Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: The Linux Foundation Needs to Define “Support”

THE FOLLOWING post is a guest post, which forms part of an ongoing series of articles we do about the Linux Foundation with an investigation underway. We have been receiving a lot of feedback and tips.



As one person put it yesterday: "Since Microsoft joined all of this love for Linux, I was also wondering how come no other media, linux dedicated channels ect.. talked about this very subject. Microsoft is infiltrating Linux to have it's way with it. Linux Foundation is now off my books of being an advocate for Linux."

We don't mean to bash the Linux Foundation; rather, constructively, our goal is to understand what it is and what it does (or who for).




An interesting conversation in our community often centers on what support, investment or returns our projects are receiving from corporations that use our code for profit.

 

The Linux Foundation has member companies that are making a huge profit from open source projects. Companies like AWS, Google and Microsoft are part of the membership with the Linux Foundation. The list of companies/members is found at:

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/membership/members/

 

In 2012, the Linux Foundation numbers were as listed below.

 

Total Revenue

$17,123,662

Total Functional Expenses $16,195,531
Net income $928,131
Notable sources of revenue Percent of total revenue
Contributions $8,255,747 48.2%
Program services $8,781,221 51.3%
Investment income $22,566 0.1%
Bond proceeds $0
Royalties $0
Rental property income $0
Net fundraising $0
Sales of assets -$37,171
Net inventory sales $0
Other revenue $101,299 0.6%
Notable expenses Percent of total expenses
Executive compensation $1,291,777 8.0%
Professional fundraising fees $0
Other salaries and wages $3,330,574 20.6%
Other
Total Assets $14,731,225
Total Liabilities $4,579,960
Net Assets $10,151,265
Form 990 IRS

 

In 2016, the number are as listed below.

 

Total Revenue

$61,085,552

Total Functional Expenses $51,733,209
Net income $9,352,343
Notable sources of revenue Percent of total revenue
Contributions $0
Program services $60,908,388 99.7%
Investment income $117,563 0.2%
Bond proceeds $0
Royalties $0
Rental property income $0
Net fundraising $0
Sales of assets $0
Net inventory sales $0
Other revenue $59,601 0.1%
Notable expenses Percent of total expenses
Executive compensation $4,236,621 8.2%
Professional fundraising fees $0
Other salaries and wages $20,934,840 40.5%
Other
Total Assets $39,714,654
Total Liabilities $11,078,045
Net Assets $28,636,609
Form 990 IRS

 

I was surprised to discover the Linux Foundation making claims of supporting inclusiveness.

 

Here you can browse a list of “featured organizations that the Linux Foundation supports”.

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/diversity-inclusiveness/programs/

 

Supports is an interesting word. What is the definition of “support” (as a verb).

 

sup€·port

/səˈpôrt/

verb

verb: support; 3rd person present: supports; past tense: supported; past participle: supported; gerund or present participle: supporting

give assistance to, especially financially; enable to function or act.

"the government gives $2.5 billion a year to support the activities of the voluntary sector"

synonyms: help, aid, assist;
 

Is support the right word here?

 

Perhaps the depth and breadth of support is a little more clear when we see responses from some of these partner organizations the Linux Foundation “supports”.

 

Kids on Computers - Online learning discounts (for schools with no internet in Mexico)

 

An example of the support came in the way of discounts for online courses for kids on computers, a project in financial jeopardy last year. Volunteers serve schools in Mexico by setting up computer labs in offline areas, with offline content servers. Needless to say, according to one volunteer, none of the discounts for online learning was used, yet.

 

Outreachy – Sponsorship for travel to Linux Foundation Conferences

 

Let that sink in. That’s right, the Linux Foundation sponsors travel to its events for people speaking about their work in group sessions and giving lightning talks – at Linux Foundation events.

 

You can see all of our sponsor's support levels (LF and LF projects like Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Ceph Foundation included) by looking at their logo placements on the Outreachy main site (we publish information about our sponsorship levels at

https://www.outreachy.org/sponsor/)

LF itself didn't sponsor this last round, but they did the one before that, last year.

"Other than Red Hat's generous contribution of Marina's time, we haven't really gotten non-monetary contributions from sponsors. We've never received any discounts on training or advertising from LF that I can recall. Linux Foundation does frequently support travel of Outreachy alums to its conferences in the way they fund the travel of many of their regular session speakers, such as travel of Linux kernel alums, who have done lightning talks about their work in group sessions at Open Source Summits.”

- Karen Sandler, Outreachy

So, it seems like the Linux Foundation did not even support this year, yet Outreachy is listed as a featured organization the Linux Foundation “supports”. Supports seems to indicate the present or something it is currently doing. This seems like misrepresentation.

CodeChix – asked what my intent was in gathering the research before answering any questions.

 

Good to hear from you. My name is Rupa Dachere and I lead CodeChix.

Might I ask the intent behind your questions?”

 

Blacks in Technology – not only would not respond but suggested we ask Linux Foundation.

 

Thanks for reaching out to BIT. I am not sure what this is about but I would suggest you reach out to someone at the Linux Foundation regarding your questions.”

 

This gentleman had a great idea!

Let’s ask the Linux Foundation.

 

Linux Foundation, can we see how you support these organizations on the same page as you list the groups? Thanks in advance!

 

The only other response was an automated response to an online contact form.

 

The Linux Foundation has a few projects that may keep these companies/members busy enough to believe the contributions are going to community. In actuality it looks like contributions could support projects from within the Linux Foundation. Of course, there is the exception of the “support” to these inclusiveness featured organizations.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Very High Attendance Level at Richard Stallman's Talk Shows People Can Relate to His Message
Smear campaigns have their limits
 
Even Microsoft (MSN) Covers Richard Stallman's Public Talk in Milan 2 Days Ago
He spoke in Spanish earlier this month (Alicante)
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Techo-authoritarianism With Slop Plagiarism and "No Online June" (Going Offline)
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: GitHub MCP Exploited and MathWorks Discovers Huge Windows TCO
Links for the day
Microsofters Were Scheming to Take Over This Entire Web Site (in Their Own Words!)
Money gets spent censoring/deplatforming people who speak about real issues; no money gets spent actually tackling those underlying issues
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Celsius-Fahrenheit, Endless Scrolling/Infinite Scrolling, and Trapping LLM Slop Bots
Links for the day
Bicycles for the Minds and the Story Harrison Bergeron
"The goal of having people in charge of the tools they use and that the tools should amplify ability" has long been abandoned
Prison gate backdrop to baptism by Fr Sean O'Connell, St Paul's, Coburg
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
More Photos From This Week's Milan Talk by Richard Stallman
The posts are in Italian, not English
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 27, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Links 27/05/2025: Science Defunded, India Arrests an Academic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2025: From Celsius to Fahrenheit and Deleting Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025