GUADEC/Gnome Fund Appeal 219
With the end of the year approaching, the Gnome Foundation has put together an appeal for help. You can also just head over to Gnome.org to contribute directly - and this year, they become a charity organization, meaning that contributions for US citizens will be tax deductions. Yay, tax deductions!
Why is there a GNOME foundation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why is there a GNOME foundation? (Score:3, Informative)
According to this [fsf.org]:
The FSF promotes the development of free software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. The FSF helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of software freedom.
And when looking at the detail here here [gnome.org], it speaks nothing of FSF support. So I guess an uninformed guess would be "no, not for Gnome"
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Why is there a GNOME foundation? (Score:3, Insightful)
You're calling somebody a communist and acusing them of being extremist in the same breath?
QT has the potential to make commercial development on Linux more restrictive than commercial development on Windows.
Yes, commercial interests don't have to use QT if they don't want to, and yes today it is only $2k per developer, and yes, you can develop GPL apps and make money off them... but
So I guess if you really want, GTK can be used for:
In short... anything which would not get commercial licensing and would not use a GPL-ish license.
There is a reason the LGPL exists. There is a reason why a library struggling for wide acceptance in Linux should not be using the GPL (or QPL for that matter) for distribution.
The only reasons to accept the restrictions of QT are 1. you con't care in the slightest about non GPL-ish development (even BSD-ish), or 2. you think that having a slick, easy to use, free library NOW is more important than anything else.
But for those two reasons, you might as well just develop under Windows. There are fewer restrictions.
Re:Why is there a GNOME foundation? (Score:2)
The only reasons to accept the restrictions of QT are 1. you con't care in the slightest about non GPL-ish development (even BSD-ish), or 2. you think that having a slick, easy to use, free library NOW is more important than anything else.
That sounds practical enough.
But for those two reasons, you might as well just develop under Windows. There are fewer restrictions.
I don't think that carries over quite as well; I use Unix based operating systems because they're of better workmanship overall and possess a greater amount of functionality which I like.
It is perhaps ironic that the GPL is more favorable to commercialization of a product than QT's licensing strategy is, isn't it? :P
Re:Why is there a GNOME foundation? (Score:2)
Who said anything about BSD licenses? I think you're focusing on the wrong things here.
Don't try to troll me.
Why not simply charge for it. (Score:1)
Ximian Desktop (Score:2)
Instead of giving the product away why not simply charge for it?
Ximian does sell boxed distributions of Ximian Desktop based on the GNOME desktop for 30 USD [ximian.com].
I donate used clothes to the salvation army for (Score:1)
hmm... (Score:1)
as of now (18:42 Dec 20 Tokyo Time) - I havn't found any /. editors on the said page yet.
WRONG! (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok, now how much of my money is going to fund a PR engine and admin engine that benefits, almost exclusively, a few for-profit businesses? Pretty much all of it?
Lovely.
-t
Re:WRONG! (Score:3, Insightful)
They're pretty clear about donations supporting a conferance/show in Ireland IIRC. No where do they suggest that the fund would go to developers or development efforts.
Where your money goes, and how GNOME PR works... (Score:4, Informative)
The money contributed to the GNOME Foundation for this appeal goes directly to helping us hold GUADEC, and importantly, to fly hackers over who otherwise couldn't go. I was a beneficiary of this support last year, and thus, able to attend GUAD3C in Sevilla (which rocked). I am hugely thankful to the Foundation, and its kind supporters (both corporate and individual) who contributed in this way.
I've been involved in conference organisation before (I was part of the organising team for linux.conf.au [linux.conf.au] in 2001), and I know how much time, effort and ultimately dollars it takes to stage a conference such as this.
Your last comment is an interesting one, because it shows a fundamental misunderstanding about what the GNOME Foundation is all about. It's about GNOME, the project, not about the businesses that contribute. This is one team, not a competition between individual contributors and companies.
We have one person involved in the Foundation who has 'proper' PR qualifications - she used to work for a very major PR company, who, funnily enough, happened to have MS as a customer, but I digress. She is a volunteer, like many of our hackers and contributors, but instead of writing code, she helps us with what a lot of the hackers see as 'dreary PR stuff'.
