136 lines
6.4 KiB
HTML
136 lines
6.4 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
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<html>
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<!-- Copyright (C) 1988-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
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any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
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Invariant Sections being "Funding Free Software", the Front-Cover
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Texts being (a) (see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b)
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(see below). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
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"GNU Free Documentation License".
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(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
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A GNU Manual
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(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
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You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
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software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
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funds for GNU development. -->
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<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.2, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
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<head>
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<title>GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals: Funding</title>
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<meta name="description" content="GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals: Funding">
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<meta name="keywords" content="GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals: Funding">
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<link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
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<link href="Option-Index.html#Option-Index" rel="index" title="Option Index">
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<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
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<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
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<a name="Funding"></a>
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<div class="header">
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<p>
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Next: <a href="GNU-Project.html#GNU-Project" accesskey="n" rel="next">GNU Project</a>, Previous: <a href="Match-and-Simplify.html#Match-and-Simplify" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Match and Simplify</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>
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</div>
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<hr>
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<a name="Funding-Free-Software"></a>
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<h2 class="unnumbered">Funding Free Software</h2>
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<p>If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes
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sense for you to help encourage people to contribute funds for its
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development. The most effective approach known is to encourage
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commercial redistributors to donate.
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</p>
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<p>Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by
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encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of their selling price
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to free software developers—the Free Software Foundation, and others.
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</p>
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<p>The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect
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it from them. So when you compare distributors, judge them partly by
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how much they give to free software development. Show distributors
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they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
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</p>
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<p>To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can
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compare, such as, “We will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project
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for each disk sold.” Don’t be satisfied with a vague promise, such as
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“A portion of the profits are donated,” since it doesn’t give a basis
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for comparison.
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</p>
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<p>Even a precise fraction “of the profits from this disk” is not very
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meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions
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can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
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If the price you pay is $50, ten percent of the profit is probably
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less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.
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</p>
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<p>Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too;
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but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and
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what kind. Some kinds of development make much more long-term
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difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of
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a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
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program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports
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contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult
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ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU Compiler Collection contribute more;
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major new features or packages contribute the most.
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</p>
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<p>By establishing the idea that supporting further development is “the
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proper thing to do” when distributing free software for a fee, we can
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assure a steady flow of resources into making more free software.
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</p>
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<div class="display">
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<pre class="display">Copyright © 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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Verbatim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted
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without royalty; alteration is not permitted.
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</pre></div>
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<hr>
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<div class="header">
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<p>
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Next: <a href="GNU-Project.html#GNU-Project" accesskey="n" rel="next">GNU Project</a>, Previous: <a href="Match-and-Simplify.html#Match-and-Simplify" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Match and Simplify</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>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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