My life.
I have voluntarily donated more to Free Software development than I ever allowed myself to be forced to pay for proprietary software.
Feeeeeeels good.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Buying software for 10 bucks isn't even bad. Buying a license, which can be revoked at any time, is.
I've given a lot more money to the Krita Foundation than any other graphics applications combined. Every time there's an update I'm like "woaaah awesome taek mi monies!!"
I wonder how much Krita being on steam has generated alone.
I remember buying a CD set of FreeBSD 3.3 back in the day. Partially to support the project, and partially because the alternative was to download it over 33.6baud where I paid per minute.
in the early 00s my Dad and I bought a copy of Linux Mandrake from a Software ETC. didn't have much of a choice in the matter as unless you were in university or something that was the only way of getting it.
Man did we fuck up the family PC trying to install that thing. Came with a massive manual and my Dad figured he could do it cause he kinda sorta not really knew DOS. me? I knew how to put ram and a cpu in a computer. we were not prepared.
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I have about β¬10 in Proprietary software purchases, and β¬1500 in donations to FOSS projects.
Would you accept sloppy mouth kisses from a basset hound in the form of thanks? Because though I am not affiliated with any foss project, I am affiliated with some charitable corporations and this makes my soul happy. And my neighbor's basset hound is really cute.
Yes I will accept kisses.
This is the way
Insert the super fancy Tux for donating more for the FOSS than you would have paid for the proprietary software π€΄
And the mind explosion Tux for donating to a project you don't (yet? or ever?) use but want to see developed anyway.
I mean, I proudly wired 100 euros to GrapheneOS simply because how awesome it is.
I donate to the most important projects out there: Servo, PostmarketOS, F-Droid, Signal (from time to time).
Wikipedia? It's not software but worth donating to.
there's also the Internet Archive if one's looking for something to donate to :)
SO important. They're always under some kind of attack, and they're pretty much the most accessible way we have to access a web that keeps disappearing and getting replaced.
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I donated couple of times. Aren't they doing really well financially? If they will put the big banner asking for money again I will give again :)
I'm also subscribing local newspaper even though the amount of trackers they have is ridiculous and The Guardian. Good journalism is also very important.
I just need a way to spend money so the banner goes away.
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I know this is super weird but, I kinda like seeing a buy button on stuff like "elementaryOS" or "Zorin OS", its essentially just an donation, but I think especially for normal people its that extra "professionalism" which makes it look like another "normal" OS to consider, which it is.
I try and donate where I can, but stuff like Signal, that refuses to employ engineers outside of the US because "talent doesn't exist anywhere else" is where I draw the line. Yes, opensource donations are amazing, but not for projects with attitudes like that.
No-one deserves your donations, but that sounds like you're letting perfect get in the way of good. There are tons of things that speak for Signal. They made the whisper protocol and they consistently protect privacy where they can. I've used it for years (meaning I've actively generated costs for them without any revenue), and that qualifies as good for me.
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Whoa, that's so toxic. I'm glad I switched my donation to Delta. Plus it just feels so much better to use.
I don't have evidence for this but Signal feels just like an app right before it's sold off to a megacorp. I can't put my finger on it...
yeah you really have to be careful sometimes when you want to donate within the FOSS community. Like Hyprland or Kitty. I wouldn't give those dudes a dime.
Is that really the case? I work for a multi national FLOSS organisation but every additional country you want to hire from requires additional compliance overhead so in practice we generally hire from countries where we already have the legal setup to employee people.
How big an org is Signal?
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I have nothing against paying for quality software even if it's not open-source. I pay for Plex, Symfonium (Android) and Kagi. What I hate is yet another subscription for terribly software.
Buying ~~$10~~ $1000 Proprietary Software
~~Donating $10 to FOSS Software~~ Subscribing to the FOSS Software Patron Tier for $10/mo
Made my first round of donations to FOSS projects last weekend!
Support the people doing the work that benefits you.
Hey, random question here. Is there a project or a website where you can specify your Foss projects which you want to give money to and how much and you only have one payment? In my head I think it would be cool if I could split 50 euros in percent or something like this and target my favorite 20 projects. Obviously this project or website should and must be secure and trustworthy.
I think thanks.dev can do this, it's more designed around donating to dependencies of your own projects, but you can manually specify other projects.
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What if i buy the OSS software on a Proprietary site like Steam?
Why would you?
support both the website and the OSS software?
Does steam that is a monopolist when it comes to gaming stores even need your support?
Probably not.
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Straight into the gutter
donate 10 dollars, then deal with 5 years of constant email harassment for more money, despite saying they wont harass you for more money cough wikipedia cough
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I've given more to FOSS projects in the last year since ditching with does than I gave Microsoft in the 20 before it.
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Where do the active code contributors to FOSS software exist on this scale?
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Donating monthly is way more fulfilling that being fored to pay monthly subscriptions.
I donate to Codeberg and do kofi to linux content creators (many of whom have been a life saver) and whatever random neat FOSS CLI or TUI I come across. I also donate to dnkl who is the dev of Foot and Fuzzel.
If it's something I like and I use daily then I donate.
"buy me a coffee / lunch / beer" 1000% Everytime.
Every time π«‘
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