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The new elementary OS 0.3 Beta 2 has been launched, but it looks like the people are focusing on a different aspect of this release. The development team changed the way they are providing the download, which is still free, but the online community went nuts.
There are a ton of Linux distributions out there, and most of them are free. The same can be said about elementary OS and the devs haven't said that they plan to change this policy anytime soon. The only thing they changed was the download page, which by default invites users to donate a modicum amount of money. That sum of money can be changed to zero, so there is no real problem. Or so you might think.
(I myself may have responded too reflexively to the original story. The Elementary devs have clearly long been concerned about financial support, but that doesn't automatically mean they were dishonest or grasping.)
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The story now seems to be not about "what" the Elementary OS developers did, but rather, "how" they did it -- and especially what they said about it.
Some people don't realize how their statements might be construed, when trying to make a point -- and some are quick to take umbrage where no harm (nor insult) was intended. And it is hard to discern tone, when the original statements have disappeared.
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I've no objection to donating to a worthy project (I do, in fact, donate to a number of them). This indeed seems to be a growing theme in Free/Open Source Software circles; Heartbleed, TruCrypt, and other recent events have been driving the point home rather more forcefully than we really want to see. We can't expect to foist off all the support costs onto commercial/industry "patrons" -- and if we think about it, we really don't want to...
It doesn't take large contributions. Wikipedia, during it's fundraisers, points out that (as best as I can recall) if every user currently, at that very moment accessing Wikipedia, were to donate $3, Wikipedia's needs would be met in about 10 minutes. If a user of some project finds that project (especially something as major as an operating system) to be valuable enough to depend upon, then donating the price of a coffee or two is truly a small amount to support the continued existence of such an endeavour.
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The story now seems to be not about "what" the Elementary OS developers did, but rather, "how" they did it -- and especially what they said about it.
Some people don't realize how their statements might be construed, when trying to make a point -- and some are quick to take umbrage where no harm (nor insult) was intended. And it is hard to discern tone, when the original statements have disappeared.
- - - - - - - -
I've no objection to donating to a worthy project (I do, in fact, donate to a number of them). This indeed seems to be a growing theme in Free/Open Source Software circles; Heartbleed, TruCrypt, and other recent events have been driving the point home rather more forcefully than we really want to see. We can't expect to foist off all the support costs onto commercial/industry "patrons" -- and if we think about it, we really don't want to...
It doesn't take large contributions. Wikipedia, during it's fundraisers, points out that (as best as I can recall) if every user currently, at that very moment accessing Wikipedia, were to donate $3, Wikipedia's needs would be met in about 10 minutes. If a user of some project finds that project (especially something as major as an operating system) to be valuable enough to depend upon, then donating the price of a coffee or two is truly a small amount to support the continued existence of such an endeavour.
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