[nycbug-talk] [tls at rek.tjls.com: How to help NetBSD help you.]

[Jan Schaumann]

Hi folks,

Even though, as mentioned below, it's not been customary for NetBSD to
so openly ask for monetary donations, I'll forward the mail from our
lists here, too.

I know that many of you have just recently donated money to the OpenBSD
hackathon, and me coming along and asking yet again for money is
probably not very high on your list of things you'd like to see here,
but what the heck -- maybe you all want to get some more tax-deductable
donations for this year! :-)

``Support the quality programming that you expect from WNYC''^W^WNetBSD''!

Any help is appreciated, and I promise we won't make this a quarterly
fundraising pledge, even though, just like WNYC, we provide a great
service for free and rely on your generosity. ;)

-Jan

----- 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 -----

-- 
   It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
		  -- Calvin
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