Development bounty

darkixion

Are there any schemes whereby people can pledge a bounty for an application to be created? We're obviously lucky to have so many people contributing applications and enhancements for Linux, but I personally would like to fund that development, or the development of new applications, which would then be released under a GPL licence.

sven.hakonsson

dark_ixion wrote:

Are there any schemes whereby people can pledge a bounty for an application to be created? We're obviously lucky to have so many people contributing applications and enhancements for Linux, but I personally would like to fund that development, or the development of new applications, which would then be released under a GPL licence.

Well, there are, of course, certain companies and programmers that offer to write code for an application in return for money, but then again that is not very open-source like. I'd think your best bet would just be to give money to Linux Foundation, so that they can keep paying Linus.

Naturally, I suppose that it all depends on the type of application, amount of code, and so on.

darkixion

Well I guess it helps that I'm already a paid-up member of the Linux Foundation.

What I was thinking of is, say I wanted an app that would convert Microsoft Powerpoint to Scribe format. This is just an example, I don't really want such an app. But people could also pledge for such an app, and when a developer (or team) accepts the task, funds would move to an escow account, and when the application is deemed complete (not sure who decides that), it is released and the funds are transferred.

Maybe I've made it more complicated than it needs to be, or maybe there's a better alternative.

tinny

You could always browse through http://sourceforge.net/ and find a few projects you like the sound of and then follow their progress. After some investigation you could make a judgment call on which ones you think deserve your donation.

Of course there are other ways to contribute. For instance software developers find it very helpful when users log bug descriptions for their software.