Microsoft Thanked For Its "Significant Financial Donation" To OpenBSD Foundation 265
McGruber writes: Microsoft has donated a considerable amount of money to the OpenBSD Foundation, becoming its first-ever Gold level contributor in the process. From the OpenBSD Journal: "The OpenBSD Foundation is happy to announce that Microsoft has made a significant financial donation to the Foundation. This donation is in recognition of the role of the Foundation in supporting the OpenSSH project. This donation makes Microsoft the first Gold level contributor in the OpenBSD Foundation's 2015 fundraising campaign."
Question (Score:5, Funny)
Can we start calling them M$ again?
Re:Question (Score:4, Interesting)
As the evil empire of this decade, we really need a snarky nickname like that for Google.
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Sorry but evil empire of this decade is definitely Apple, they just need to finish locking everyone in to their services on every industry (including financial), before they really turn the screws. They are like Google in the early 00's where they are only showing hints of their future evils.
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Apple would never, ever, want to lock everyone in to their services. They seek to sell to the richest 20% of the people. Look at their product line: they never make anything at a price even close to the average for that classification of device type.
Their whole marketing scheme involves letting people feel elite for buying their products. That's how cult deals work.
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Apple would never, ever, want to lock everyone in to their services. They seek to sell to the richest 20% of the people. Look at their product line: they never make anything at a price even close to the average for that classification of device type.
Their whole marketing scheme involves letting people feel elite for buying their products. That's how cult deals work.
So it's not that Apple's stuff is easier to use and the top 20% can afford more, it's about feelings...
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My Macbook Pro was used for 1.5 year and performed poorly after 1,
What's your point really? Nothing magical about Apple gear. The specs in your Macbook are weak and I know lots of Apple users has complained about how the latest OS is slow on their devices.
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My mother's Dell Vostro (2009) is still like new and my Thinkpad X200 (also 2009) is also doing fine, the only parts I have replaced were the HDD (still worked but I wanted a SSD) and the battery.
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$pple
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Can we start calling them M$ again?
No.
10 LET M$ = "Microsoft" (Score:3)
Slashdot comment subjects are limited to 50 characters. Microsoft sells Visual Basic, which is the descendant of a language in which string variable names ended with a dollar sign: A$ or B$ or M$. Until these facts change, I'll keep referring to Microsoft as M$ in comment subjects. Think of it as variable interpolation analogous to "thank $DEITY".
Please stop Patent Lawsuites (Score:2)
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maybe we could avoid all evil corporations by cowering in the closet
have you done ethical investigations of your grocer? his supplier? how about the kid who mows your lawn? what about the people you buy gasoline from? do they pass your ethical test?
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And? (Score:2)
Not a dime to the FSF or EFF
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Microsoft's a member of the Entertainment Software Association [wikipedia.org], which doesn't get along with the EFF very well, making it pretty unlikely they'd donate to the EFF.
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MS is a buisness built on propietary software. The FSF belives propietary software is unethical. MS donating to the FSF would be like an abortion clinic donating to a "pro life" organisation.
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Microsoft is making billions and billions of dollars every year selling licenses for linux/android, they should be sending big checks to the FSF. Without the FSF and their license, Microsoft would not be making that money, because linux would not have happened.
Microsoft loves Unix (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft at one point was the #1 vendor of Unix software. They wrote the Unix for a Radio Shack system that was the #1 selling Unix system in the whole world at the time.
Microsoft inherited a huge BSD infrastructure when they bought Skype, they maintained it for years.
Microsoft is the #1 vendor of software for the #1 selling Unix system in the whole world, OSX.
Xenix and SCO (Score:2)
Microsoft at one point was the #1 vendor of Unix software. They wrote the Unix for a Radio Shack system that was the #1 selling Unix system in the whole world at the time.
Apparently that was Xenix for the TRS-80 Model 16 [wikipedia.org]. I seem to remember Microsoft selling Xenix to SCO, with a lot of the code filtering into what became SCO OpenServer.
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I seem to remember Microsoft selling Xenix to SCO, with a lot of the code filtering into what became SCO OpenServer.
The copious Microsoft copyright notices that are printed out when you log into a SCO system should be your clue. Or maybe the Microsoft copyright notice that is printed when you run the SCO C compiler? If you've ever actually used SCO, you know where it came from.
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"They ported the Unix for a Radio Shack system"
FTFY
Xenix was based on a source license from AT&T (the original, not the renamed Southern Bell) of Bell Labs' Version 7 Unix. Microsoft also made Xenix ports available for a number of other systems.
Plenty of other companies also made licensed ports of V7, which they couldn't call Unix (or UNIX) because AT&T wouldn't license the trademark. For example, Amdahl made UTS which ran on their IBM 370 clones (as well as on IBM hardware).
