Linux Foundation Expects Revenues Of $177 Million This Year

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Foundation Expects Revenues Of $177 Million This Year

The Linux Foundation known for hosting numerous open-source projects and stewarding the Linux kernel, organizing countless events, and employing various LF Fellows such as Linux Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman has published their 2021 report...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Foundation-2021-Report

[kylew77]

Meanwhile... NetBSD has a goal of 50,000 USD for the year and are at 37k, FreeBSD has if I recall a 2 million dollar goal and are way behind on it. Unsure what the OpenBSD goal for the year is. People should spread the love around so we don't get a monoculture of Linux only!

[RahulSundaram]

Meanwhile... NetBSD has a goal of 50,000 USD for the year and are at 37k, FreeBSD has if I recall a 2 million dollar goal and are way behind on it. Unsure what the OpenBSD goal for the year is. People should spread the love around so we don't get a monoculture of Linux only!

Linux Foundation has nothing to do with spreading love. It is a consortium of corporations funding things for common business goals.

[Danny3]

Lots of money and yet Linux on desktops marketshare sucks big time!
How about Linux foundation starts doing something useful with a part of that money like giving Michael a full time job for the amazing work he's been doing saving lots of money for all those companies and saving a lot of time for many people ?
Or investing into good technologies and software like systemd, Wayland, PipeWire, Vulkan, WINE, DXVK, KDE, Waydroid, LibreOffice, which would also be a very good idea and very welcomed?
Hopefully one day the foundation will get a better leadership.

[thomas.wihl]

Linus finally became Linux Torvalds

[user1]

Meanwhile... NetBSD has a goal of 50,000 USD for the year and are at 37k, FreeBSD has if I recall a 2 million dollar goal and are way behind on it. Unsure what the OpenBSD goal for the year is. People should spread the love around so we don't get a monoculture of Linux only!

If you want to see more money being poured into the BSD's, they need to provide some clear advantages over Linux. So far the only advantage I heard about is FreeBSD's superior network stack compared to Linux. That's pretty much it. And even that was a few years ago.
This is business, it's nothing about "spreading love".

[skeevy420]

Lots of money and yet Linux on desktops marketshare sucks big time!

All things considered, that's not that much money when you look at the competition: Microsoft, Apple, Sony, and Google. Only one of those four actively supports Linux -- Google; and they're making an alternative kernel and tools so they can quit using Linux and the GPL; basically hide their evil code as out of tree patches since they're switching to MIT/BSD-like licenses that allow releasing binaries like that. Microsoft does just enough to entice Linux developers back onto the Windows 10 desktop. Fortunately for us Linux enthusiasts, Windows 11 is a total shitshow and threw out everything 10 was getting right. I used Windows 11 for two days before reinstalling Windows 10. I tried to give it an honest go.

The best we have on our side is IBM and Valve. IBM, unfortunately, is all about Red Hat and their tools, GNOME and their tools, and selling enterprise uses. If you're like myself and don't fit one of those three niches then Linux can feel like an uphill battle at times. It seems like Valve is basically it in regards to a major company with lots and lots of money pushing the Linux desktop for regular people and end users, non-enterprise, so I really hope they get their debut release in good enough shape that most people end up happy with it.

[skeevy420]

If you want to see more money being poured into the BSD's, they need to provide some clear advantages over Linux. So far the only advantage I heard about is FreeBSD's superior network stack compared to Linux. That's pretty much it. And even that was a few years ago.
This is business, it's nothing about "spreading love".

Or a shaming campaign against Apple, Sony, and maybe AMD. They make plenty of profits using (Free)BSD based operating systems and software. They're some of the largest, most profitable companies out there and the software they base their stuff on is hurting for money compared to Linux.

I'm not sure how involved AMD is in regards to writing drivers for Sony and Apple so that's why I say maybe AMD.

[RahulSundaram]

The best we have on our side is IBM and Valve. IBM, unfortunately, is all about Red Hat and their tools, GNOME and their tools, and selling enterprise uses. If you're like myself and don't fit one of those three niches then Linux can feel like an uphill battle at times. It seems like Valve is basically it in regards to a major company with lots and lots of money pushing the Linux desktop for regular people and end users, non-enterprise, so I really hope they get their debut release in good enough shape that most people end up happy with it.

There is more funding from Red Hat that impacts desktop users even if you are not a GNOME user, compared to Valve although neither is focused on consumer desktop. Outside of wine and some amount of graphics drivers, Valve isn't focused on end users. Nobody is paying for Linux on the desktop and it clearly shows. This is why market share matters.

[skeevy420]

There is more funding from Red Hat that impacts desktop users even if you are not a GNOME user, compared to Valve although neither is focused on consumer desktop. Outside of wine and some amount of graphics drivers, Valve isn't focused on end users. Nobody is paying for Linux on the desktop and it clearly shows. This is why market share matters.

I don't disagree with the Red Hat assessment, but I do disagree with the Valve part since Wine and graphics drivers play a very big role in what Valve offers their customers -- a way to play games.

That's not that different than IBM focusing on GNOME to offer a stable and extendable desktop for corporate environments. GNOME offers a bare-bones desktop environment that a sys admin can extend and expand as their organization and users see fit whereas KDE offers everything and the kitchen sink which could be too much to offer in a more restricted environment. Valve focusing on Wine, drivers, XYZ to Vulkan, and offering an easy to customize out of the box desktop with KDE is more focused on the experience and enjoyment of the end user more-so than IBM's offerings.

And note that what I'm describing about IBM/GNOME applies to distributions like Manjaro, Ubuntu, and PopOS that cater to end-users wanting lots of customizations as well as it does some random corporate customer needing a locked down and secure desktop that allows for minimal changes. They all take a bare bones desktop environment and customize it based on their users' needs and feedback and that's all thanks to the fine folks at Red Hat and IBM. Valve, OTOH, is more focused on the parts of the desktop that make games play better and, let's face it, all most people want is their system to get out of the way and their stuff to work better and there are loads more gamers than there are sys-admins and geeks using Linux. Valve's first attempt sucked and scared more people away from Linux than swayed them. It really looks like they learned from that.

That said, I'd really like to see where KDE's donations sit at a year from now; if Valve starts moving money and support their way; hires dedicated KDE and Linux desktop developers to influence the Linux ecosystem like IBM does. I'm well aware that I'm in Fantasy Land, living on pipe dreams, thinking about SteamOS 3.0 from a glass half full point of view right now.