Hi Hector, First of all, thank you to you and the other treasurers for carrying out such high-responsibility work that our common project depends on. Your efforts are highly appreciated, and I'm grateful that others take on this role, as I personally would not volunteer for it.
Am Sun, Mar 16, 2025 at 08:14:29PM +0100 schrieb Hector Oron: > Hello all, > > Congratulations for all the nominations and thanks for stepping up for this > challenging role. > > I follow up with a couple questions for you: > > 1. Do you know how were Debian funds spent last year(s)? Do you know how > much yearly income Debian has? As Julian mentioned, I do have some advantage in answering this question. However, rather than focusing on what I personally know, I think it is more useful to consider how everyone could more easily access and understand this information. What I can say is that there are monthly reports from SPI, though they are admittedly difficult to interpret. Thanks to the work of Hector and the other treasurers, I have access to graphs illustrating the development of our funds, though I believe these are not publicly available. So instead of simply answering whether I know Debian's yearly income, I'd rather focus on whether we should improve the transparency and readability of financial information-at least for Debian members, if not for the general public. Ideally, the information should be presented in a way that enables anyone interested to answer these questions without needing special access or prior financial expertise. Understanding Debian's financial situation is essential for the DPL, as one of the DPL's responsibilities is making decisions on funding requests. However, it is important to emphasize that the actual financial management-including tracking income, expenses, and reporting-is handled by the treasurers. Their work ensures that Debian's finances are well managed and accounted for, and the DPL relies on their expertise to make informed decisions. For a long time, financial decision-making was relatively straightforward. In his Bits from the DPL talk, Neil once mentioned at DebConf15 that he approved every single funding request he received, and Debian's financial reserves still grew during his term. Unfortunately, these simpler times seem to be over, and the need for careful financial planning has increased. I'd love to be in Neil's shoes, and I hope that future DPLs will see those times return. > 2. If elected DPL, how do you plan to use Debian funds? Which areas > (social, events, I'm not sure how meaningful it is to separate "social" and "events" since any gathering of more than two people inherently has a social component. While technical needs often drive in-person interactions, all our meetings-whether among Debian contributors at (Mini)DebConfs, team sprints, bug squashing events, or release parties-also have an important social aspect. Likewise, representing Debian at broader events such as FOSDEM and FOSSASIA (as international examples) or local ones like Chemnitzer LinuxTage (just to name a few current examples) is, in my view, highly valuable. I would support all these activities as best as our funds permit. > hardware, etc) When it comes to servers maintained by DSA, it seems obvious to me that we should follow the recommended hardware refresh cycle to keep our infrastructure at a modern and reliable level-ensuring that Debian remains what it is. Fortunately, much of our hardware, as well as rack space, is donated or made available at a reduced price. I sincerely hope that our financial situation will always allow us to maintain this without having to make cuts. Sometimes we also support DDs in buying in some way "interesting" hardware, be it open hardware like MNT Reform[1] or to some extend consumer ready RISC-V hardware like Frame.work with RISC-V board. For me it makes perfectly sense to make sure Debian runs on alternative hardware which to some extend matches our values and I would support if Debian developers will make sure that we can support our users who are interested in it. > would you prioritise spending? I do not think it makes sense to imagine hypothetical conflicts between different spending categories like "social" and "hardware." Decisions on spending should be made on a case-by-case basis. What I can say is that I will continue to apply Debian's high standards when making these decisions. Moreover, I can confirm that whenever I have faced important decisions, I have always sought advice from Debian developers who I consider knowledgeable in the relevant area. Looking back, this has always been a good approach, and I intend to stick to this habit. In short: For complex financial decisions, I will consult the treasurers first and also speak with those directly affected by the decision. > Do you have > ideas for improve fundraising (if you think this is needed at all)? I do not think improving fundraising is merely an option-it is a necessity if we want to continue running the project as we have in the past. I am just back from FOSSASIA (hence my late response-your question came in as I started my travels, and I am now slightly jet-lagged with real-life work piling up). My motivation for attending was to see how others are working and to find new supporters, whether for development or financial backing of Debian. Beyond this kind of outreach, I believe there are areas where we could improve by involving professionals. Many tasks in Debian are handled by people with a brilliant IT background, but who take on responsibilities outside their core expertise. While many of our volunteers have developed at least semi-professional skills in areas like conference organization, press work, or financial management, it could be beneficial to involve contributors with formal training in these fields. At the same time, I know that some Debian users who are less technically involved might wonder how they can help the project, assuming that their lack of deep technical knowledge is a barrier. However, Debian has many important non-technical tasks that need to be picked up-ranging from event organization to outreach, documentation, fundraising, and more. These are valuable ways to give back to Debian, and I would strongly welcome contributors who want to support Debian in these areas. We already do this in some areas-for example, in our publicity team, where we have non-uploading DDs. I believe Debian would benefit from strengthening our efforts in these non-technical fields. If we could attract contributors who have expertise in fundraising and are eager to support Debian in ways beyond technical work, I would strongly welcome their involvement. > Thanks again for your support to the project. My thanks goes also to you as I said in the beginning Andreas. [1] https://mntre.com/ [2] https://frame.work/de/de/blog/risc-v-mainboard-for-framework-laptop-13-is-now-available -- https://fam-tille.de
