What is the point of a Swiss bank account? Especially with FATCA? OpenBSD has a nonprofit foundation behind it which looks a lot better than funneling money through tax havens.
OpenBSD would have no problem receiving donations if it became something most of its developers and users don't want it to become. Linux or FreeBSD have shown the way to users and incone via various models (paid support, enterprise features, long-term releases, automation tools, trying to be everything to everyone, etc). While it is admirable that OpenBSD has eschewed corporate sponsorship so that it has the freedom to be autonomous, the price for that is, of course, money. Instead of concentrating on users, it might be more worthwhile to focus a campaign on pressuring vendors of enterprise *nix OS's that bundle OpenSSH without contributing a nickel to the cause. This would be most effectively done by buyers in large corporate environments, but this is also the most unlikely group to care. Has any thought been given to media relations? A story in Wired about the world's most underappreciated developers of some of the most critical software could do enormous good. Rumors of an impending implosion could work wonders on those Fortune 500 enterprise *nix vendors who would much rather donate a hundred grand or so rather than spend many times that to develop a critical component in-house. I don't always agree with my OpenBSD friends so they are probably shaking their head at this, but the project needs a strategic non-technical leader for the foundation who can doggedly pursue these various avenues towards multiple and diverse revenue streams without compromising the integrity of the OS. Until then, the leaders are in de facto agreeance that the existing model is what is best for the project. That is fine, but with it must come the acceptance that few outside the security field will have an interest in the OS, and thus few will have an interest in donating. Sent from a mobile device On Jan 17, 2014 8:09 PM, "Mark Schneider" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I read today that there are some financial troubles > I have few question and ideas how to help out to collect some money for > OpenBSD > 1. Myself I would buy as many as possible CDROM sets of OpenBSD 5.4 for US > $500 to distribute them for as low as possible price locally > > 2. If there some problems with payments it would be an idea to open an > account in Switzerland > or does OpenBSD already have a bank account in Switzerland ? > > can someone present this idea to Theo ? > > <Obilan> You could just donate > <ironm> Obilan, sure I can donate .. but it is what would spread OpenBSD > and make it more popular > <ironm> and I am myself not able to help with enough money > > <ironm> 2. If there some problems with payments it would be an idea to > open an account in Switzerland > <ironm> or does OpenBSD already have a bank account in Switzerland ? > > <cthuluh> if you want to collecte funds, just do it > <ironm> It is rather difficult to collect funds without original CD-set > <ironm> cthuluh, the point is that for example in Switzerland it is > difficult to easily buy the OpenBSD 5.4 CD-set > <ironm> and at the moment it costs like 60 CHF > > <ironm> my idea is just to import at once as much as possible to minimize > shipment costs and some custom charges (including 8% VAT) and distribute it > locally for a price below 25 or 30 CHF (swiss francs) > <ironm> from my point of view a price of 20, 25 maybe 30 Swiss Francs can > be accepted here locally > <ironm> If I had easy possibility to buy openBSD locally I would buy it > probably every time when I would know that all the money lands an the > account of OpenBSD > > <klarrt3> since it's free can't you just burn some CD:s, sell them, and > donate the money back > <ironm> klarrt3, it doesn't make sense in my opinion > <ironm> only originally pressed CD media make sense > <klarrt3> it's a nice thought though, getting money for obsd > > <zenlunatic> who are you going to sell them to? > <ironm> zenlunatic, everywhere .. Universities, IT people in Swiss banks > etc > > <mahomet> i'm throwing some money towards OpenBSD Foundation. I use > FreeBSD myself but it'd be tragic if OpenBSD were to disappear > > I hope that it is the proper mailings list. Thank you in advance for > feedback and new ideas. > > Kind regards, Mark > > -- > [email protected] > > http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org
