]

lol "Cool swag"??
Well, it's cool to me. :P

[mapes12]

and mark shuttleworth because hes a millionaire :popcorn:
But what happens when Mr Shuttleworth decides to either stop funding this amazing Ubu project or runs out of money. I've converted my entire home network to run on UBU. Will we all be left with unsupported systems?

I have one ******* box (rarely used) because I can't find any open source apps to update my TomTom sat nav maps :( and I don't want to go back. With my Ubu boxes I can be up and productive in less than 60 seconds. With the other OS I have to leave it for about 10 -15 mins for all the virus protection, spyware protection, and every other defense shield it needs to load before I can do anything with it :mad:

[aysiu]

But what happens when Mr Shuttleworth decides to either stop funding this amazing Ubu project or runs out of money. Mark Shuttleworth is almost a billionaire. In fact, if he was smart about investing the money (about US$575 million) he initially got ten years ago when he sold Thawte to Verisign, he may just be a billionaire. Sure, he doesn't have as much money as Bill Gates, but he isn't going to just run out of money.

Besides, he's invested US$10 million in the Ubuntu Foundation, so it can carry on a while without him if necessary.

More importantly, even though funding for Ubuntu is important, the bulk of the software and documentation Ubuntu uses is not paid for by Ubuntu and a lot of it is from volunteers in this and other communities.

And, of course, since Ubuntu is open source, anyone can fork it at any time.

If Steve Ballmer runs out of money or stops funding Microsoft, what are all the Microsoft users going to do then? Windows is closed source. Oops! Can't fork it...

[Maheriano]

But what happens when Mr Shuttleworth decides to either stop funding this amazing Ubu project or runs out of money. I've converted my entire home network to run on UBU. Will we all be left with unsupported systems?
Run out of money? Do you remember the online security company from back in the day called Thawte? Shuttleworth started that and later sold it for $400,000,000 pounds which is probably close to a billion US dollars so I don't think he's running out of money anytime soon. He's probably making a million dollars a day just in interest.

To answer the question about hosting, various companies and universities around the world host the files out of their own interests and pay for it themselves. I know at the university here up the street they have a mirror, probably just because a bunch of nerds from the computer science department got together and decided it'd be fun to set it up. And I'm grateful for it, I download packages at 1.4 megs per second! The university pays for the servers and bandwidth anyway so it doesn't cost anyone anything extra except the time of the people that run it.

[spoons]

If Steve Ballmer runs out of money or stops funding Microsoft, what are all the Microsoft users going to do then? Windows is closed source. Oops! Can't fork it...

Steve Ballmer doesn't fund Microsoft... they pay him ;)

I believe Ubuntu's goal will be to stand on it's own two feet. It could be a while for that, yet, but that's the goal.

[mapes12]

Mark Shuttleworth is almost a billionaire. In fact, if he was smart about investing the money (about US$575 million) he initially got ten years ago when he sold Thawte to Verisign, he may just be a billionaire. Sure, he doesn't have as much money as Bill Gates, but he isn't going to just run out of money.

Besides, he's invested US$10 million in the Ubuntu Foundation, so it can carry on a while without him if necessary.

More importantly, even though funding for Ubuntu is important, the bulk of the software and documentation Ubuntu uses is not paid for by Ubuntu and a lot of it is from volunteers in this and other communities.

And, of course, since Ubuntu is open source, anyone can fork it at any time.

If Steve Ballmer runs out of money or stops funding Microsoft, what are all the Microsoft users going to do then? Windows is closed source. Oops! Can't fork it...Thank you aysiu. I wasn't aware of the magnitude of the financial backing Ubu has the benefit of. If Ubu just keeps getting better and better which in my 2 years of using it has, then I think Mr Ballmer needs to be very very worried :rolleyes:

[aysiu]

Steve Ballmer doesn't fund Microsoft... they pay him ;) Sure... now.

But back when Microsoft was in its fourth or fifth year (30 years ago), I'm sure it was Ballmer, Gates, etc. who were putting their own money into it to get it off its feet.

Ubuntu was started in October 2004. That's almost five years ago.


I believe Ubuntu's goal will be to stand on it's own two feet. It could be a while for that, yet, but that's the goal. Exactly.

[richg]

Volume. :o:o

Rich

[Tibuda]

But back when Microsoft was in its fourth or fifth year (30 years ago), I'm sure it was Ballmer, Gates, etc. who were putting their own money into it to get it off its feet.

These guys: http://www.columbia.edu/~xs23/invest.htm :)

[MikeTheC]

Oops! Can't fork it...
Yeah, but who in the h--- would want to fork that?!?

Stick a knife in it, maybe, but a fork? :shock: