There are many upgrades we'd like to make to the NetBSD project
infrastructure, but which we cannot make because, to be blunt, our
project is poor.  Not poor in innovation nor poor in developer
resources nor poor in features -- poor in cold, hard cash, the kind
we need in order to buy hardware that would let us better serve our
users.

While other BSD projects have received tens or even hundreds of
thousands of dollars in donations, either by direct appeal to
their users (e.g. FreeBSD, when they faced tax status problems
because too much of their income had come from a single corporate
donor) or by doing their best to ensure that they received some
revenue from the distribution of their products (e.g. OpenBSD and
CD sales) we have always, I guess, been a little embarassed to
directly and clearly ask our users for money -- whether just as
plain, simple donations or in return for copies of NetBSD, which
we do our best to make available free to all on the Net by FTP,
HTTP, and BitTorrent.

But we do need your money.  We really do.  We need it to do more
things and buy more stuff that will directly help us serve you,
the NetBSD users, our "customers".

Often we're asked if people can donate hardware instead of
money.  The unfortunate fact is that while individual NetBSD
developers may be able to put donated hardware to use, we have
standard hardware packages for the TNF servers and our
administrators' lives become very hard if we just add donated
components to them.  Also, we try to buy all new systems in
complete form from vendors we've successfully done business
with in the past.

However, if you'd like to donate to NetBSD, and see your donation
go towards hardware to do things like speed up automatic builds
of NetBSD (so you can always download the latest binaries from
the branch you want for the hardware you need them for) or ensure
fast and reliable AnonCVS service, what you *can* do is donate
money to us and request that we devote it to that purpose.  We
can't make hard guarantees (we have no need, for example, for 73
new disk drives) but we will do our best to put your money to
use in the way you intended it to be used.

So, if you'd like to "donate hardware" to us, please see the attached
list of what we pay for the parts of which kind of system.  If you
send us an appropriate amount by PayPal to paypal@netbsd.org, we will
quickly put it to work to improve NetBSD, and the availablity of
NetBSD, for you.

Clicking on the "PayPal donate" logo on the front page of our web
site will of course also direct your donation to The NetBSD Foundation.

You don't need a PayPal account to donate; you can donate directly using
your credit card, which PayPal will process on our behalf.

Of course, donations of any size are always greatly appreciated; and
donations to The NetBSD Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity, are tax deductible
under U.S. law.

PARTS LIST #1: Standard NetBSD Foundation Build System

ITEM				QTY	PRICE	TOTAL

Acme 8176T 1U Server		1	$685	$685
Chassis Rail Set		1	$ 45	$ 45
1U 64-bit PCI Riser Card	1	$ 19	$ 19
AMD Opteron 244			2	$252	$504
WD Raptor 74GB SATA disk drive	2	$196	$392
512MB PC3200 DDR ECC REG RAM	4	$ 78	$312
Labor, assemble & test		1	$ 25	$ 25
Shipping (approximate)		1	$ 40	$ 40

Total for system:	$2022

The more of these we can buy, the more we can speed up autobuilds for you.

PARTS LIST #2: Replacement Anonymous CVS Server

Acme 8177T 1U Server		1	$799	$ 799
Chassis Rail Set		1	$ 45	$  45
1U 64-bit PCI Riser Card	1	$ 19	$  19
AMD Opteron 242			2	$201	$ 402
WD Raptor 74GB SATA disk drive	4	$196	$ 784
1GB PC2700 DDR ECC REG RAM	8	$138	$1104
Labor, assemble & test		1	$ 50	$  50
Shipping (approximate)		1	$ 40	$  40

Total for system:	$3203

Thank you, in advance, for what I hope will be your very
generous support.  We will put your money to work -- and
quickly -- to help NetBSD better serve you.

Thor