Google ups its Linux Foundation membership to the $500,000/year Platinum level

[nojvek]

The amount of Linux foundation OS code that google uses, probably makes them 1000x that amount.

I believe you can't really put a $$ amount on good OS projects. They really do fundamentally shift how things work for an entire industry and make a tiny dent in the universe.

While the world worships the Tech billionaires like Zuckerberg, Bezos, Page, Brin e.t.c Something has to be said for people who pour their hearts and lives to making a great OS project that's used under the hood almost everywhere.

[lima]

The Linux Foundation is an umbrella organisation/lobby organisation, similar to the Apache project.

Most of the actual code is written by individual and corporate contributors. Google, in particular, contributes a LOT of code to both the Linux kernel and projects like Kubernetes.

[scrollaway]

Serious question, what would the Linux foundation do with 5bn/year?

[mankash666]

You're grossly misinformed about the importance of corporate sponsorship and involvement.

1. Google's use of Linux legitimizes Linux (further)

2. Corporations have contributed far more to Linux's source code than individual volunteers

3. As much as you'd like to paint Linux as a socialist, anti-corporate savior, it's symbiotic relationship with capitalism is what makes it thrive and relevant.

[bdcravens]

> Something has to be said for people who pour their hearts and lives to making a great OS project that's used under the hood almost everywhere.

I'm sure many of those developers have an email @google.com.

[williamxd3]

I think Torvalds is worshiped well enough

[whatyoucantsay]

A billion+/year would be reasonable, considering what they've done with Android.

[paxys]

Microsoft is routinely the biggest contributor to the Linux source, so it's not like big companies are just getting the stuff for nothing.

[craftyguy]

The Linux Foundation is a corporate PR joke. Even Oracle, slayer of FLOSS projects for decades, and vmware, violating the GPL for the Linux kernel for years with ESX, are 'platinum members'[1].

At this point, any membership in this 'foundation' should be viewed a shallow attempt at marketing.

1. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/membership/members/

[subway]

The Linux Foundation does do some pretty useful work. For instance, iirc, they facilitate much of the work on Let's Encrypt.

[pavs]

I don't understand the angst, are you saying they should not accept any donation for those companies?

[trasz]

VMWare violating the GPL license? No offence, but it's just mixing up FSF's PR with reality. Which is: VMWare can afford much better lawyers than FSF could, and if there really was a violation, they wouldn't give the project a green light, given that alternatives (operating systems under less restrictive licenses) are freely available.

[TomMarius]

Are the funds not used to develop Linux?

[matt4077]

You're judging the foundation by who decides to give them half a million $ per year?

If Oracle, or anyone else you don't like, donates to the EFF, or the Red Cross or whatever: does that also taint those organizations?

[ymse]

It's funny and sad how Linux Foundation gets all the attention from these corporations, when GNU/FSF have been just as (or more) enabling for their success (ignoring Android for a moment).

Imagine what GNU could do if they had just a fraction of the donations LF receives. Perhaps we could finally get good, affordable hardware that respects our freedoms.

Misunderstand me right, Linux Foundation does great work and deserve the success, but they likely would not exist if it wasn't for the FSF.

[wmf]

Imagine what GNU could do if they had just a fraction of the donations LF receives.

Publish more rants telling people to stop using all software and services they enjoy? Fork already-free software to be more free? Rewrite popular BSD-licensed software as GPLv3?

Perhaps we could finally get good, affordable hardware that respects our freedoms.

The way to get freedom-respecting hardware is to build something 80% free, then invest the profits into a second generation that's 90% free, then 95%, etc. Companies like Purism are doing this but the FSF isn't willing to compromise so they make no progress.

[DannyBee]

It's neither funny, nor sad, it's a pretty direct reflection of the fact that GNU/FSF is pretty ineffective at achieving any of those goals over time themselves.

[xyzzy_plugh]

While I agree with you, GNU/FSF is only one player. Userspace isn't as important and is frankly replaceable in Enterprise.

I've worked a few gigs, and shipped some products, where we didn't use any GNU software at all.

Additionally, userspace isn't where a lot of the development needs to happen. We don't need new features or performance tuning of existing tools. We usually just write new ones.

[emacsen]

I am a FSF supporter generally and financially but let's be entirely honest about what the FSF has done in the last twenty years, and that's actually very little in terms of making good Free Software.

They lack a cohesive vision or the expertise to move projects forward. I'd love if that were different - we *need a Free Software org with vision, but the FSF hasn't had any for a long time.

[akerro]

Yea, we could, but that's not what their sponsors want.

[trasz]

You mean, GCC and the GNU toolchain, as it's the only actually crucial thing that can be attributed to FSF? It already seems to be quite well supported by hardware vendors, even if more "researchy" projects are slowly migrating towards LLVM.

