Linux Fund Loses MasterCard Funding Source

An anonymous reader writes "The Linux Fund was established in 1999 to provide grants to free and open source software projects from funds raised via a credit card featuring a picture of Tux, the Linux penguin. This credit card was offered through MBNA America Bank, which was purchased in 2006 by Bank of America. Last week, LinuxFund credit card holders received mail from Bank of America informing them that the LinuxFund card would be discontinued. Linux.com has a few details about the end of the credit card including statements from executive director David Mandel, assuring that the LinuxFund will look different but will continue. In the past, the LinuxFund provided one-time grants of $500-$1,000 USD to many projects including SDL, FilmGimp, Xiph.org Foundation, CrystalSpace, K12LTSP, and Kismet. The LinuxFund stagnated in 2003, and in 2005 it was revitalized by new leaders and by 2006 provided a stable $6,000 per year contribution to a number of larger projects including Wikipedia, Blender, Debian, Gentoo, and OpenSSH." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.

Re:It does not matter that much...

[SydShamino]

? I was under the impression that Linux got where it is today because companies like IBM, Novell, and Red Hat paid their employees to work on open source code, organizations like OSDN paid people like Linus Torvalds to manage and organize the material, funders like the Linux Fund and (recently) Google's Summer of Code provided grants for smaller developers, and, finally, some people contributed volunteer work.

I certainly wouldn't want to criticize the work done by unpaid volunteers, but I would have to doubt that they now represent a "large" portion of the code in Linux, either in terms of lines in the kernal or features.

Re:Funding for minor projects?

[fossa]

The LinuxFund was never strictly about Linux, but Free an Open Source Software projects [linuxfund.org]. I'm not sure I'd call Wikipedia a software project, but it is open source and does maintain the Mediawiki software.

Re:B of A sucks

[HTMLSpinnr]

Agreed, BofA sucks.

However I've checked into my Credit Union's branded cards (past and present), and they're generally outsourced to the big banks such as MBNA (erm, BofA), HSBC, Elan Financial Services, or others. Their rates are also generally less attractive than some other big bank offerings. For instance, those who got the Linux Fund card some time ago under MBNA at the fixed 7.9% APR are less likely to switch to a variable 12.44%-17.99% card unless 4.5-10% of that interest is going to Linux Fund.

Re:Specialty credit cards

[RobertLTux]

Chase had a nasty habit of counting early payments as late for the previous billing cycle.
--
im not sure that would even be remotely legal if a payment was tendered for that month ie starting with a current account
pay in april for april
pay in april for may
pay in may for june
should get you some sort of reward not an extra fee

Re:It does not matter that much...

[Blnky]

? I was under the impression that Linux got where it is today because companies like IBM, Novell, and Red Hat paid their employees to work on open source code, organizations like OSDN paid people like Linus Torvalds to manage and organize the material, funders like the Linux Fund and (recently) Google's Summer of Code provided grants for smaller developers, and, finally, some people contributed volunteer work. I certainly wouldn't want to criticize the work done by unpaid volunteers, but I would have to doubt that they now represent a "large" portion of the code in Linux, either in terms of lines in the kernal or features.

In that case, I think you may be surprised by this [lwn.net].

Re:It does not matter that much...

[RajivSLK]

Did you read the article you linked to? Only 7.7% of contributions were from comfirmed volunteers...

Quote: ..at least 65% of the code which went into 2.6.20 was created by people working for companies. If the entire "unknown" group turns out to be developers working on a volunteer basis - an unlikely result - then just over 1/3 of the 2.6.20 patch stream was written by volunteers. The real number will be lower, but it still shows that a significant portion of the code we run is written by developers who are donating their time.

Here is the full list:

 

Top changeset contributors by employer
(Unknown) 1244 25.0%
Red Hat 636 12.8%
(None) 383 7.7%
IBM 368 7.4%
Novell 295 5.9%
Linux Foundation 261 5.2%
Intel 178 3.6%
Oracle 126 2.5%
Google 97 1.9%
University of Aberdeen 79 1.6%
HP 78 1.6%
Qumranet 71 1.4%
Nokia 67 1.3%
SGI 64 1.3%
Astaro 63 1.3%
MIPS Technologies 61 1.2%
SANPeople 53 1.1%
Miracle Linux 43 0.9%
MontaVista 41 0.8%
Broadcom 39 0.8%

BofA = Money Grubbing Bastards

[Manzanita]

About 20 years ago I had an account with BofA and they didn't seem so bad. Around that time they jacked up their fees on everything and changed their terms so as to make it much more likely to collect those fees. I left them pretty quickly. Since then they have bought a number of financial institutions I was using. Every time they have changed the terms and thoroughly destroyed good companies. It has happened again with MBNA. I just closed two credit cards I had with them. I find it hard to believe that anyone stays with them. There are so many better options. Anyone who is still doing business with BofA, I encourage you to make the effort to get out Now. Trust me, you will be much happier.

-Dan

Re:Picture

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry I couldn't find anything smaller...
clicky [icculus.org] ...or bigger, ftm.

~

Re:down with HSBC

[Cyphertube]

I'm sorry to hear that you've had a bad experience.

HSBC is not simply a British bank, no more than Citibank is an American bank. Both operate globally, and thus call centres may be located anywhere. Last time I checked, globally, collections people are often obnoxious and arrogant.

The way to get a corporation to stop calling is as follows (for future reference, and so you don't have to block numbers).

1. Don't say that someone they are trying to reach is unknown. Depending on the culture and the knowledge that they are calling to the workplace at a Fortune 500 company, they will assume that you don't know. If that person is unfamiliar to you, say you'll check, put them on hold, and if they don't work there, come back and say they are not employed there.
2. Let everyone know that a collections agent has tried to call for whatever person (be sure you wrote the name down that they were trying to reach).
3. Because collections agents don't trust anyone, they will call a second time. If a new person answers, if they are informed of this, then they should first get the name of the person calling, a contact number (in case we get disconnected), and any other pertinent information, such was what office they are calling from. After that, inform them that on (whatever date) they were already given the accurate information that such employee doesn't work there.
4. You have two options at this point. I recommend using both. Before ending that call, notify the person calling that this will be considered harassment if they continue to call. Note that if they need written confirmation that they should send a letter requesting that to your corporate headquarters with a return envelope, postage-paid included. And then, using the call back number you have received, call back, request a supervisor, and let the supervisor know the same thing.

At this point, you now have sufficient documented ground for suing for harassment. Should a call happen again, contacting the headquarters of whatever company and notifying them that they have now entered into harassment and should consider that every time they contact hereafter is yet another instance and they are currently easily subject to a lawsuit, should end it. If not, go to court.

I work for a Fortune 500 company myself. The best part, in my experience, is the idiot who dials again and again, failing to understand that numbers were transposed. I have, on occasion, managed to look up the number for the person in question (realising that likelihood). When I get the right number, the calls stop, too.