136 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
136 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<!-- Copyright (C) 1988-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
|
|
|
|
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
|
|
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
|
|
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
|
|
Invariant Sections being "Funding Free Software", the Front-Cover
|
|
Texts being (a) (see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b)
|
|
(see below). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
|
|
"GNU Free Documentation License".
|
|
|
|
(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
|
|
|
|
A GNU Manual
|
|
|
|
(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
|
|
|
|
You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
|
|
software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
|
|
funds for GNU development. -->
|
|
<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.2, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC): Funding</title>
|
|
|
|
<meta name="description" content="Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC): Funding">
|
|
<meta name="keywords" content="Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC): Funding">
|
|
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
|
|
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
|
|
<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
|
|
<link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
|
|
<link href="Option-Index.html#Option-Index" rel="index" title="Option Index">
|
|
<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
|
|
<link href="index.html#Top" rel="up" title="Top">
|
|
<link href="GNU-Project.html#GNU-Project" rel="next" title="GNU Project">
|
|
<link href="Contributing.html#Contributing" rel="prev" title="Contributing">
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|
<!--
|
|
a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
|
|
blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller}
|
|
div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.indentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
div.smallindentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em; font-size: smaller}
|
|
div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
|
|
kbd {font-style:oblique}
|
|
pre.display {font-family: inherit}
|
|
pre.format {font-family: inherit}
|
|
pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
|
|
pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
|
|
pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
|
|
pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller}
|
|
pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
|
|
pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller}
|
|
span.nocodebreak {white-space:nowrap}
|
|
span.nolinebreak {white-space:nowrap}
|
|
span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal}
|
|
span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal}
|
|
ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
|
|
-->
|
|
</style>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
|
|
<a name="Funding"></a>
|
|
<div class="header">
|
|
<p>
|
|
Next: <a href="GNU-Project.html#GNU-Project" accesskey="n" rel="next">GNU Project</a>, Previous: <a href="Contributing.html#Contributing" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Contributing</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Option-Index.html#Option-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<a name="Funding-Free-Software"></a>
|
|
<h2 class="unnumbered">Funding Free Software</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes
|
|
sense for you to help encourage people to contribute funds for its
|
|
development. The most effective approach known is to encourage
|
|
commercial redistributors to donate.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by
|
|
encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of their selling price
|
|
to free software developers—the Free Software Foundation, and others.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect
|
|
it from them. So when you compare distributors, judge them partly by
|
|
how much they give to free software development. Show distributors
|
|
they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can
|
|
compare, such as, “We will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project
|
|
for each disk sold.” Don’t be satisfied with a vague promise, such as
|
|
“A portion of the profits are donated,” since it doesn’t give a basis
|
|
for comparison.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Even a precise fraction “of the profits from this disk” is not very
|
|
meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions
|
|
can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
|
|
If the price you pay is $50, ten percent of the profit is probably
|
|
less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too;
|
|
but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and
|
|
what kind. Some kinds of development make much more long-term
|
|
difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of
|
|
a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
|
|
program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports
|
|
contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult
|
|
ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU Compiler Collection contribute more;
|
|
major new features or packages contribute the most.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>By establishing the idea that supporting further development is “the
|
|
proper thing to do” when distributing free software for a fee, we can
|
|
assure a steady flow of resources into making more free software.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<div class="display">
|
|
<pre class="display">Copyright © 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
|
|
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted
|
|
without royalty; alteration is not permitted.
|
|
</pre></div>
|
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<div class="header">
|
|
<p>
|
|
Next: <a href="GNU-Project.html#GNU-Project" accesskey="n" rel="next">GNU Project</a>, Previous: <a href="Contributing.html#Contributing" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Contributing</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Option-Index.html#Option-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|