Daniel Robbins leaves Gentoo. Donation time!

ElectroLux · n00b Joined: 25 Dec 2003 Posts: 19

We received $200 gift checks for bringing a project online and under deadline two weeks ago.

I donated that + $50 more.

Good luck Mr. Robbins, to you and your family. Thank you for your altruism and contribution to society as a whole.

:!:

and a big thanks to all the developers, testers, doc writers,, ebuild writers, and Larry the Cow too, for making Gentoo be as great as it is.

ajaygautam · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:50 pm Post subject:

Well. Done my part. Hope my $50 helps drobbins too. Thanks for the great OS. Most of what I have to say, has already been said in this thread... windows uninstaller, great product, thanks.... etc... etc...

Ajay

Webbster · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 22

Another $20 here (I'm a college student

)

Thank you Daniel.

Readers of this thread: Help spread the word among fellow gentoo users.

Cheesegoduk · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:52 pm Post subject:

Anyone know if the store will accept payments from Switch/solo cards? Its currently the only card that I have avilable to use and I'm a lil worried about signing up for paypal.

sigmalll · Guru Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 332

Donated

idl · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:14 am Post subject:

scott_ell · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:22 am Post subject:

Donated 99$ via the Gentoo Store. Should've done this a while ago, but I didn't know the guy was hurting for money. Anyways, good deeds should not go unrecognized, and I hope this helps.

I remember when I first started using Gentoo and I filed a bug because the installer CD was acting funky on my computer. Daniel handled it and I thought it was pretty cool that the creator of the distro was handling my bug! Imagine all the people he has helped over the years.

P.S. This thread reminds me of the movie "It's a wonderful life".

ewan.paton · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:23 am Post subject:

nerdbert · l33t Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 981 Location: Berlin

Phk · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:02 am Post subject:

First of all... My sadness is not enough to show my fear about gentoo's future... Can you believe that it is (was?) my only hope to KillBilly?
Hope drobbins makes it out there, and hope that in a year or something, he turns back to the lead... Life's fuc*ed up, each one fights for a worthy life.. Even there, in america.. (isn't it?)

boojummy · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:18 am Post subject:

Wow, I'm totally stunned. drobbins, you will be missed.

Will be making my contribution on payday. It's the least I can do for something that has totally changed the way I work & play.

-b

HippieJoe · n00b Joined: 09 Aug 2003 Posts: 67

i am sure i couldn't say anything more then has already been said. i made my donation...and i still have my gentoo travel coffe mug. good luck in all and thanks again!!!

hippiejoe

downed · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 1:50 am Post subject:

With such a large community if everyone donated he could easily be out of debt, wonder if hes able to pay off his debt from contributions he would reconsider staying on the gentoo team

Iron_Mike · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 83

the thing is...the wave of contributions is more to erase the debts he created while creating the distro we like so much so he can leave the project with no bad side effects on his life.
The money we send will not provide his family forever and that's not the idea.
I think he is looking for a job with a good paycheck every week.

I might be wrong though...(I wish I was...)

sarcaman · n00b Joined: 01 Aug 2002 Posts: 17

I agree, any donation we make here is for services already rendered; but the last thing a guy with drobbins capabilities should do is work for someone. The last thing!

I'd have thought a great thing would be to create the Gentoo for OS X he was often talking about and charge a (small) monthly sub to it from the start.

Linux Gentooers get it for free, OS X pay a litlle, Daniel gets some continuing money and OS X users get the power of Gentoo

Greven · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 138

I gave $25..... I've used Gentoo for about 2 year and it's the lest I can do.

-Jason
_________________
veritas vos liberabit...
Linux User Number: 346805
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AMD 64 3500+ | MSI "K8T NEO2-FIR" | mushkin Dual Channel DDR 400

dkenn · n00b Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 27

My experience with Gentoo has been wonderful... I'll donate as soon as I get a chance. Being a high school student, I lack convenient access to a credit card.

Best wishes to Daniel.

Greven: "veritas vos liberabit..." et in vino veritas, igitur vinum vos quoque liberabit!

dufeu · l33t Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 924 Location: US-FL-EST

But it isn't difficult to google his address.