Re:Microsoft loves Unix (Score:5, Interesting)
It's all an evil plot to cross-breed (Score:2)
Theo's masturbating monkeys with Bill Gates winged monkeys to produce monkeys who can both simultaneously fly and masturbate. No alternative operating system or newly washed car will be safe.
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The last time they tried cross-breeding anything with Bill's winged monkeys they ended up with gargoyles that looked a lot like Steve Ballmer.
Of course Steve Ballmer himself was an earlier result of cross-breeding Mr Blobby and Uncle Fester.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably because you haven't yet realized that the Halloween Emails were 17 years ago.
Maybe it's time to move on.
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Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Funny)
I'm trying -- but it's hard!
Actually, it's not hard, and it's very very tiny.
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I'm trying -- but it's hard!
Actually, it's not hard, and it's very very tiny.
That's why they're called Microsoft.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:3, Insightful)
Whoooosh!
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:4, Insightful)
It is the new slashdot. An AC makes a pretty good but old joke and stays at 0 moderation. Someone else ruins it by explaining the joke and gets +5 informative.
Next up, something about Natalie Portman and breakfast food gets moderated -1 for being a sign of the patriarchy systemic in STEM.
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A mod-point, a mod-point! My kingdom for a mod-point!
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Yah. And ever since then they've been a model of ethics and righteous behavior.
Uh huh.
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Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Interesting)
That is a much bigger contribution than giving some amount of money that doesn't even affect his lifestyle.
That's stupid. A bigger personal sacrifice perhaps, but there is no way that it's a bigger contribution. Suppose you donate time to a soup kitchen on a Saturday. That's great, good for you[i]![/i] You fed maybe fifty bums. A million dollar donation, though, could keep twenty people doing it full time employed for an entire year. That's over 18,000 hungry bellies filled.
So, which is a ``bigger contribution''? Being visible while helping so that everyone knows what a good person you are, or maximizing the amount of good actually done?
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That's stupid.
You're stupid
A bigger personal sacrifice perhaps, but there is no way that it's a bigger contribution.
It pretty much depends on how you measure 'contribution,' wouldn't you say?
So, which is a ``bigger contribution''? Being visible while helping so that everyone knows what a good person you are, or maximizing the amount of good actually done?
Bill Gates has done a good job being visible.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Insightful)
The linux developers have collectively donated the value of Linux, (roughly estimated at $10.8 billion), to the community.
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The majority of them were paid to do it though.
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There are many people in the open source community who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. That is a much bigger contribution than giving some amount of money that doesn't even affect his lifestyle.
You either meant to say "That is a much bigger sacrifice than giving some amount of money ...", or else you are simply incorrect. The level of contribution is not dependent on the level of sacrifice, the motives, etc. of the person doing the contributing. The magnitude is the only factor when measuring the level of contribution.
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Wow talk about self righteousness.
Here it is in a nutshell.
1. A lot of the Internet and a lot of other services depend on OpenSSH for security. This includes Microsoft.
2. OpenBSD the developer of OpenSSH is short of funds to pay developers to work on OpenSSH.
3. Microsoft gives a big "to OpenBSD community but small to Microsoft" pile of cash to OpenBSD.
Result
OpenBSD can pay the developers to work on OpenSSH, Microsoft gets a better OpenSSH, everyone else gets a better OpenSSH, and Microsoft gets good PR.
This
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Can we get a "-1000, Mutilated The Joke" mod?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Show me someone from the open source community who has helped and donated more towards charities than Bill Gates. Uh huh, that's what I thought.
Bill [hangthebankers.com] - is [motherjones.com] that [newint.org] you [techrights.org]? Don't [theguardian.com] forget [healthimpactnews.com] to [healthimpactnews.com] lodge [indiatimes.com] your [dailymail.co.uk] claims [mercola.com] for [jesus-is-savior.com] charitable [newsjunkiepost.com] donations [educatingt...dation.com] - we [newint.com.au] filed [blogspot.com.au] it [dissentmagazine.org] under [rinf.com] "the spit shield fund" [wordpress.com].
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (foundation) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. Both entities are tax-exempt private foundations that are structured as a charitable.
One good thing Bill Gates has done [bloomberg.com]. Though not everyone [businessinsider.com.au] agrees.
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The moron that modded my post down didn't consider both the hardware and software companies that made heaps of money through MS's monopoly, which was the point being made. I'm actually a bit shocked that I have to explain that.
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Yeah yeah yeah, I hated rebooting my machine several times a day during the 90's, too.
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Yeah yeah yeah, I hated rebooting my machine several times a day during the 90's, too.
