Re: sponsor NetBSD for 2020 https://github.com/sponsors/NetBSD

[David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>]

On Tue, 10 Nov 2020 at 18:25, <maya%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:

> The usual way that TNF funding of projects work is that a developer will
> come to TNF with a proposal for the project to fund their work.
> Actively seeking out developers when nobody has come forward is a
> challenge, because the sums of money are usually too little to have
> consulting firms interested.
>
> In the absence of any framework, I've shamelessly posted that I am
> offering a bounty for some netbsd/pkgsrc related work on
> tech-pkg/tech-kern and it was successful (IMO). We can write down all
> the names & offers if there are too many, but this is not the case now.
>
> As for sun4v, I believe Palle is doing work on this sometimes.

I'm also quite taken by the idea of being able to donate towards
specific goals (providing there is existing infrastructure which can
be used without requiring significant setup or ongoing effort, and
doesn't take too large a chunk as fees).

The sums may only appeal to people casually hacking on code, but it
may also provide a useful barometer for "Ah, quite a few people are
interested enough in X to put up some $", and occasionally inform TNF
decisions on where to apply funding.

There is bountysource (which has an active campaign at $2,100 for the
admittedly large task of updating the gcc VAX backend to the current
gcc interfaces so it can be kept
https://www.bountysource.com/issues/91495157-vax-convert-the-backend-to-mode_cc-so-it-can-be-kept-in-future-releases
), but the site did have availability issues and the search page takes
in the order of minutes to show any results)

David