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.

Credit card companies

[Cyphertube]

In my experience, MBNA / Bank of America have not been that great for credit cards. I used to get a ton of crap from MBNA, and I can be pretty sure those people have infested BoA's credit division.

My best suggestion would be to work with HSBC. A properly set up programme with them would possibly enable same/similar card services globally. I've had no problems with HSBC's customer service, aside from the occasional glitch in a VoIP connection to a call centre.

Otherwise, I've had pretty good experience with GE Money Bank and Citibank (as far as credit cards go). Chase, though, I avoid like the plague. So, if LinuxFund gets a Chase card, well, forget me then.

Re:It does not matter that much...

[Anonymous Coward]

You are very naive if you think this. Linux got to the point it is today because of the push by big money for Linux. Novell, Red Hat, and IBM have all been instrumental in pushing Linux to where it is today. If Red Hat and SuSE (now Novell) hadn't made viable commercial solutions for Linux, it would not have even competed with AIX, HP-UX and Solaris. IBM has been such a huge source for Linux that they even made their OS more compatible with it, when they introduced AIX 5L (guess what that 'L' stands for). AIX uses similar command syntax as Linux, it is also the only one of the three (AIX, HP-UX and Solaris) that I have seen provide RPM support. Many of the open source packages that have been ported to AIX can easily be installed using an RPM, instead of having to use the default AIX installation mechanism or re-compiling source yourself. All the ports for HP-UX and Solaris that I have seen, still use the OS default installation mechanisms, which are not always the most intuitive or friendly to use.

Honestly, I think a lot more Linux development and advancement has come from BIG money then it ever did from the volunteers. There are a good deal of contributions being made by people with a monetary interest in the success of Linux.

Funding for minor projects?

[fossa]

I always liked the old LinuxFund's mission of giving many small grants to many small projects. Are there any other similar organizations that do that sort of thing? Google Summer of Code comes to mind, but that is limited to college students. There's always the Paypal links on project homepages or Sourceforge, but I wish there was something more visible.

LinuxFund's current "give a constant source of funding to some projects" is nice too, and donating to the LinuxFund will hopefully remain a convenient way to donate to a number of individual projects.

I am currently a LinuxFund card holder, and was disappointed when Bank of America bought out MBNA. I'll be switching to the card my credit union offers very soon.

Give something back?

[kaleco]

Perhaps it's time more OSS users show their appreciation by making donations. I definitely need to do this more. I imagine more generous donors also gain some clout for getting obscure bugs fixed or niche features added...

Re:B of A sucks

[StormShadw]

Personal credit cards have nothing to do with commercial banking - it's a consumer banking function. Cards like this (known as "affinity cards") are expensive to maintain unless you have a large credit portfolio, which is why many smaller banks don't bother... Unless you have a customer base large enough to provide an economy of scale, it just doesn't make sense.

Banks need to pay for the costs of maintaining their credit portfolio. (Think of it: cards need to be embossed, statement rendering, overhead involved with complying with Visa/Mastercard bylaws, collections, etc., to say nothing of the cost of taking on risk that debtors might not pay them back.) Those costs are passed on to consumers through interest rates and fees.

At the end of the day, I'm sure this was a business decision. Banks don't have some secret agenda for/against open source - they really just care about providing service (at a profit) to customers. If the card stayed, they probably would've needed to raise interest rates/fees and everyone would still be screaming.

I received one of the letters

[Anonymous Coward]

and promptly canceled the card.

Actually I haven't used the card in some time because the terms concerning late payments, etc changed radically about a year ago. I always pay my credit card bills in full every month and don't ever recall making a late payment, but they changed the terms so that past history of prompt payments made no difference. They decreased the time to make a payment and increased the late fee to something like $40.

Personally I think Linux cutting ties with a company that practices usury is a good thing.

Re:It does not matter that much...

[gujo-odori]

While I do not dispute this, one thing that needs to be remembered is that many of the people now being paid to work on Linux by Red Hat, IBM, et al, are the same people who worked on Linux for free for a long time and brought it to the point where those companies thought it worth paying people to work on it.

If you look at the percentage of code in Linux that was written by people now being paid to work on Linux but who were volunteers when they contributed it, a different picture might emerge. This doesn't discount wholesale contributions of code such as XFS by SGI or JFS by IBM, but without the work of volunteers, including those now being paid, Linux would simply not exist.

Re:But I still have that great rate... for now

[HappyUserPerson]

Fortunately, for now, I still enjoy a 7.9% rate on the card which is the only reason I haven't canceled it (that and I enjoy the occasional remark on the Penguin logo on the card).

Carrying a balance on your credit card is just throwing money away. Pay off your card(s) -- immediately, sell your CD's (not the music ones), drain your savings accounts, sell your stocks (probably shouldn't cash in your 401k due to the penalty) and do it NOW! After that, pay off your balance each month and ignore your "low" interest rate and your high credit limit. Don't worry, credit card companies make plenty of money in processing fees that they charge vendors without you gifting them 7.9% APY of your balance. Don't even think about using your credit card for "emergencies". Save $200-$500 a month in a saving account until you accumulate a few thousand dollars. You'll have a rainy day fund in no time.