Have a read of foundation.gnome.org [gnome.org] - I hope it will clear up any misunderstandings you have about the organisation. I know there are a lot of them out there!
Re:Where your money goes, and how GNOME PR works.. (Score:2)
I'm not opposed to free software hackers asking for donations -- I've done it directly myself and indirectly as an FSF employee.
But I am sorely dissapointed that Gnome and other R&D efforts aren't better financially supported by the companies who will profit from them. In effect, we're asked to subsidize those companies through private donations. They have a perfectly good subsidy in the form of R&D tax credits -- let them use that instead of private charity.
How many good free software hackers are currently unemployed (like me)? Yes, I know there's a recession and so forth -- but part of the cure for a recession is for companies to start spending their way out of it. All of the large vendors have money in the bank and growing revenues from free software. A lot of free software R&D jobs could be created, today, speeding up development, and giving those vendors new and better products sooner.
Re:Where your money goes, and how GNOME PR works.. (Score:2)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Has Ximian conrtibuted? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ximian conrtibutes inherently (Score:4, Informative)
And before some ignorant troll pipes up, no, Ximian does not exploit OSS coders by selling someone else's code, they charge for services and a few properitary, in-house-developed products like Connector [ximian.com]. If you want to use Ximian Gnome, and not get their services, you can download [ximian.com] it for free right from their site, as always.
Re:Ximian conrtibutes inherently (Score:2)
What Ximian, Red Hat, IBM, Sun and many others are proving is that Open Source software is not a business model, it's a tool. You can't just grab a chunk of code and say "alla-ka-business-model!" and make a profit, it's hard work and requires a good business model.
What Open Source software does do for you is change the economics of what a company can offer. It would be impossible for Sun to offer an OS like Solaris for example, while also making a suite of graphics tools, a desktop, compilers, development environments, browsers, office tools, groupware, etc, etc and still make a profit. They've tried many times, but ultimately it just increases the price of their software. Now they're beginning to realize that they can throw a tiny amount of money (by their standards) into Gnome development and get all of the wizzy end-user goodies they want.
They can then pay Ximian to support the parts that they don't know anything about and in the end it costs them a lot less than CDE did and unlike CDE it will continue to be developed and enhanced.
That's one very workable buisiness model. Red Hat's is another (which I think will only ever be workable for a few players in the market). There's IBM's model which is to sell businesses software with a huge suite of services to actually create a revenue stream.
These have all been demonstrated to work. To companies that have relied on selling a few, narowly focused software packages for big money, I say: please don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the market.
tax deductions (Score:1)
Re:tax deductions (Score:2)
Time tax deductible? (Score:4, Interesting)
Still, that would be an interesting idea, specially to the Open Source community, which relies entirely on its dedicated developers. Sure money could buy you some drones, but they'd be more expensive and much less productive than the Open Source people.
So, do you think there is any way/chance to ever see time donations being tax deductible too?
Re:Time tax deductible? (Score:3, Interesting)
But IRS, I donated 20 hours a week to Gnome! Since I assert my time is worth $50 per hour, you can deduct $1000 per week from my income for tax calculations!
You can donate time. Spend that time at work, then donate the money you earned.
Re:Time tax deductible? (Score:2)
If you'd been paid a $1000 then turned around and made a $1000 donation, you'd be in the same position - zero tax liability (assuming you do it in the same year so tax rates are the same yada yada yada).
Donating your time shouldn't impact your taxes any differently than charging for your time and giving the money away - and it doesn't under current tax laws.
Re:Time tax deductible? (Score:2)
Viola! No money actually changes hands, but time is spent and you get a writeoff.
Added incentive (Score:1)
Tax deductions (Score:1)
Gnome becoming a US-registered charity will probably help raise the amount of money they receive, so that's wonderful. Anybody that likes using open source software should contribute however they can (code, money, reporting bugs, etc).
Re:Tax deductions (Score:3, Insightful)
If the government would reduce (eliminate!) my tax burden, I'd gladly give my hard-earned money to charitable institutions. It won't. Therefore, to give me an incentive to give away even more of my money (and it is my money, not the government's), they should at least give let me deduct that amount from my taxable income. Preferably, they'd do even more, but that's highly unlikely.
