[nycbug-talk] OpenBSD 3.9 Pre-Orders

[George R.]

Ray Lai wrote:
> OpenBSD 3.9 pre-orders are up!  Now is a good time to buy the CDs
> and support the project.  CD sales have been weak recently, please
> help out!  Attached are two letters of encouragement sent to misc@
> earlier.
> 
> -Ray-
> 
> Subject:    pre-orders
> From:       Theo de Raadt <deraadt () cvs ! openbsd ! org>
> Date:       2006-03-08 3:23:17
> 
> We have activated the pre-orders for OpenBSD 3.9...
> More information can be found at
> 
> http://www.openbsd.org/39.html
> 
> There's a T-shirt and a poster too...
> 
> (The whole subject of the artwork will become more clear in a while,
> as we make more of it available.... :)
> 
> 
> 
> Subject:    Pre-orders for our releases.
> From:       Theo de Raadt <deraadt () cvs ! openbsd ! org>
> Date:       2006-03-08 21:55:33
> 
> I would like to remind our community that our project lives and
> breathes because of the sale of CDs and the receipt of donations.  In
> the last few years a few very large donations have allowed our
> hackathons to happen, but other than that we are always digging
> ourself a bigger and bigger hole.
> 
> Most of our user community increases their use of the FTP servers,
> while we naturally sell fewer CDs.  For instance, I would approximate
> that the sale of every T-shirt we make probably does not pay for the
> electricity used in the machine room.  It's about $5000 a year.
> 
> This is placing a severe strain on our ability to toss money at
> projects.  For instance, we want to hold more mini-hackathons, since
> they are so incredibly productive.  And we would like to pay for more
> travel expenses for developers to these events, since there are always
> developers who are less fortunate.
> 
> Yet almost all of our donations really do come from individuals, and
> almost none from companies using our software.  Even though there are
> many many companies doing so.  Some companies are small, but there are
> also quite large ones.  And banks.  Government institutions.  Ones you
> see in the news every day.  And operating system vendors who reuse our
> code.
> 
> But financially we are under strain, and it is not letting us grow any
> of our bigger plans.  If anyone has any real clout to make changes
> within institutions that could help us in the long term, please do.
> Like universities, or even companies that want to sponsor an entire
> hackathon.
> 
> (But please do not send suggestions, because unfortunately we think we
> have heard every single one of them before, and people never listen
> when we say that it is not viable for us to play non-profit games, nor
> selling special merchandise, nor will it help to hire people to write
> special books.  We've heard all these ideas before.  Having us impliment
> more ideas does not help.  It's time for outsiders to impliment things
> which just let us continue what we do).
> _______________________________________________
> % NYC*BUG talk mailing list

Thanks Ray.

I think the track record of NYC*BUG has been clear on this stuff:

we have worked hard to raise money and solicite money for all the
projects.  our community needs our support.

Last year, we raised $600 or so for the OBSD hackathon. And we're going
to do something for this year, probably around the May meeting.

NYCBUG members also heavily contributed to the NBSD and FBSD fund
raising which took place over the past year or so.  Not to mention
numerous hardware donations, the colo and more.  And not to forget Dan
Langille's laptop which was stolen on the hard urban blocks of Ottawa,
Ontario.  (and you think bk is rough . . ).

At some point I hope we can figure out a better way to raise funds, in a
more methodical manner so we can spread the wealth more evenly.

So keep an ear open for what we're going to do for the Hackathon this
year, besides getting your software subscription and buying the gear.

g