I mailing him two checks in the AM.

$100 towards his Gentoo related debt.

$20 for a CD order.

I don't actually need the CDs since I have more burned copies around than I know what to do with. Heck, I've made so many copies that some of them are turning up in the couch cushions!

But hey, it's just fun to have the 'official' CDs.
_________________
People whom think M$ is mediocre, don't know the half of it.

ed0n · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 5:04 am Post subject:

Why didn't drobbins told us before that he had financial problems, we would help him.

*donated*

mudrii · l33t Joined: 26 Jun 2003 Posts: 789 Location: Singapore

40$+ cd Set and wait to buy a couple of tshirts as soon as thay arrive on the market. Need change my tshirts aniway

Gentoo is about community is about helping not only many but developing creating.
This donation will may help for a time but think in the future it need to create business Open Source Base consulting ar somthing wich give recompence for all developers involved.
_________________
www.gentoo.ro

pussfeller · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 6

I hope the main developers DO find a way to make money from Gentoo, that way they can spend more time on it.

It bugs me when people freak out about the possibility that somewhere, somehow a linux developer might actually be getting paid for developing linux.

That being said, there is something about Linux being a labor of love that makes it what it is.

Its especially sad, and embarrassing that the fastest growing, most fiercely loved distro can't support even its founder full time. Grody distros like XXX and XXXX that just freakin' drive their users nuts are making money. Makes you wonder about the "Open Source business model."

I hope Drobbins finds a nice cushy job somewhere doing what he loves. He deserves it, big time.

Decibels · Veteran Joined: 16 Aug 2002 Posts: 1623 Location: U.S.A.

I couldn't agree with you more pussfeller.

Just hope the generosity doesn't stop after a little bit. I don't want Gentoo to start doing something like Mandrake did. Hope that the users will take it upon themselves. It's just sad that it took something like this to make people realize that you can't always feed you family,..... on a labor of love. Many should have donated a long time ago. With as many users as we have it don't take much, but am sure there will still be moochers.

I have donated each year and will continue to do so.

Even though unhappy it took this to wake people up, still glad they did.

Maybe in the near future, they will be able to hire Drobbins back from where he is working.
_________________
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– Steven Wright

bendy · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:15 am Post subject:

I think the total number of registered users is not relevant because I doubt they are all active. However, there are a lot of active users - more than enough to pay off Daniel's debt.

I, like the vast majority of gentoo users, wasn't aware of the financial sacrifice Daniel was making on our behalf. I feel very sad that he let himself get into this situation.

We need to make sure ALL current gentoo users are aware of this, and tell them how they can make a donation if they can afford it. I know that not all users can afford to donate, and that's okay. There should be a notice and link on the front page of the www.gentoo.org site.

Also, this thread is demonstrating that a loyal (fanatical?) user base is willing to contribute financially to support gentoo. I personally don't have the skill or knowledge to contribute to the development of gentoo, so money is all I can offer.

We should think beyond the current situation, and put in place a formal donation system as others have suggested, perhaps allowing small monthly contributions. And then, we shouldn't be afraid of saying that money raised can go to individuals who are key to gentoo's future and are missing the opportunity to earn at least enough to live on because of the time they dedicate to gentoo. The board of the not for profit company should look into this.

bendy.

_Nomad_ · Guru Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Posts: 571

As always it's sad to see someone leave, expecially the "father" of gentoo. I wish this will at least show drobbins that his work has been greatly appriciated around the world...

another $100 on the way...

poormanscomputer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 May 2002 Posts: 114

Obligatory thanks here.
He helped me out with a hardware problem when gentoo first started with 1.0. I was surprised the founder would take time and bother to e-mail me. Anyone know of any other distro founder that would do this?

I can understand debt, and I hope he gets his life on track. I plan on buying some CD's and shirts too. Thanks Daniel, you will be missed. Hopefully he can come back, however many years down the road and keep up with the community. Maybe he still can a little anyway. He's left a truly great distrobution.

Sincere Thanks,

Bryan