Do you donate money to software projects?

[falkenberg_cph]

How much money do you donate to all kinds of software projects pr. month?

Personally i am yet to support projects (insert a long list of bad excuses). But perhaps one day if i become very involved in one particular project.

[lyceum]

I have not given $$'s yet, as I don't have any to give, I am in school. I give out free CD's to Windows users so they can learn about FOSS. That does cost me money, as I make the CDs look good, and so they know the program's web site. I offer free help, but I do charge if they want me to set up their PC's for them. I don't make any real money thought, as the buys CDs and ink for the process. Once I am out of school I plan to get more involved & give actual $$'s. But I feel that doing what I can to help market is a payment in some form. I don't think the $20 I spend on CDs would really help, and which project would I give the money to?

[BarfBag]

I'd like to start giving money to projects I'm interested in (open-source flash, drivers, etc.), but I'm a student and need to save as much money as possible. I DID donate to this forum when we needed more bandwidth, though. I suppose that counts.

[taurus]

I did once long time ago though...

[Hex_Mandos]

Never. The kids sleeping in train stations I see every day come before any FOSS project in my priorities.

[MedivhX]

I would donate... If I had enough money for myself...

[Gargamella]

I would, and we should...but it is not very comfortable donating by cc...sorry i use it less possible

[jc87]

Now that i´m starting to work i´m planning to give a buck or two when i have the chance.

[TooRight]

I've donated to the developers of some of the scripts I'm partial to using for websites. It was never a "per month" thing, just here and there, I'd have some extra money and be feeling appreciative of new releases, addons, tweaks or fixes they had done, so i'd fire some money their way.

[Cyvros]

I'd love to donate, but I need both a job and some money first. First thing I do when I get some money is see if I can donate to the Ubuntu team. They really deserve it.

[tkjacobsen]

I really can't afford it as a student.

EDIT:
This is a really good collection of bad excuses. You can use them everywhere:
To your girlfriend: "I really can't give you a christmas gift bacause (insert post from this thread)"
To your boss: "I can't afford gas to drive to work because ..." <- Maybe this will make the situation worse.
....
....
....
Think about it.

[Cyvros]

I really can't afford it as a student.

EDIT:
This is a really good collection of bad excuses. You can use them everywhere:
To your girlfriend: "I really can't give you a christmas gift bacause (insert post from this thread)"
To your boss: "I can't afford gas to drive to work because ..." <- Maybe this will make the situation worse.
....
....
....
Think about it.
It really does explain anything, doesn't it? It even beats the tried and true "Tax purposes" line.

Sometimes, I think that students were designed to be poor...

[falkenberg_cph]

Never. The kids sleeping in train stations I see every day come before any FOSS project in my priorities.

Good point.
But dont forget that many FOSS projects concerns humanitarian technology.

[Tux Aubrey]

I know this sounds daggy, but when I first tried Ubuntu earlier this year, I immediately sent US$50 to Canonical via their PayPal account. I think I was so excited at finding a real alternative to "THAT OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM", I just wanted to say thank-you. I got a nice email back saying that my donation would be used to support a high priority bounty.

This thread has reminded me to do it again soon. Maybe the Beryl or Fluxbox projects this time - or a bounty for a REALLY GOOD SoHo networking manager.

Maybe if I donate 25% of the money I am saving by not upgrading my PCs for Vista, I can help get something really cool off the ground.

[lyceum]

I know this sounds daggy, but when I first tried Ubuntu earlier this year, I immediately sent US$50 to Canonical via their PayPal account. I think I was so excited at finding a real alternative to "THAT OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM", I just wanted to say thank-you. I got a nice email back saying that my donation would be used to support a high priority bounty.

This thread has reminded me to do it again soon. Maybe the Beryl or Fluxbox projects this time - or a bounty for a REALLY GOOD SoHo networking manager.

Maybe if I donate 25% of the money I am saving by not upgrading my PCs for Vista, I can help get something really cool off the ground.

That is the way to go. Give money for the things you want or use. I plan to give monthly, but to different projects every time. I will be giving money to Bluefish when I get my tax money back.

[raul_]

I really can't afford it as a student.


Same here

[50words]

One thing I love about FOSS is the ability to "try before you buy" (if you buy at all). It takes me months to decide whether, for example, OpenOffice.org will fulfill all my needs. Once I am sure that it will, I usually donate to the project. I figure since I am replacing MS Office 2007 with OOo, I will eBay my copy of MS Office 2007 and donate the proceeds to OOo. With other software, I try to spend approximately what the software would be worth. Usually that is at least $20 to any software I use regularly, and $50-100 to software I use all the time.

I want to encourage the developers to continue developing the software, and if there is a feature I especially want, I figure my request goes over even better with a bit of cash.

Also, I firmly believe that I should reward the people who add value to my life, whether paying musicians (not record companies), authors, or software developers. Sure many will keep doing it because they enjoy it or it adds value to their own lives, but it's easier and we all get more out of it if we help them along.