Apparently Stripe and Facebook just stepped in to pledge $50K/year each. https://twitter.com/stripe/status/563449352635432960
And the Linux Foundation kicked in $60K!
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
#322Apparently Stripe and Facebook just stepped in to pledge $50K/year each. https://twitter.com/stripe/status/563449352635432960
And the Linux Foundation kicked in $60K!
Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
> AFAIK Ubuntu is profitable for Canonical, so I wouldn't call that a donation. Unfortunately, that is very far from true. Ubuntu was negative $21 million USD in 2013[1]. Canonical would literally make money by just not doing Ubuntu anymore.[2] (Every time Canonical is on the verge of bankruptcy, Shuttleworth re-seeds back into the company from his personal checkbook) [1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/199373896/Canonical…
I wonder what happened behind the scenes that basically killed Ubuntu in its tracks. Circa 2008, before the Unity and Pulseaudio switches, it was considered by pretty much everyone the premiere Linux distro. I don't see why they could not get support contracts with Dell, HP, etc to sell Ubuntu computers and provide the tech support in exchange for positive cash flows. Even today Dell is still doing Sputnik and in Eur…
> I wonder what happened behind the scenes that basically killed Ubuntu in its tracks.
Ubuntu has never been profitable for Canonical. Shuttleworth's game-plan was always long-term minded regarding Ubuntu -- but as we've seen as-of-late, Canonical is shifting focus to other markets they view as potentially profitable. Shuttleworth has committed to keeping Ubuntu alive, but it's no longer Canonical's sole hope for income.
> I don't see why they could not get support contracts with Dell, HP, etc to sell Ubuntu computers and provide the tech support in exchange for positive cash flows.
This isn't just a problem for Ubuntu, but for most end-user linux distros. People always joke with Linus when the "year of the Linux desktop" will finally arrive... The people who use Linux as their daily driver generally don't need the support, and for the ones who do, well it's a lot less marketshare than Windows.
> Even today Dell is still doing Sputnik
Besides Sputnik, and some Linux-only end-user manufacturers like System76, there really isn't a lot of choice for pre-installed Linux end-user computers.
It's weird too, because Sputnik is $50 more expensive than the windows version of the same hardware. (probably some Microsoft deal going on here).
Linux comes pre-installed on majority of server hardware (server hardware than comes with any OS at all that is), and Linux dominates this field. But the "year of the linux desktop" hasn't quite arrived yet. I do hope it comes soon.
Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#324Apparently Stripe and Facebook just stepped in to pledge $50K/year each. https://twitter.com/stripe/status/563449352635432960
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Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#325why doesn't he watch some youtube videos on lean startups, write a business plan and raise some VC money?
Probably because he's good at writing code, not writing business plans and raising money.
That, and there's unlikely to be a compelling story for VCs here. There are many many projects that are great and valuable to humanity and yet are not VC fundable.
Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#326I would like to repost a comment from reddit[1] that makes some good points:
"That title is pretty laughable.
Enterprise E-Mail Encryption solutions do NOT use gnupg, and most enterprise customers do not even use openpgp, they use X.509/SMIME. I know the world top 10 server side enterprise e-mail encryption solutions and the majority uses java with either bouncycastle or ajak encryption, for PGP or openssl/bouncycastle for SMIME. There are some solutions that use gnupg but those are very small and again - most people do not use openpgp in the business world. Mostly automotive uses it like Porsche, VW etc. for encrypting e-mail traffic. Gnupg is mostly used for e-mail by your skilled engineers in private or while communicating with kernel developers etc. Either by using enigmail/mutt/command line whatever.
Nothing based on e-mail would "break" if gnupg went missing.
Now lets get back to Mr. Koch - gnupg was sponsored by the German Government - in all these years - Mr. Koch tried to build a consulting company/enterprise solution out of it - but he failed because there were already existing solutions that were far better than anything he could come up with. Moreover asking Mr. Koch to fix specific bugs in gnupg which was as i said sponsored resulted in simply "pay me XXX amount or i wont do it" - thats how Mr. Koch worked.
Ask any code auditor/reviewer worth his salt and he will tell you gnupg is a mess, it is worse than openssl in most cases - why ? Ask Mr. Koch.
I just want to remind everyone carefully judge, before thinking about donating to Mr. Koch or his company. I already noticed he received well over 50k today just because of this false article.
This guy got funding multiple times from the german government for implementing and maintaing gnupg. This was never a fulltime job - adding patches and a few features is what any open source developer does in his free time. Mr. Koch tried to build a business upon this government funded software, and it failed. He already had multiple fundraisers in his careers to keep his company going. Does he deserve your money ? It is not like gnupg would be dead without him - he is not the only one doing anything - there are many developers in the community who are doing their share too.
Arent there other things more deserving of funding than the failed economical existence of one guy ? An open source developer that wants to contribute free software does not need your money to survive! Did Mr. Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds ever beg people for money because they cant buy their next meal ? Did the BSD Foundation plea to you they cant make days end ? No - they never did - and they still were able to produce free open source software.
Mr. Koch does not deserve your money, if anything successors of him should receive funding if they need to - but not to survive - because they most likely got a real job already and doing this in their free time. "
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2uw2gt/the_worl...
Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#327This is an epitome that corresponds to Peter Thiel's thesis statement: contribution to a society and (financial) reward are independent variables.
Re: Email Encryption Software Relies on One Guy, Who Is Going Broke
#328Calling GnuPG "email encryption software" really understates its importance. It's also used in countless applications to encrypt data at rest, and GPG signatures are used to secure the distribution of software. For instance, GPG is an essential part of the package managers of Debian, Ubuntu, and RedHat. Here is a link to the donation page: https://gnupg.org/donate/index.html
Shouldn't it be part of that Core Infrastructure Initiative project then?
The Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative agreed to fund Werner $60,000 several weeks ago for his critical GnuPG work.