In addition to the Paypal discussions ...

In the discussion I see no traces of business efforts. I run a very
small (< 1 FTE ;-) company. I rely on NetBSD for mission critical
services. I would gladly contribute to the continuing development of
NetBSD, but the easiest way (by far!) for my company to do so is not
through "donations" but through regular invoices. My auditor would
have no problems what so ever with an invoice for 3 server licences
for a "strange" operating system (he knows I'm a geek ;-), or for 3
CDs with software - even if it's paid by credit card (as long as the
receiving part reported on the credit card statement is the same as
the one issuing the invoice), but a "donation" without accompanying
documents that motivate what the donation is _for_, is very hard to
get away with.

The alternative is that I, as a private person, donate. That would
have to be using taxed money, and in Sweden, that is a _SCARCE_
resource ... ;-) (Donations are not deductible in Sweden, and the tax
system is ... err ... don't get me going, nice and easy, ... let's
just say "complicated". ;-)

Do you have any plans to provide this kind invoice based "charge for
OS", or "charge for support"? What about simply "selling CDs" - and
make them expensive! (I mean, it is _IS_ good software! :-)

NOTE that I'm not saying that you should stop providing it for free,
but that you should _ALSO_ provide a method of paying for the software
if the user/customer WANTS to.

Or would that go against the bylaws and principles of the foundation?
Either on the "not for profit" side, or on the liability side (law
suits)? (I can perceive that it might.)

Or would the costs for setting up such business (web site, producing
CD:s (if necessary), setting up credid card processing, etc, etc)
overtake the percieved income? (Again, I can perceive that it might.)

Just my SEK 0.02.

				Cheers,
				  /Liman
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand
# binary numbers, and those who don't.
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# Lars-Johan Liman, M.Sc.	! E-mail: liman@autonomica.se
# Senior Systems Specialist     ! HTTP  : //www.autonomica.se/
# Autonomica AB, Stockholm 	! Voice : +46 8 - 615 85 72
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