[pecg]

When I read things like this, it makes appreciate OpenBSD (and the rest of projects under the OpenBSD Foundation) even more, considering how it is still actively and fearlessly maintained by few individuals (less than 40), motivated mainly by their own enthusiast and passion, investing their own time and money on it, just for the purpose of producing a bloat-free OS focused on security and correctness, that can rival GNU/Linux in terms of performance.

[ksec]

Um... How do the 40+ OpenBSD make living? I first thought donations to FreeBSD were already tiny compared to Linux, and then OpenBSD seems to be even smaller.

I am amazed at how the BSD community continue to survive when Linux has literally suck out all the OS OS development fundings.

[jesperht]

I may be cynical, but I'll make a bet that there's a big Fuchsia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia) announcement on the horizon and Google wants to have some evidence to point to that shows they still care about Linux to combat the inevitable "Google is abandoning Linux" FUD/headlines.

[jononor]

To add to the cynicism... Maybe Linux Foundation will host that as one of their Collaborative Projects? :)

[sergiotapia]

Seems like a ridiculously low amount of money from the world's largest company. Doesn't Linux power their entire business?

[rootlocus]

They also contributed a lot of work to the linux kernel like initial support for containers with cgroups in 2006-2007.

[cmjqol]

> Doesn't Linux power their entire business?

Doesn't they power you and your entire business and the web ? Search , Gmail , G Suite , Docs , Chrome , G Analytics , Firebase , Angular etc... For almost nothing per month ?

Money isn't everything , it's nice that they give more money but when you see their contributions level in Github ... They are literaly one of the biggest open source contributors on earth so I don't even see why they bother with that.

[mikece]

They aren't compelled to give anything -- though they might embarrassed that they attained Platinum level after Microsoft did.

[sincerely]

It's pretty small but they do also contribute to the community in other ways through programs like GSOC. I think they could and should definitely do more though.

[ironjunkie]

I have a mixed view about this. On one hand I'm happy to see money going back to open source, but then I'm not sure those foundations are a good thing at the end of the day.

They bring politics, ego, and other undesired side-effects to open source. I saw that happening for a lot of projects that were very well self-managed until they grew to become part of a foundation, with all the politics that come with it.

[zeroxfe]

IMO, politics are an unfortunate result of any kind of growth. Even self-managed organizations become political when they scale up -- it's just the nature of society.

I think the best organizations are the ones that actively manage their political complexity.

[yelloweyes]

500k lol that's peanuts. That's basically what they spend yearly on a good engineer.

[z0r]

keep in mind they also pay engineer salaries to work on stuff that gets contributed back to the kernel (and other projects). of course that's with a healthy dose of self interest, but this 500k isn't the real bottom line

[394549]

While I'm glad that they're increasing their donation (and donating at all), I'm surprised it's only to $0.5 million per year for a company as big, profitable, and Linux-dependent as Google is. Though I suppose they also donate labor, which might not be quantified publicly.

[throwaway5752]

How many Googlers contribute on corporate time or in their spare time? If you offer FT employment to a maintainer, that's just as meaningful.

For those questioning the donation/what it would be useful, or if you disagree with me that employment of oss contributors is an important form of support, please go back to recent history and look at what led up to Heartbleed in the OpenSSL project from an internal maintainer/organization perspective and what the Linux Foundation did in response to it.

[izacus]

They're also one of the biggest contributors of code, donating significantly more in engineering time and pay.

[forkerenok]

I've been thinking about it as well and came to an idea that excessive donation can be damning to the recipient. Tougher constraints keep you sharper.

[ocdtrekkie]

Tencent became a platinum member a mere three days ago: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/24/tencent-increases-its-focu...

I wonder if that may have prompted Google to up it's place on the list. Regardless, more money to open source is a good thing.

[bitpush]

I dont think you drop half a million dollars because a news article came out. My guess is this was in the works for a while, carefully assessing impact, risks and potential reactions.

[sandov]

Does the Linux Foundation really help Linux and software libre? If so, in what ways?

[sharpshadow]

Everybody talking about money here, more important is the choice who will join the foundation. A precious position in your hand as employer.

[kova12]

Just a bit below two mid level developer salaries at Google.

[zakki]

Is that enough to make the best Linux desktop ever?

[Someone1234]

Google already did that twice. Android and ChromeOS.

[yani]

The title should read Google bought a seat at Linux Foundation board of directors for $500k.

[j16sdiz]

Microsoft bought their seat sometime ago. That's how they got LF's public endorsement for buying GitHub.

[hi41]

$500k per is a rounding error for Google. Why didn't they do this earlier?

[ksk]

Meanwhile, IBM has poured Billions with a capital B to turn Linux from a hobbyist me-too to a top-tier OS.

[jrs95]

Pretty sure Linux was great before IBM was pouring jack shit into it