GNOME Foundation To Focus On Fundraising After Years Running A Deficit

[dylanmtaylor]

They're so abrasive when it comes to certain contributions like the recent DRM leasing protocol stuff in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1743 that I find it hard to justify giving the project money. I've been donating €100 to KDE instead.

[duby229]

They're so abrasive when it comes to certain contributions like the recent DRM leasing protocol stuff in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1743 that I find it hard to justify giving the project money. I've been donating €100 to KDE instead.

It's so toxic, I've known it was like that for a while from past issues, but seeing it again is something else. They really don't care about end users at all...

[rmfx]

If they were not giving away the money they received to other charity and causes that the donors never wanted to support, they would have enough fund for actually developing Gnome softwares.

[sophisticles]

I am truly shocked that it is not possible to make money while giving your software away for free.

Even more shocking, giving software away for free that sucks beyond belief still doesn't help you make money.

Every one of these open source projects, every distro, every DE, all of them, before they release a piece of software, they should ask themselves a very basic question: if I were to release this as a product you have to pay a per seat license for, would people buy it?

The answer for most open source software is NO.

Gnome is a HELL NO!!

I do however have a great idea on how they can resolve their money problems, stop "developing" Gnome, shut the project down, disavow any knowledge or ties to it and move on to a more rewarding career of perhaps pumping gas or selling hot dogs at parades.

Seriously, I hope the get no funding and have to stop with the half-assed releases and go get real jobs.

[Noitatsidem]

All the people complaining about GNOME getting funding that "KDE deserves" because they get enough already should take note of this.
most open source software could use more funding.

[anarsoul]

3. Development of the Gnome desktop is at a snail's pace with basic features taking decades to be implemented

GNOME Foundation is not involved in development. But 1mln would be enough to hire 5-10 devs to work on GNOME full-time.

Unfortunately, nowadays there isn't a lot of open-source enthusiasts to work on open-source projects in their spare time and a long of youngsters of 90s-2000s, who used to, are hit with a real life today.

[Shadywack]

Wow, it's almost as if being rude to users, gaslighting, and making senseless decisions doesn't generate enough support. I hope their fundraising maybe comes with some attitude changes. Otherwise I hope the project falls apart and goes into oblivion. Senseless, rude, obtuse, and only productive on the surface with terrible technical decisions.

[andyprough]

Vistaus skeevy420 See the "Expenditures" section on page 15: https://foundation.gnome.org/wp-cont...rt-Digital.pdf

You can find all the reports here: https://foundation.gnome.org/reports/

Ahh, so the foundation does not pay for any coding? Interesting to know. It seems the Gnome desktop is not really reliant at all on the success or failure of the Gnome foundation.

[F.Ultra]

If they were not giving away the money they received to other charity and causes that the donors never wanted to support, they would have enough fund for actually developing Gnome softwares.

There is not a single charity in the expenditures section of their report. Are you inventing things to get mad about?

[swastika]

Ahh, so the foundation does not pay for any coding? Interesting to know. It seems the Gnome desktop is not really reliant at all on the success or failure of the Gnome foundation.

It does pay for working on select projects in the form of grants but most software development happens outside the foundation. This is true for KDE, Apache, Eclipse etc. That's how open source non-profits work in general. Having said that, the foundation does work on things important for the project including paying a sysadmin for maintaining all the infrastructure, fighting trademark or patent trolls, organizing conferences etc. Same as all the other foundations.