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Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

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Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#171

Post by aboodman »

hackuser wrote: post #81
a3n wrote: post #14

He's been voluntarily cheated. He should take a job, take care of himself (no one else will), and give gpg whatever time he has left, if he has the energy.

> He should take a job, take care of himself (no one else will), and give gpg whatever time he has left, if he has the energy. In your scenario, what will happen to GPG? The world just loses this essential asset?

That is absolutely not what would happen. Some organization that relies on it would fork it and maintain the fork. It would be highly likely they would even ask him to consult.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#173

Post by korethr »

malandrew wrote: post #40
lawl wrote: post #8

I think the biggest problem is visibility for these projects. They need to be louder. In the case of openssl, I had no idea that they were severly underfunded (until heartbleed). Same for GPG until now. I didn't hear they asked for donations. And I doubt I'm the only one. So I quickly checked if maybe this was big on HN at a point and I just missed it. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=GPG%20donation&sort=byPopulari... h…

I'm wondering if there is a meta-donation page that lists a bunch of the most important open source projects, how you can donate to them and their yearly funding goals (and how many developers are being supported).

Gratipay (gittip) comes to mind, but that's a donation mechanism, rather than the information collection you're describing. Sounds like a good idea for a project. IMO, the hardest part of that will be accurately prioritizing which projects are critical, very important, moderately important, etc.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#174

Post by joshstrange »

agwa wrote: post #159
higherpurpose wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't it be part of that Core Infrastructure Initiative project then?

Matthew Green, who sits on the CII's advisory board, tweeted: "CII does what's beneficial to its members. Privacy tools aren't" [ https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/56338899320386764... ] ...which indicates to me that GnuPG wasn't sold properly. It's not just a "privacy tool" -- it's one of the ways that software (including OpenSSL) is securely distributed. I would guess that quite a few of the CII's members…

In what world are privacy tools not beneficial to the CII? And how does OpenSSL not fall under "privacy tool"??

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#176

Post by unreal37 »

kylec wrote: post #70

I wish there was a sort of "Patreon for open source" nonprofit service where I can support projects like GnuPG, OpenBSD, etc all in one place.

Would Patreon or Gittip (which has changed its name to something I can't recall at the moment) not work for this?

In fact, Gittip's original mission was tips for open source projects.

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#177

Post by tokenizerrr »

hf wrote: post #149
mason55 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would a free software project 'pay it forward'? As mentioned by the grandparent comment, GPG is in use by Debian, Ubuntu and RedHat package managers. Whether or not you count those three as free software they have plenty of money to pay forward to a piece of software that underpins their entire stacks.

The point isn't easily settled, it seems: I am having a hard time to find financial statements from Debian. Ubuntu, or rather Canonical, being a private company, doesn't seem to release financial information. The Ubuntu main page doesn't even provide a 'donate' link anymore. Which leaves RedHat, at last. A public company, of course[0]: Operating profit 2014: $ 1.3e9 Net total income 2014: $ 178.3e6 [0] http://investo…

> The Ubuntu main page doesn't even provide a 'donate' link anymore

Try to download it: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=1...

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#179

Post by [deleted] »

hf wrote: post #109
ryaniscool wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.fsf.org/about/financial The FSF had revenue of 1.25 million in 2013. I'm not trying to comment on where it came from or where it went to. I'm only pointing out that they are not in a very similar position.

Those are some rather interesting documents, thanks! In 2013 FSF paid $ 689,239 in salaries and, astoundingly!, $ 48,995 in credit card fees.

[deleted]

Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke

#180

Post by anebg »

chkuendig wrote: post #138
hf wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are some rather interesting documents, thanks! In 2013 FSF paid $ 689,239 in salaries and, astoundingly!, $ 48,995 in credit card fees.

FIY: That's 3.8% assuming everybody donated by credit card. Anybody got an idea why they pay so much?

Typical credit card fees are 2.9% + 30c. Assuming that they have regular fees at not non-profit rates(which tend to be lower), it would make their average donation amount to be around $7.14

Source: 48995/689239 = (x*.029+.30)/x

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