As our society grows more dependent on computers, the software we run is of critical importance to securing the future of a free society. Free software is about having control over the technology we use in our homes, schools and businesses, where computers work for our individual and communal benefit, not for proprietary software companies or governments who might seek to restrict and monitor us. The Free Software Foundation exclusively uses free software to perform its work. [CREDIT]
We support open software because proprietary software poses unacceptable risks in a world of increased dependence on automated systems. With effect from January 2021 we are formalising our previously casual approach to the support of certain open source software which we use from time to time on our customers systems as follows:
Annual donation for software projects that support our customers systems.
When we install operating systems we will typically run an extra “software build” for all customers; typically this happens without any request or prior knowledge on the customers behalf. We might for example install software such as 7-Zip so that you can more easily create or extract compressed files or LibreOffice so that you can have a spreadsheet or word processor tool without any additional cost. From the end of 2021 we will now make a donation equivalent to the number of desktops and servers we support, on a per device basis, to one or more of the projects responsible for this free and open source software. We’ll make a new post at the end of 2021 with further details.
One-off invoices and donations for software projects used in specific circumstances.
Whilst some open source software can be used by many people, some projects can be pretty niche. As a result we may from time to time install an open source software solution in your businesses systems for a specific purpose. In situations like this we will ensure that the software we’ve installed for you is doing the job you want it to and then send an invoice to you an amount equivalent to one hours labour. Once paid we’ll send the money to the project responsible for the software. We’ll be happy to provide documentary evidence of the donation when requested.