Donating your time or skills is all well and good, except that when you have to work to make ends meet, your free time becomes precious. I'd rather spend what little free time I have on me first, and then on charity if there's any left. Add to that all of the charity organizations that publicly state that they'd rather have monetary contributions than contributions of time, and it becomes even less likely that I would donate my time. So, that leaves giving money, and as far as I'm concerned the government takes too damn much of that already. There's nothing left for charities.
On Vagueness...and a correction (Score:2, Interesting)
The letter seems a little vague to me, though: Blanket pleas for donations to a decent cause will usually bring in money, but what will really bring in donations is specifics as to what the money will be used for and how much they need.
How much do they generally subsidize travel expenses? How many people come? What service is the conference to the developers/hackers that can't be provided otherwise? Why does it have to be held in Dublin, Ireland?
There are of course answers to those questions, but if Gnome really wants my money, then Tim and the rest of the team are going to have to provide more details. Until then, I'm skeptical.
Sun (Score:2, Interesting)
Just asking since they ship GNOME and plan to make it the default for Solaris 10
Re:Sun (Score:1)
Re:Sun (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sun (Score:2)
Charitable? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Charitable? (Score:2)
Until 50-100 years ago, the word "charity" retained its original meaning of "love", as in 1 Cor. 13:13 (KJV). As charities have strayed from the biblical mandates of charity (love), the meaning of charity has been diluted to the point where almost any non-profit organization can become eligible for charity status. Even ones funneling money to Al Qaeda [washtimes.com].
What is the purpose of traditional charities like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army?
Realizing that the Bible is the reason for the proliferation of charities in the Western world, the development of free warez doesn't quite fit.Answer: To LOVE.
I think the Gnome Foundation is a good thing, but it's not a charity. To be specific, it's not part of the core of what charity is. It's somewhere out there in the periphery of charity -- beyond the aiding of primary needs, secondary needs, tertiary+ needs, primary wants, secondary wants... like Pioneer 10 [slashdot.org] -- yes, it's in the solar system, but it's waaay out there.
this baffles me (Score:2, Interesting)
Just look at Gnome's competitor KDE. KDE is still free software, but by having a clean UI and using less resources, it has become the standard linux desktop interface. It's also featured as the default UI in most distro's such as in Red Hat's Linux 8. We don't see KDE group asking for help and donations!
Personally, I don't put my money into what I see as inferior companies.
Re:this baffles me (Score:1, Informative)
1. Since when is KDE the DEFAULT Ui in RH8?
2. This is an appeal for a specific function ie: GUADEC, which I am not aware has any equivalent in KDE
Re:this baffles me (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:this baffles me (Score:2, Interesting)
I have some work for them, (Score:4, Funny)
talk about being poles apart (Score:3, Interesting)
Whatever, OpenSource is on its way.
Why all the bitching? (Score:4, Insightful)
Please note, you people saying "what about the starving children," that I am doing this in ADDITION to other charitable donations, thanks very much. I'm hardly snatching money from the mouths of the innocent to hand it over to pale and chubby programmers.
If you don't want to give them money, fair enough. Don't. You get that right with Free Software, you know? It's not like they figured out a way to make you pay for their products, even if you don't want them.
They're asking nicely - you can decline just as nicely, you know.
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So now taxpayers are paying for Gnome? (Score:2)
Great so now my tax dollars are effectively paying for Gnome, since anyone who deducts their donations is taking money out of the tax pool. Thanks a lot for forcing me to pay for your software. What a bunch of communists.
What is Gnome didn't exist anymore? (Score:2)
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:5, Insightful)
Worthwhile depends on your point of view. You may get a warm fuzzy feeling from helping someone more directly. If you do, I suggest you work at a homeless shelter or some similar charity, where you can see and touch the people you help.
Me, I prefer being charitable for more longrange goals. In the long run I regard it as more worthwhile.
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
I have to admit, you are a master at inflammatory red-herring arguments that don't answer people's comments.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Your comment about "suffer and die" is inflammatory. The poster made the valid observation that many charities don't have a long-term benefit -- they just tide people over so they can suffer a little longer.
Education and skills are more valuable in the long run than a soup-kitchen approach to helping people. Teach them to support themselves and they don't need your help anymore.