I hate that I still have to reboot my Microsoft boxes regularly; the tablet crashes far too often when docking or undocking or coming out of sleep and there have been too many times that the servers have had problems during expected operating hours that they are rebooted every scheduled maintenance window whether they're serviced or not.
The Linux boxes get rebooted either when something really critical needs updating or when the power goes out in the office area. The OSX box I'm typing this on has been
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Apparently I'm having quite the lucky streak.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:4, Insightful)
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It was not (necessarily) "Free as in Beer" - you might pay very big bucks for the OS, but the code was open. (EG RSX11, BSD, Ultrix, George 2, 3, 4, OS9).
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Time to move on...but still realize they're a for-profit corporation. It's not like they're all all warm and fuzzy now, sounds like they're tending toward neutral.
In any case, the bottom line is that anything they do will always be based 100% on a profit motive. Whether through ultra-aggressive illegal techniques like in the past, or perhaps now by simply competing smartly and innovating (yes Virginia even for Microsoft it's possible!).
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The vast majority of Linux kernel code is written by people working for for-profit corporations. Demonizing MS because they are a for-profit company is ridiculous and stupid beyond belief.
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Thank you. Now I feel old.
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- The halloween emails represent typical corporate strategy;
- MS is still a corporation;
So the burden of proof is on those who say MS has changed.
Signs of changing would include:
- Support for old systems, instead of the endless unneeded costly and toxic upgrade cycle. You cannot have volunteers like debian to better support old stuff than a billion tier corporation.
- API stability and openness, instead of pushing and retiring flavours of the month. Ask people who invested in silverlight.
- Acknowledging the
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In the classic essay 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar' the people writing the Cathedral code were the GNU Emacs development team.
Just sayin'.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Funny)
what does SJW mean?
Software Justice Warriors. The SJW are people who are mad because they were born too late to fight the actual software injustices of the past, such as the Netscape debacle or the decision to call the unix command "umount" instead of "unmount", so they join digital lynch mobs at the slightest hint of possible software controversy, hoping to fill the void in their existence with strongly worded paragraphs of significantly misinformed opinions about problems that either don't exist or that are blown out of proportions.
Re: (Score:2)
what does SJW mean?
Software Justice Warriors. The SJW are people who are mad because they were born too late to fight the actual software injustices of the past, such as the Netscape debacle or the decision to call the unix command "umount" instead of "unmount", so they join digital lynch mobs at the slightest hint of possible software controversy, hoping to fill the void in their existence with strongly worded paragraphs of significantly misinformed opinions about problems that either don't exist or that are blown out of proportions.
Well, today they are all just sitting there with sparks flying out of their ears and their limbs spasming randomly going "Microsoft donates to open source.... does not compute.... dzzzt... does not compute...."
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Funny)
You should add a net on top of your head so you can catch all the things soaring over it.
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And there was me thinking it was satirising all those people who throw around the term SJW as though they're the new reds under the bed.
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Informative)
For fuck's sake... it's been how many decades and you people still can't get this right?
Godwin's Law states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." That's it! None of this "losing the argument" bullshit.
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Quit being a Godwin Nazi, Hitler.
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Re:Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft has a hidden agenda behind this donation?
Microsoft wants to see BSD succeed, that is hardly a hidden agenda. They have leveraged BSD assets greatly over the years (as well as contributed back to them).
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Has Netcraft confirmed it?
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BSD software can be forked to GPL anytime, and then that fork is closed to commercial use. If MS makes OpenBSD great and then becomes a shit, OpenBSD can be forked to a GPL state and MS gets to keep the pieces it paid for.
Seems like a great relationship to me.
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It probably comes from reading the licenses, which you should try sometime. Note also the word forked.
You take some BSD-licensed code, make changes to it (creating a derivative version), then GPL-license the derivative. Anyone is still free to find the original BSD sources and make their own derivative, but they can't do anything with the GPL-licensed fork without following the GPL -- which includes GPL'ing any work derived from that.
Of course unless the changes introduced by the fork are particularly
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Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:2)
I know right? For linux its systemd thar controls us and everyone know once microsoft kills PID1 that's it for us!
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what a load of bullshit. take your tinfoil hat off. BSD as a group are far harder to control as they aren't off on zealotry crusades or out to dominate, they just get stuff done. Many commercial companies have had long term involvement with them including MS, this isn't new.
Agreed, and MS's money spends like any other money - if they do think they can control BSD they've got a surprise coming. Personally I don't think that's the plan. They do need to get into OpenStack, and they are desperate to get PowerShell ported to 'nix. Paying to have it supported, and contributing to the development of the pieces of BSD they use is just good business sense. MS may be all sorts of things - but generally they are not dumb when it comes to money.
