Donations and Expenses

[solar1951]

I am just posing the question here as a possible "nice to know" and as a balance to the monthly blog list of donors.
Do the community want to see a list of monthly "expenses" in order to create a crude "balance sheet" with the donations blog ?
This is not some accountancy/bean counter test but I would find it usefull to know where the costs are in running such a popular distribution.

Just a thought, no flames please - and I am not a control freak either.

[mick55]

I am not a control freak

Are you sure?

[solar1951]

I am not a control freak

Are you sure?

yup !

[tdockery97]

On the one hand it could prompt more people to donate if they knew the expenses involved. On the other hand, Mint is not a profit-oriented corporation (such as Novell, Canonical). As such, no one really has any business knowing how the receipts vs. expenses relate. It leaves it in the hands of Clem and other developers to decide regardless of what we think; and that is just how it should be.

[mick55]

Too bad all the people who know how to run this country are busy driving taxicabs or cutting hair.

[Robin]

If nothing else, it would at least be educational for those of us who really have no idea of what goes into making a distro - or at least one that is based on an existing one and uses their repositories (saving lots of money there too I guess).

Mint has frequently been accused of "plagiarizing Ubuntu" (and Ubuntu in turn gets accused of "taking credit for Debian's work"), just "putting green paint on Ubuntu," etc. Obviously there's a lot more than just "green paint" to distinguish them, and anyone who has used both distros knows that there are lots of differences. A list of expenses to "justify" asking for donations is appropriate for any non-profit and would probably be useful in increasing donations too.

-Robin

[Bob63]

On the one hand it could prompt more people to donate if they knew the expenses involved. On the other hand, Mint is not a profit-oriented corporation (such as Novell, Canonical). As such, no one really has any business knowing how the receipts vs. expenses relate. It leaves it in the hands of Clem and other developers to decide regardless of what we think; and that is just how it should be.

@tdockery97,
Respectfully disagree with phrase "no one really has any business knowing how the receipts vs. expenses relate." If I donate my money to a project, whether it is for Mint or the Red Cross, I think I could reasonably expect to be kept informed as to how the money is being spent. Maybe it is not a problem in your state, but unfortunately where I live there are many organizations which take in donations for whatever cause, then don't deliver. While I doubt that the devs are buying Ferraris and hosting wild parties, keeping a balance sheet is a preferred business practice that can both comfort potential donors and satisfy authorities if needed. It is usually required of "corporations."

Having said that, I think it would be interesting to see how the money is spent - in general terms. What sort of expenses are involved in producing a product that I like and use daily?

[Lantesh]

I think it's pretty obvious where the money goes. It goes to pay Clem for all his hard work. He posted awhile back that he quit his regular job to work on Mint full time. So your donations go to pay for the roof over his head, his electric bill, food for his family, etc... And some goes back into the project to pay for file servers, and hosting. It is not a non-profit business as someone suggested. It is a for-profit business that Clem supports his family with. He gives you the product for free, and it is up to you to decide how much to donate. I don't think he owes us any explanations of what he does with that money. Obviously he is living off of it, and that is the way it should be.

[Jean Yves]

That is a very legitimate question.

It would be easy to be emotive, but Linux members are different, aren't we? It is a question of equitable acknowledge and fair retribution for everyones excellent work and time. When we think of Linux, we think about a dream of a man and all the work and passion of the worldwide community that we are building on and on. Linux Kernal under Debian, Debian under Ubuntu, Ubuntu under Mint and next...

I think it's all related to the entire Linux philosophy and reason to be. An open system for everyone by everyone, as opposed to Microsoft. I choose my words; 'open'. Open sources, open ideas and Open = transparency. I am a software engineer of 20 years of experience, and it would be an option for me to create my own Linux branch based on Mint. Adding my own vision into it and having no consideration for Clement Lefebvre and Linux team work in terms of money retribution. Hey! I have a family to feed. Linux team are in there right to ask for donation and I would be happy giving to it, as soon as I know what and who I am giving for? If it so obvious, can someone answer this post of (
Donation according to Software in the PublicInterest (SPI). by Jean Yves on Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:23 am ). Clement maybe?

According to me, in a general sense, it should be stated very clearly that Mint is using more than 90% of other people works i.e Linux Kernal, Debian and Ubuntu work to keep 100% of contributions. I would be happy to donate accordingly with respect to everyone's work. Else, it is a free OS, WHY should I pay? I also have a family to feed and I can get Windows7 for 150$. But it wouldn't be honest against half of the worldwide population (3,000,000,000) that do not have the money to pay for an OS. And I am happy to contributes to that dream of M. Torvalds and of course Clement's team work

Regards,
Jean Yves Cadieux

[solar1951]

Clem has replied to this question in the latest blog

http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=1548

Looks about as much detail as is available

[Bob63]

Clem has replied to this question in the latest blog

http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=1548

Looks about as much detail as is available

Yes, now that is the sort of information I was interested in. I didn't want a dollar-for-dollar (or euro-for-euro) accounting. But knowing that the donations are actually being used to support the project, and how the donations are being used is a comfort, and makes me more likely to donate in the future. Knowing that the donations are being used for such things as replacing hardware that is mission critical, or even supporting a developer in time of need - that is exactly how I would expect my money to be spent.

I feel that people should be interested in how their investments work, and that the business community as a whole owes it to their customers and investors to be as transparent as possible. "Don't worry, be happy" is a poor business model.