Helping third-world nations avoid spending their meager finances on corporations software is a good thing for the world society.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Having watched my grandfather suffer from pancreatic cancer for almost a year (though the doctors originally gave him 3 months at the outside), I'd be far more inclined to self-terminate than expect society to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of treatment and pain killers so I could selfishly cling to life for a couple more agonized months.
How about you tell me what features are being worked on that they don't need? Gnome is solid and relatively stable, but it is not "complete." It needs better documentation, better integration (e.g. file extension/application binding defaults), and most of the sub-projects are still far from completely functional.
What would be the point of "developing" text-based software for 386-based PCs? The machines being donated by corps to the third world are typically Pentium or PII systems they'd been using until a year or two ago. Those shipped by my current client site were PII350s with 256MB RAM, 10G HDDs, 1280x1024 capable displays, with 10baseT ethernet, SB16 compatible sound support, mouse, keyboard, and monitor. The cheap PCs sold in India for those with a limited budget are even more powerful than that.
Asking anyone in the third world to try to educate themselves using 386 based machines as you describe would be futile -- the skills required would be hopelessly outdated before they even turned the machine on. They don't need to learn how to type -- they need to be able to replace modern commercial products that leech their budgets.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
I am Mexican. Mexico is a developing 3rd world country, and a lot of the more promising government projects are software industry development based, like this Project to give a boost to multimedia and animation industry in Jalisco [mural.com] (spanish only, sorry). Just what do you think we are? a bunch of freaking retards? There IS industry and education in here! It's not all about helping out the extremely poor, it's about helping society and industry develop so there is more cash flow, education and yes, more programs to help those in need. That said, open source initiatives DO help. A lot. And a bunch of the people involved in open source projects are from third world countries (incidentally, Miguel de Icaza is Mexican).
Please note, too, that foreign backing is not all there is to charity. A country has to develop its own strenghts and help itself. I think we're on our way there. Politics and economic situations are a complicated thing, and broad statements like the ones you make are usually off the mark.
--
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Sounds like you are describing a part of the world unfit to support humans. When such areas are overpopulated and deal with famines as a result, I have a real hard time feeling much pity.
When there is no way to survive where you are, you move. Expecting others to pay to make the area livable is ridiculous.
Clarification (Score:2)
Rereading through some of the posts, it struck me that the comment about my grandfather's pancreatic cancer could imply that he was being selfish by clinging to life.
While he lived far longer than the doctors expected, it wasn't due to a lot of treatment. They tried chemo briefly, but did not continue when it had no useful effect. His last six months were spent in bed, sleeping 12-16 hours a day as the morphine knocked him out. He lived as long as he did because he wanted to, not because of some miraculous expensive life-stretching procedures.
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Benefit (Score:2)
Are yuo sure you don't just prefer charities that give you a warm fuzzy feeling?
We do things for our own reasons, in a free society you're allowed to.
Why don't you work to fix the law?
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:1, Insightful)
A True Donation is done without any expectation of returns or getting anything back. You give and let go, knowing there is more where that came from.
Donation & tax deductible (Score:2)
You don't immediately not pay tax on the donation, it get summed up at the end of the year so you might see a return. But that is just because you overpaid your taxes throughout the year.
Myself I take it as an easy way to bump up my charitable contributions bye 30-40% since it is pre tax money.
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
When I think of all the hundreds of thousands of people who benefit the hard work donated by open-source developers, the idea of a self-righteous liberal prig complaining about leveraging the tax code as it was intended is revolting.
The idea that there are people out there who think only their pet projects deserve assistance is not my idea of a real uplifting message right before Christmas. (And if you object to my calling it Christmas, go to work that day and take your religious holiday off instead.)
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
What do tax deductions to charitable organizations have to do with profitable corporations? What corporations benefit from supporting a Gnome conference? Is Sun getting a free display at the conference? HP? IBM? Who?
No one. Your reference to AMD and Intel is nothing but a red herring intended to inflame anyone with an anti-corporate axe to grind.
It's easy to be self-righteous when you're self-deluded into thinking your way is the only way. Fortunately for the rest of society, other viewpoints are not only allowed, but encouraged and even supported by the openness of the tax laws.
Somewhere you seem to have gotten the idea that "charity" means "socially responsible." Charity is just giving to help when you aren't required to and don't expect a direct benefit back. Your "morales" are irrelevant.
