[Announce-NYCBUG] How to help NetBSD help you.

[announce-nycbug at lists.nycbug.org]

----- Forwarded message from George <george at sddi.net> -----

While we just raised some bucks for the OBSD hackathon, I would 
encourage all to give something for this effort.

g

>----- Forwarded message from Thor Lancelot Simon <tls at rek.tjls.com> -----
>
>
>>Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 17:55:54 -0400
>>From: Thor Lancelot Simon <tls at rek.tjls.com>
>>To: netbsd-users at netbsd.org, current-users at netbsd.org,
>>	netbsd-advocacy at netbsd.org, netbsd-announce at netbsd.org
>>Subject: How to help NetBSD help you.
>>
>>There are many upgrades we'd like to make to the NetBSD project
>>infrastructure, but which we cannot make because, to be blunt, our
>>project is poor.  Not poor in innovation nor poor in developer
>>resources nor poor in features -- poor in cold, hard cash, the kind
>>we need in order to buy hardware that would let us better serve our
>>users.
>>
>>While other BSD projects have received tens or even hundreds of
>>thousands of dollars in donations, either by direct appeal to
>>their users (e.g. FreeBSD, when they faced tax status problems
>>because too much of their income had come from a single corporate
>>donor) or by doing their best to ensure that they received some
>>revenue from the distribution of their products (e.g. OpenBSD and
>>CD sales) we have always, I guess, been a little embarassed to
>>directly and clearly ask our users for money -- whether just as
>>plain, simple donations or in return for copies of NetBSD, which
>>we do our best to make available free to all on the Net by FTP,
>>HTTP, and BitTorrent.
>>
>>But we do need your money.  We really do.  We need it to do more
>>things and buy more stuff that will directly help us serve you,
>>the NetBSD users, our "customers".
>>
>>Often we're asked if people can donate hardware instead of
>>money.  The unfortunate fact is that while individual NetBSD
>>developers may be able to put donated hardware to use, we have
>>standard hardware packages for the TNF servers and our
>>administrators' lives become very hard if we just add donated
>>components to them.  Also, we try to buy all new systems in
>>complete form from vendors we've successfully done business
>>with in the past.
>>
>>However, if you'd like to donate to NetBSD, and see your donation
>>go towards hardware to do things like speed up automatic builds
>>of NetBSD (so you can always download the latest binaries from
>>the branch you want for the hardware you need them for) or ensure
>>fast and reliable AnonCVS service, what you *can* do is donate
>>money to us and request that we devote it to that purpose.  We
>>can't make hard guarantees (we have no need, for example, for 73
>>new disk drives) but we will do our best to put your money to
>>use in the way you intended it to be used.
>>
>>So, if you'd like to "donate hardware" to us, please see the attached
>>list of what we pay for the parts of which kind of system.  If you
>>send us an appropriate amount by PayPal to paypal at netbsd.org, we will
>>quickly put it to work to improve NetBSD, and the availablity of
>>NetBSD, for you.
>>
>>Clicking on the "PayPal donate" logo on the front page of our web
>>site will of course also direct your donation to The NetBSD Foundation.
>>
>>You don't need a PayPal account to donate; you can donate directly using
>>your credit card, which PayPal will process on our behalf.
>>
>>Of course, donations of any size are always greatly appreciated; and
>>donations to The NetBSD Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity, are tax deductible
>>under U.S. law.
>>
>>PARTS LIST #1: Standard NetBSD Foundation Build System
>>
>>ITEM				QTY	PRICE	TOTAL
>>
>>Acme 8176T 1U Server		1	$685	$685
>>Chassis Rail Set		1	$ 45	$ 45
>>1U 64-bit PCI Riser Card	1	$ 19	$ 19
>>AMD Opteron 244			2	$252	$504
>>WD Raptor 74GB SATA disk drive	2	$196	$392
>>512MB PC3200 DDR ECC REG RAM	4	$ 78	$312
>>Labor, assemble & test		1	$ 25	$ 25
>>Shipping (approximate)		1	$ 40	$ 40
>>
>>Total for system:	$2022
>>
>>The more of these we can buy, the more we can speed up autobuilds for you.
>>
>>PARTS LIST #2: Replacement Anonymous CVS Server
>>
>>Acme 8177T 1U Server		1	$799	$ 799
>>Chassis Rail Set		1	$ 45	$  45
>>1U 64-bit PCI Riser Card	1	$ 19	$  19
>>AMD Opteron 242			2	$201	$ 402
>>WD Raptor 74GB SATA disk drive	4	$196	$ 784
>>1GB PC2700 DDR ECC REG RAM	8	$138	$1104
>>Labor, assemble & test		1	$ 50	$  50
>>Shipping (approximate)		1	$ 40	$  40
>>
>>Total for system:	$3203
>>
>>Thank you, in advance, for what I hope will be your very
>>generous support.  We will put your money to work -- and
>>quickly -- to help NetBSD better serve you.
>>
>>Thor
>
>
>----- End forwarded message -----