Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Hand Inside the Blender: Microsoft Money for Blender's Development Fund is Not a 'Cookie Jar' Donation But Another Power Move

Masks four matrix: YOU will be assimilated



Summary: Microsoft keeps paying, conditionally, a bunch of high-profile Free software projects; there's expectation they will reciprocate one way or another, shows recent history

THE Blender project is a fantastic project. It's a Free software success story. I love Blender and I love movies made with Blender. I fell in love with the project well over a decade ago. I've watched their movies more times than I can remember (probably about 20 times in total). Blender's 'daddy' Ton Roosendaal (@tonroosendaal) wrote this when Microsoft announced the takeover of GitHub: "Why was Blender not on @github? Simple: Github already accepted $350M (at least) from venture capitalists - who want it back with huge profits. And whatever Microsoft pays for it, they will want it back too. Who pays in the end? The users. FYI: Blender has its code on http://git.blender.org and developer services on http://developer.blender.org - we already host our own services since 2002. About "users paying": I don't mean the freemium model. I believe that in due time @github services slowly degrade to losing control and ownership of your work."

"We're not saying there's such an expectation wrt GitHub, but as we saw in Godot Engine there tends to be an expectation that C# and .NET will be boosted in GitHub (and that's an explicit goal of the money)."Blender is not invulnerable to bribes though, e.g. through Blender's Development Fund. Last month it was Microsoft (they buy influence over the project this way) and now it's Mono pushers (Unity). What next? Will demands be made? What strings are being attached to this month's payment? We're not saying there's such an expectation wrt GitHub, but as we saw in Godot Engine there tends to be an expectation that C# and .NET will be boosted in GitHub (and that's an explicit goal of the money). These aren't donations; Microsoft's shareholders aren't donating money, as they clearly want something in return. We previously wrote about how Microsoft was bribing projects ("helping" them) to defect to GitHub, entrapping their developers and users in Microsoft territories with Microsoft accounts.

"It's not a donation; it's more like an investment in the VC sense. It's about control."Yesterday in IRC we researched the state of Blender wrt GitHub and we reached out by E-mail to another person who had "checked Blender several times in the past." (For this purpose)

"I believe it was always a mirror," he told us. "Any project can mirror free software. it's a non-issue. nothing that can be done but to make the software less free."

We're going to keep our eyes on Blender and see what Microsoft (and its Mono pushers) want in return from Blender. It's not a donation; it's more like an investment in the VC sense. It's about control.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Google "AI" is Plagiarism, the Case of Richard Stallman (RMS)
Why would anyone choose LLM slop over the originals, curated and fact-checked by domain experts?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 136 Out of 200: Lawyers That Get Paid to Mess About
They were already outnumbered and understaffed
Explaining That Software Patents Are Neither Legal Nor Desirable
Many of our readers work in the legal sector
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 31, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, July 31, 2026
Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Retirement, Bike Trips, Quake Stuff, Usenet Reborn
Links for the day
Links 31/07/2026: Microsoft Now Says Slop is Bad (LinkedIn Cracks Down on It), LinkedIn Narrows Down Size (No Expansion)
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: From Alicante to Munich: Another Smooth Ride
Campinos is intent on transforming what was originally envisaged as a temporary public office into his own permanent personal feather-bed
Daniel Pocock and the Important Observation About Threats of Cult-Like Behaviours (No Rationality, No Reason, Just "Mob Rule")
It's a threat to Europe's sovereignty
The "PIP Parade" of IBM's Lousy Management, Which Said "Blockchain" Was the Future
In a healthy company such a CEO would be punished for utterly wrong visions and predictions. Not at IBM...
SLAPP Censorship - Part 135 Out of 200: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) That Does Not Disclose Financial Activities Before August
It certainly looks like they keep losing the remaining women that still exist in the firm
Links 31/07/2026: "Climate Cover-Up Continues" and Pesticides "Cook the Planet"
Links for the day
Datacentre 'Boom' Sceptics Aren't Luddites, They Recognise a Threat to Human Survival (Not Limited to Climate Change)
Archaeologists very well know that no species will survive forever
Microsoft's Claims Are Based on a Big Lie
the bubble is coming to its hard limits
Don't Lose Sight of the Impact of "End of 10" (Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has taken off fast
Microsoft's Debt Continues to Steadily Increase, Not Counting Hundreds of Billions in Secret/Hidden Debt
The mass layoffs will carry on, maybe labelled LITE
IBM is Circling Down the Drain, the 'Growth' Comes From Beancounting Tricks and Salary Cuts
IBM was down 2.17% yesterday
Microsoft's "Headcount" Distracts From How Big a Cull It Had This Month
It also speaks of numbers "[a]s of June 30" though the "buyouts" were effective July 1 and since then well over 10,000 workers have vanished
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, July 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/07/2026: Music, Journaling, and Longing
Links for the day
More Fake News From (and for) IBM, Nobody Ever Held Accountable for Fraud
Companies that turn a blind eye to their own corruption end up recruiting more corrupt people and sacking those who object to the corruption
Links 30/07/2026: Smol Document Server and More PalmOS-ing
Links for the day
Links 30/07/2026: Microsoft Refuting Its Own Slop Hype and "Amazon Is Gutting Its Hey Hi (AI) Division" (GAFAM Bubble)
Links for the day
Today The Register MS Published "AI" Spam and Fake Article by "Senior Technical Marketing Engineer"
unethical practices
Cult inquiry parliament leak fallout
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Protect Sources
Our #1 priority is sources
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Legal Concerns and Suspicions of Irregularities
complaints submitted to OLAF
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026