BTW, if you were offended by the "name calling", reread your own post -- I just parodied your own statement from the flip side.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Funny -- I felt every bit as offended at your "self-indulgent" comment. I take pride in my code, make a good living with it, and hardly feel "indulgent" when I contribute to the community through code or testing.
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2, Insightful)
Intel and AMD don't give their product and source code away for FREE.
You lack the ability to differentiate between a deserving charity and a bunch of self-indulgent computer programmers. I do not. I don't need to assume that every organization from the Ku Klux Klan to Habitat for Humanity is equally deserving. I can look at what the organizations do to determine which ones are more deserving.
You lack the understanding of what this particular charity does. Gnome is an open source GUI for Linux, which makes Linux easier to use, which creates more Linux users, which helps to further the technology of humankind without secluding that technology from the masses. All for free. Gnome is a whole lot more than just "a bunch of self-indulgent computer programmers." In addition, it is a technology that helps improve the technology (Linux) that the internet is reliant upon by attracting users to Linux and making it easier to use. If you don't know what Open Source is, I suggest you read Eric Raymond's book [amazon.com] before you go denouncing Open Source organizations as charities.
If you don't want to donate to Gnome, by all means donate to what ever charity you find worthy. But don't call Gnome an undeserving charity just because it doesn't feed starving children in Africa.
Dan
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:3, Insightful)
And the very idea of having your tax money being used to wage war against a very poor country isn't?
I know i'd rather spend it on helping GNOME.
Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, and for a good reason. (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok.... where do I start? First off, what makes you think that the GNOME project, or any free software project does not help the less fortunate. The GNOME project, along with the rest of GNU, is constantly being deployed in less developed countries. This helps provide education on computer use and programming skills to people who otherwise couldn't afford the expensive software. The fact of the matter is education is the key to break out of poverty. GNOME, as part of GNU provides this.
How the hell is any free software project self-indulgent? Maybe the feeling of skill and greatness when you submit a patch for a bug fix, but self-indulgent what are you talking about? These "self-indulgent" programmers provided me with a desktop environment, and I have scarcely given a thing back.(sorry I'm poor too.)
The people who make the GNOME project possible don't see a return short of feeding themselves, just like the Salvation Army, or the American Cancer Society. They clear their overhead and donate their product and services to anyone who needs them, just like any legitimate charity.
Re:Yes, and for a good reason. (Score:2)
And what exactly is a charity? Do you not donate to a charity to get some form of personal gratification for helping those in need, by giving some of your excess to further some goal that is dear to you?
While, in principle, I agree to you that Gnome is hardly my idea of a charitable organization I don't see any reason to criticize their work or call it, in so many words, a fraud of our tax code. I have seen more worthless charities than I care to see and Gnome is hardly an abuse of the current tax code. They donate their work to the public at large to be used however they want to use it and accept donations for the public. Is it traditional? No. Is it still a non-profit organization? Hell yes. Are you under some sort of odd obligation to support it? No. No one cares, if you want to support it do if you don't believe in supporting it don't.
Legitimate charities do not invest tax-deductible contributions to develop products that are resold by big business.
In so many words, fool. What do you call charities that accept sponorship of big companies? Advertisement plain and simple. This charity function funded in part by blah blah. Are they not, using your defination, simply 'selling themselves out' by allowing for their image/goodwill/goodworks to be used to advertise a business and tie to it? Ah but since they do, what YOU define as, good works that is ok? I say that by producing a legitemate, free, alternative to windows Gnome does many good works by allowing for a free desktop enviroment that can be used by any organization that can better spend the $200 it would normally spend on a os/GUI on more important things. In that sense Gnome is indeed a charity since the 200$ it would cost for, say, a windows XP liscene can be better spent feeding children/building houses/curing aids whatever.
Sigh. people need to *think* more.
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Re:Yes, and for a good reason. (Score:2)
No. The charity work that they do still benefits the needy. Suppose FedEx sponsors Habitat for Humanity. Both win. Habitat for humanity gets much-needed money and FedEx gets good press.
No. The charity work that they do still benefits the needy. Suppose FedEx sponsors Gnome. Both Win. Gnome gets much-needed money to further develop a needed free GUI and Fedex gets good press.
