Donations

[Jumpei Ogawa]

Paul,

>> now i'm afraid to keep using KDE,
> Oh no! Why?

While Ricardo's message sounds a bit mad, I slightly understand his
feelings.

When I was young, I avoided using free (== at no cost) software on the
Internet if the authors strongly asked for donations.
I feel it sounds like the authors do not want us to use their software
without donations. I thought it was unethical to keep using the software
without donating.

Now I got old and overbold, so I don't care about using free things on the
Internet, including KDE software, without donations so much recently ― but
I'm still feeling a bit ashamed for writing that.

I guess Ricardo is not ashamed or feeling guilty for using KDE software
without donations, but he might think that the KDE team does not want to
use KDE without donations in my young days.

It would be nice for people like us if you clarified that we can still use
KDE software for free (at no cost) even if you don't donate in the donation
messages.
However, it might reduce the donations, so I respect your decision even if
you don't do so.

Jumpei

On Tue, Dec 24, 2024 at 8:26 AM Paul Brown <paul.brown at kde.org> wrote:

> Hello Ricardo,
>
> > What is this asking for donations?
>
> As a non-profit charity, we are not in the business of selling products or
> services. We give our stuff away for free. We also do not want to rely on
> big
> tech corporations for funding, as that would put us in their debt, a
> position
> we would prefer not to be in.
>
> Therefore, funding our operations via user donations is one of the only
> resources we have. We like to think the KDE is (funded) by the people, for
> the
> people 🙂.
>
> > now i'm afraid to keep using KDE,
>
> Oh no! Why?
>
> > i think nme like 90% of linux users don't use windows because of our wish
> > to not support money grabbing/powersick apes,
>
> We actually like apes. Not so money-grabbing/powersick techbros. Way worse
> than apes, I assure you.
>
> > Now you're telling me you don't do this because you want to?
>
> Oh, yes. We do it because we want to. Unfortunately doing what we want
> often
> costs money too. If we organise an event, say, in Germany, and we want to
> fly
> one of our contributors in from Vietnam, and that contributor does not
> have
> much money, we want to help them arrange their visa, get a ticket, have
> somewhere to sleep, and food to eat when they get here. All that costs
> money.
>
> If we want to allow people from all over the world to download our
> software to
> enjoy (for free), we have to have space where we can set up or
> repositories,
> servers available 24/7, Internet connections, and so on. All That costs
> money.
>
> If we want to help people discover our software and stop being exploted
> and
> abused by proprietary software producers, we need to take our stuff to
> them, to
> their congresses, we need to rent booths, pay for tickets, travel expenses
> and
> accommodation (again!), hire equipment to display things properly, print
> stickers... All that costs money.
>
> If a developers need a break from their day jobs to spend time on their
> free
> projects because users are demanding a new feature or they need to
> stabilise
> the code, they (and often their faimilies) will need to eat and live
> during
> the months they are working on that. All that costs money.
>
> > if so, then don't do it, get a job at Apple or Microsoft
>
> Oh! Most our contributors have second jobs, I assure you. And thanks to
> that
> you are enjoying our software for free. But, as implied above, creating
> and
> distributing free software is much more expensive than you are imagining.
>
> > and forget you had
> > a role in helping human freedom become a reality
> > you want money go do something else ,
>
> The money ensures the survival of the project. If we did not look for
> funding
> one year, I can assure that the next there would be no more KDE for
> anybody.
>
> We wish we did not have to pay salaries to contractors, for an office
> space, for
> travelling, for equipment to test our software on, or lawyers and
> accountants
> to keep us safe, for servers and Internet connections, et cetera, et
> cetera.
> We wish all these things weere given to us for free. Unfortunately that is
> not
> the reality we live in.
>
> > very simple
> > wanna help humanity get rid of sick apes, then i REALLY trhank you for
> > youtr time and effort, and if you ever need help (free help) ill be VERY
> > happy to assist in anytrhing i vcan witrh ALL my free time for you,
> > I ma 3d artist and know a thing or 2 about python so just give us a
> shout,
> > but PLEASE dont fuck up what you worked on so far, the line is VERY thin
>
> That is a very generous offer! Please take a look at
>
> https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved
>
> It will help you get an idea of how and where to start.
>
> Have a nice winter holiday!
>
> Kindest Regards
>
> Paul
> --
> Promotion & Communication
>
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>
>
>

-- 
Jumpei Ogawa (小川 純平)
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