Ask HN: How to best donate money to opensource/linux?
My company has a match program and I want to donate money to a good opensource cause and/or Linux itself.
It seems like the linux foundation would be a good cause, but my company program does not have a profile for that 503c and I cannot find details on their website on how to donate.
Anyone has any tips and/or can help me?
Consider seeing if the particular pieces of software you use have their own donation system, then donate there. A donation to a smaller project could have a very large impact on its future.
The Linux Foundation is carried by billion-dollar companies and that's also the interests it serves, from what Icm hearing. I wouldn't worry about its survival.
The right name for "linux" is GNU/Linux. Initially Linux was just a kernel, with lots of free software from FSF. You can donate to FSF at https://www.fsf.org/about/ways-to-donate/
How much do FSF employees do these days? I was under the impression that most of the pronto FSF projects (GCC, gnome) are worked on mostly by outsiders (redhat and others)
One of the more important roles of the FSF is to provide the technical and legal infrastructure for the GNU project, and all programs that live under it.
They are not focused on directly employing programmers.
They also provide the FSF "Respects Your Freedom" certification to hardware that meets their rigid standards.
This year they added a handful of new products. I feel like they're doing some truly good work for us all.
FWIW, the lead developer of Trisquel is employed by the FSF, though working on Trisquel isn't part of his job duties.
the linux foundation is not a 501(c)(3), it's a 501(c)(6). contributions to it are not deductible, so probably not eligible for your employer's matching program.
If you're looking for more suggestions I'd say look into donating to your distribution of choice whether it be Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.