If you visit via the advertisement or directly: libre.thinkpenguin.com then
you'll see a 'donation' product added to the shopping cart automatically.
This is for Trisquel, which ultimately helps fund Rubén's travel expenses to
conferences like LibrePlanet, and potentially development (some day?). If you
post a link (wherever that may be) I encourage you to use
libre.thinkpenguin.com. The FSF, Trisquel, etc use this link.
Regardless of the link though the money coming into ThinkPenguin is largely
going right back into improving support for or access to free software
friendly hardware. It takes a significant amount of money to really do
anything significant so there is a lot left to be desired as far as what we
(ThinkPenguin) are doing as it relates to hardware.
Good things: ThinkPenguin is fully funded and employing numerous individuals
(myself full time, and others part time). ThinkPenguin is also able to
contribute to Trisquel, the FSF, and various other projects working on
development of free software or free software advocacy. The FSF gets 10% from
sales (yes, not just the profits) on certain auction sites. Trisquel gets 25%
from those who purchase through libre.thinkpenguin.com.
Bad things: There isn't enough money coming in to produce a truly 100% free
software laptop or desktop. The laptops and desktops are just compatible with
100% free operating systems like Trisquel & Parabola GNU/Linux right now.
With significant growth much more can be done to fix the hardware and
software problems. We aren't there yet although have been working on a new
web site, a tiny bit of marketing, and improving our hardware offerings for
some time. I think for a company just 5 years old with no outside funding
we've done a pretty good job. Most of the progress that has been made has
been made in the past 2 years. I hope to see to it that there is more funding
for a 100% free software distribution and non-x86 truly free software
hardware to match in the coming years.