THere is *no* difference between the two. None, except that one is more traditional so, according to your view, is more *right* somehow. It's a narrowminded view of the world.
Let's assume that, out of a population of 37,090,298 (Cia world factbook) 1/10 of 1 percent have a computer - that's 37,090 computers. Which, btw, is far, far below the actual number since the reported number of internet users is 50,000. At any rate if they would switch entirely to OSS they would save, at 200$ per computer, 7,418,000$ dollars. That's 7 million dollars that quite a big chunk of change. I would also point out that Gnome minimum system requirements are quite a bit less than the latest version of windows xp. I could also point out that Gnome will continue to be supported far longer than windows xp.
Alas, I would have more to say but I have to finish writing a 6 page paper due in 6 hours. Good day sir.
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Re:Yes, and for a good reason. [OT] (Score:2)
*LOL* This discussion would have been ever so much more entertaining in person. You are tenacious, persistent, and firm in your beliefs. Fine fuel for a fun after-meal discussion group. (Surely you didn't think I had anything against you personally just because I disagree with your opinion on the current subject!)
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*sigh* (Score:3, Insightful)
You can go to any number of websites, download the Gnome source, and build your own. The fact that someone else provides the service of doing the download and build for you (e.g. RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, et. al.) doesn't make it "their" product.
You really like to focus on that misconception that the donations support the programmers who contribute. In fact you are so completely enamoured of that misconception that I'm going to just "walk away" at this point -- I have a feeling I'd have an easier time converting a Southern Baptist preacher to Hinduism than convincing you to let go of that fantasy.
Re:Yes, and for a good reason. (Score:2)
I kind of wish Sun weren't planning to use Gnome, as it would make it clearer to you that this whole business has nothing to do with supporting corporations.
Say I take a few million dollars (assuming I had it), and set up a park with some investments to fund maintenance of the park. No one is charged admission, and everyone is free to roam around whether they be stock broker or homeless bum. If some corporation chooses to have their annual picnic in that same park, is it now "supporting" business?
Of course not! It is still open to all, used by all, and is still not costing anyone admission.
The fact that some corp like Sun has chosen to use the "park" provided by Gnome does not make it a corporate pawn -- it just means another member of the community is accepting the offer to use the facilities.
While you may view free software projects as a "hobby", many of those who work on the projects believe in the good of what they are doing every bit as much as you do when you contribute to the charity of your choice. While there is a significant degree of ego and pride involved in contributing quality code, it is no more "self-indulgent" than your feeling of having "done good" when you write that donation check.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
By what mechanism? Do you assume that anyone who donates to Gnome would otherwise have donated an equal amount to one of your worthy charities? Or do you think that the tax deductions themselves are somehow funded by these charities?
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Or $100 less to spend on drugs and prostitutes. Do any evidence, other than your imagined special insight into the motives of others, to support your rather strong claim that giving to Gnome 'diverts money away from worthy charities'.
If you get a deduction, the rest of us have to make up for it.Nonsense. I'm willing to bet that your tax bill is calculated on your own income, just like everyone elses.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Your various claims in this thread depend heavily on some supposed special insight into the minds of others, for example
charitable donors:
My insight is not imagined. I've worked with non-profits and know the psychology and practices of the donors.
'self-indulgent' Gnome coders:
They do it for personal fulfillment.
other posters:
Your kind lacks the moral compass to make that sort of judgement.
legislators:
You and I both know that organizations like Gnome were not what legislators had in mind when they drafted 501(c)(3).
and so on. The universally negative responses you have elicited in this thread demonstrate that you have no such insight.
So you believe that the tax rates are not, in any way, influenced by deductions? You think that every person in the U.S. could double their deductions and the tax rates would not go up?
Strawman. The actual claim I refuted was:
If you get a deduction, the rest of us have to make up for it.
which remains false.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Bullshit. It was intended to support non-profit organizations, and it's doing that. The fact that you don't agree with the goals of at least one of those organizations does not make the law or it's intent any less valid.
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
Did you read what you posted? The key relevant items expressly listed as qualifying include:
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Re:A Charity Organization? (Score:2)
How much better off is society if one person lives another few years instead of dying? How much better is the human race if some small village in south africa doesn't get wiped out due to some disease? And so on.
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Re:fuck this shit (Score:1)