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Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

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Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#241

Post by SpaceL10n »

miki123211 wrote: post #193

The only software project I donate to is NVDA[1]. It's an open source screen reader, AKA software that makes it possible for the blind to use computers through synthesized speech. It's one of the few open source projects (besides Blender and GIMP) that is used directly by non-technical end-users and that has managed to surpass its commercial brethren , both in features and popularity. This is partly due to its extrem…

I had the privilege of a meeting with one of the founders at NVDA. We were integrating it into to our computer kiosks and Michael Curran joined the call and helped guide us on how best to achieve our goal. It is obvious to me that the NVDA team cares deeply about equal access. Their goal is a noble one worthy of donations. We did not have the same experience swimming around the waters of Martha's Vineyard.

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#243

Post by FinnKuhn »

I believe all international organizations and projects I support from time to time were already mentioned in this thread.

However, there are also some local (German in my case) organizations I have donated to.

1. GFF - Gesellschaft für Freiheit (anti surveillance and pro digital civil rights in the EU and Germany) [1]

2. Frag den Staat (platform enabling easy freedom of information requests in Germany and their publishing in addition to related digital civil rights activities) [2]

[1] https://freiheitsrechte.org/en/ [2] https://fragdenstaat.de/ (German only)

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#244

Post by dowager_dan99 »

alpaca128 wrote: post #192
eskibars wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is super important, and critical reading for anyone commenting on OSS financing. I've been a product management lead for 2 commercial open-core companies and people drastically overestimate: - How much code the community contributes (in both cases, >95% of all code was written by employees hired by the commercial company) - How few commercial resources are needed to support the community (running forums, answeri…

With "overestimate how few resources are needed" do you mean underestimate the amount of needed resources?

>> overestimate how few resources are needed

Immediately think of Arrested Development: "It’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?"

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#245

Post by saulpw »

hadjian wrote: post #126

- Kitty terminal. My daily driver. - Wikipedia - Used to donate to visidata and will probably again, if I need it for work again

Thanks for your VisiData donation! Donations like yours continue to motivate us to continue to maintain the tool, and in fact we're putting out a new release in the next few weeks.

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#246

Post by dowager_dan99 »

lolinder wrote: post #206
jll29 wrote: post #167

Important institutions that one may want to consider include: Open Source and Internet - Internet Archive [important would be some pro bono legal help due to the recent turn of events, perhaps] - Wikipedia [no need at the moment? Some say "overfunded compared to others"; has anyone checked?] - Ladybird Web browser [coming to you in 2026: the first non-corporate Web browser from scratch; some said it couldn't be done;…

> Internet Archive [important would be some pro bono legal help due to the recent turn of events, perhaps] I have a really hard time with this one. Their current legal situation didn't just happen to them: they made an intentional choice to do something which ~everyone who knew anything about law warned them would be catastrophic and are now facing the catastrophe that they were warned about. They acted like a small…

honest question to all: how do you keep pushing boundaries once you've been successful enough to transition from a scrappy activist with nothing to lose to foundational infrastructure? I get the simple answer is reduced risks, stop doing the things that made you successful, but is there another path? Surely if OpenAI can somehow go from benevolent saviour of humanity to naked profit megacorp we can find a way for the IA to keep taking big risks?

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#248

Post by [deleted] »

47282847 wrote: post #163
chompychop wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But modern browsers do have this feature, don't they? I can do this on Chrome and Firefox, at least.

Say a website links to 20 images and a dozen mp3s (and other files not in your interest). How would you without an extension like DownThemAll grab these files all at once?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#249

Post by ecliptik »

dijit wrote: post #102

I’ve sent money to openbsd. They might not be popular to use, but the absolute freedom of the software along with how simple it is written makes it an incredible “good” for studying OS design. I have also donated to the FSFE (European FSF) and the Linux foundation, but we don’t get tax incentives for donating to charity in most european countries. So it’s quite costly.

In the past I've donated old hardware to OpenBSD [1] and would love to donate to them directly, but they aren't registered as a 501c3 in the US and can't claim the deduction on taxes (yes, I know, I am not 100% altruistic).

Instead I donate to FreeBSD and support OpenBSD in an ancillary way through OpenBSD Amsterdam [2]. Which yes, is also not tax exempt, but does comes with nice OpenBSD VM.

1. https://www.openbsd.org/want.html

2. https://openbsd.amsterdam/

Re: Ask HN: What projects do you donate to?

#250

Post by freedomben »

dowager_dan99 wrote: post #244
alpaca128 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With "overestimate how few resources are needed" do you mean underestimate the amount of needed resources?

>> overestimate how few resources are needed Immediately think of Arrested Development: "It’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?"

Don't worry, there's always money in the banana stand
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