January 10, 2015 at 03:41OpenMandriva crowdfunding campaign at IndieGoGo
- Transfer
One of OpenMandriva contributors asked me to post on Habré a translation of the description of their crowdfunding campaign . I readily agreed, because I respect the opensource community very much (I use Ruby on Rails in my work, open source is our everything).
The non-profit association OpenMandriva comes from the old Mandrake-Mandriva community and is a fully independent organization that develops and maintains its own Linux distribution. We have been developing the OS for 2 years. All project participants are volunteers who believe in the world of free software and devote their time for free to the development, design, infrastructure of the project, whose goal is software that is free of any spyware. Legally, our association is registered in France, but community members live all over the world, representing more than 30 countries from all over the world.
We believe that the operating system should be free for the user, adaptable to his needs, technically advanced, but at the same time easy and convenient. We already have experience in developing and supporting the OS, which you can set up and try right now. Download OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 here: http://openmandriva.org/ .
If the OS already exists, why are we campaigning? Our next release is scheduled for May 2015 and we need your help to continue to support and develop this high-quality product.
The fact that the last 2 releases were downloaded tens of thousands of times, and the reviews are good, inspired us to develop the project. See for yourself!
All the work needed to release the next release is done by volunteers, an international team of community members. We need the money to support infrastructure (mainly server hosting), occasionally purchase the necessary hardware (for example, ARM boards) and demonstrate the results of work at the main open source exhibitions (for example FOSDEM, LinuxTag). Attendance at exhibitions is also important for the exchange of information and the study of innovations, for their subsequent implementation in our operating system. The total amount required for all these needs for 2015 is $ 27, 500 USD.
We set the goal of the campaign of $ 15, 000 USD and we hope that with your help we will be able to raise $ 27, 500 USD!
We believe that thousands of our users and those who will only become them, or those who simply believe and support high-quality open source products, will make this possible.
In the event that we do not reach the full amount, the money will be spent for the same purposes, but they will be enough for a smaller amount, a shorter period.
What do you get?
Intuitive and easy to use, and at the same time an advanced user-oriented system. We listen to the community, conduct regular user surveys and conduct product development as close as possible to the wishes. The system is free and open. We welcome new members who want to learn new things in open source, together with professionals and in a friendly atmosphere. Our task is to maintain and develop free software, to maintain the availability of an advanced and user-friendly product for everyone.
We are doing everything to be at the forefront of new products in the world of OpenSource, and to provide our users with the latest and most interesting. An example of this can be seen in our release: we switched to the default LLVM / clang compiler one of the first (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzMzI ). Enjoy fresh interesting solutions with us!
Risks
What are the risks? The only possible risk is if work on the system is not completed. It is practically at the zero level, as the community grows, new participants appear, and this process has been going on for 2 years. The project does not have high risks, the only need is to raise funds to support the infrastructure.
How else can you help
? If you cannot make a donation but would like to help, you can still do it!
The non-profit association OpenMandriva comes from the old Mandrake-Mandriva community and is a fully independent organization that develops and maintains its own Linux distribution. We have been developing the OS for 2 years. All project participants are volunteers who believe in the world of free software and devote their time for free to the development, design, infrastructure of the project, whose goal is software that is free of any spyware. Legally, our association is registered in France, but community members live all over the world, representing more than 30 countries from all over the world.
We believe that the operating system should be free for the user, adaptable to his needs, technically advanced, but at the same time easy and convenient. We already have experience in developing and supporting the OS, which you can set up and try right now. Download OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 here: http://openmandriva.org/ .
If the OS already exists, why are we campaigning? Our next release is scheduled for May 2015 and we need your help to continue to support and develop this high-quality product.
The fact that the last 2 releases were downloaded tens of thousands of times, and the reviews are good, inspired us to develop the project. See for yourself!
“The operating system (OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1) is stable, the interface is friendly. For the most part, I liked the distribution. OpenMandriva has a sense of completeness and friendliness, which are difficult to qualify, but which definitely exist. The installation of the system, the Control Center and the pleasant (already traditional) desktop environment, everything is designed so that even a novice would be comfortable. Particularly impressed by the `systemd` user environment. <...> OpenMandriva did an excellent job of polishing the systemd parts which is responsible for the user environment. <..> Of those that I have seen, OpenMandriva 2014.1 is one of the most worthy of the beginner friendly crown. This distribution is easy to install, use, has an excellent control center and should be suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
Jesse Smith, Distrowatch
OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 looks solid and complete. The level of quality at the level that can be achieved only when experienced developers and other members of the community are seriously involved in the project. Most hardware devices are supported and configured by default. Definitely a very good start for the next releases. Congratulations to the OpenMandriva team on this release!
Gaël Duval, founder of Mandrake.
(OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 Beta) A breath of fresh air with the soul of KDE.
Silviu Stahie, Softpedia.
What do we need and what do you get?
All the work needed to release the next release is done by volunteers, an international team of community members. We need the money to support infrastructure (mainly server hosting), occasionally purchase the necessary hardware (for example, ARM boards) and demonstrate the results of work at the main open source exhibitions (for example FOSDEM, LinuxTag). Attendance at exhibitions is also important for the exchange of information and the study of innovations, for their subsequent implementation in our operating system. The total amount required for all these needs for 2015 is $ 27, 500 USD.
We set the goal of the campaign of $ 15, 000 USD and we hope that with your help we will be able to raise $ 27, 500 USD!
We believe that thousands of our users and those who will only become them, or those who simply believe and support high-quality open source products, will make this possible.
In the event that we do not reach the full amount, the money will be spent for the same purposes, but they will be enough for a smaller amount, a shorter period.
What do you get?
Intuitive and easy to use, and at the same time an advanced user-oriented system. We listen to the community, conduct regular user surveys and conduct product development as close as possible to the wishes. The system is free and open. We welcome new members who want to learn new things in open source, together with professionals and in a friendly atmosphere. Our task is to maintain and develop free software, to maintain the availability of an advanced and user-friendly product for everyone.
We are doing everything to be at the forefront of new products in the world of OpenSource, and to provide our users with the latest and most interesting. An example of this can be seen in our release: we switched to the default LLVM / clang compiler one of the first (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzMzI ). Enjoy fresh interesting solutions with us!
Risks
What are the risks? The only possible risk is if work on the system is not completed. It is practically at the zero level, as the community grows, new participants appear, and this process has been going on for 2 years. The project does not have high risks, the only need is to raise funds to support the infrastructure.
How else can you help
? If you cannot make a donation but would like to help, you can still do it!
- spread the word about our company wherever you can - on your blog, twitter, tell your friends, share the link wherever you can - it will help!
- Use Indiegogo Sharing Tools!
- join our project! Developers, translators, designers, infrastructure or PR specialists, advanced or just students - we are growing and we will be glad to new team members! Just write a few words about you at join@openmandriva.org!