It's not like they don't have their own Unix [softpanorama.org]
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:4, Informative)
More specifically, Powershell is getting native SSH support. They didn't announce PS 5.0 will get it, but it's possible 5.1 or 6.0 will see it, version releases have been getting more frequent. A major change like full SSH support would warrant jumping a whole version number, I would think. Maybe released with the next version of Windows Server, sometime next year? That would be great news.
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We used to be able to call out bullshit posts like yours just based on the mention of "wife".
However, with gay marriage now legal in all 50 states...
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Where? The United States of Australia?
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Well with more and more companies worried about security breaches and the inability to audit deployed code for back doors I dare say Microsoft has a logical and very marketable reason for supporting OpenSSH and the OpenBSD foundation.
Well duh, with Office for OSX, they are the #1 vendor of BSD applications in the world. All of the profits from their OSX division depend on a healthy BSD infrastructure.
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>> Well duh, with Office for OSX, they are the #1 vendor of BSD applications in the world
OSX is not BSD. it's a closed source derivative of a derivative of BSD....
Re:Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Insightful)
If Theo is willing to give up the $2million DoD grant because he felt he should speak up against the Iraqi war, what makes you think a piddling $50k is going to affect Theo's code or design?
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Microsoft has a hidden agenda behind this donation?
Wit 50k? Hardly.
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Re:Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Informative)
Do they really need one?
I can't find an exact figure for the donation but according to http://www.openbsdfoundation.o... [openbsdfoundation.org] it was in the $25K to $50K range. That may be a lot for an opensource project running on a shoestring budget but it's pretty trivial to MS. If they get some good PR and some help with the windows port of openssh out of it then it's probablly money well spent.
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$50k doesn't even cover the cost of MS TV advertisements for a single day. This is roughly the cost of 1/2 to 1/3 of their typical developer salary for a year.
This isn't significant; this is laundry lint.
Re:Why do I get the funny feeling that (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft has a hidden agenda behind this donation?
Because Microsoft has stated they wanted to use OpenSSH for Powershell and remote desktop in future versions if you Google past stories here. In essence they are paying them to do the heavy lifting for them and the community wins too.
THis is something desperately needed as it could be a great vulnerability if someone can crask the SAM database and impersonate a domain admin and do major damage via powershell which by the day is more and more powerful. In Server 2016 they will really hit taking out the GUI hard and have 100% of every task from the command line in Powershell.
OpenSSH will create a much needed additional step to do the damage and could be the next killer feature of WIndows Server 2016.
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I guess Theo doesn't object to Microsoft so badly that he isn't willing to pocket their bribes.
The OpenBSD Foundation lists its directors on its website. [openbsdfoundation.org]
Theo is not one of them.
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You are just one of those fucking assholes who like to shit all over people. If Theo was willing to give up the $2million DoD grant because he wanted to speak up about the Iraqi war, he sure as hell isn't going to be influenced by $50k.
Assholes like you are what give ACs a bad name.
Re: OpenSSH on Windows (Score:5, Informative)
They've already announced they want to add SSH/SCP to Windows Server 10/2016.
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Without a BASH shell, GNU utilities, etc., not likely to have much impact.
Re: OpenSSH on Windows (Score:4, Interesting)
that's funny, ssh works just great on VMS and it doesn't have bash or GNU utilities or anything like that.
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That's easy to remedy. MSYS from MinGW.org gives you Bash, GNU Coreutils, and more, with less fat than Cygwin.
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I think perhaps Microsoft's SSH server is gonna give you a powershell prompt
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Did they? All I saw was that PowerShell team will support and contribute to the OpenSSH community [msdn.com]. They also said The team is in the early planning phase, and there're not exact days yet..
That is a lot of wiggle room there.
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How is $50,000 significant for Microsoft?
Gross profit last year: $67,820,000,000
In some quarters, they're making more money than Apple.
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In some quarters, they're making more money than Apple.
yeah, but those are the fake quarters that only work in the coin-op pool tables
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donate massive amounts of money to gain influence
$50K is massive amounts of money? Maybe you could throw an excellent party or pay for getting the parking lot snowplowed but you are not going to get any sort of "influence" for chicken feed like that.
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Under Steve Ballmer, Microsoft developed and sold many many copies of Office on OSX, which is BSD. In fact, Microsoft is the #1 (in dollar volume) vendor of BSD applications in the whole world. It's been going on for years. Can you just imagine how many BSD developers there are at Microsoft? How many BSD systems they have for testing? Where have you been?
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It's sad that $50K is a "Gold" contribution
It sounds like they're expecting lots of large donors. For the FreeBSD Foundation, it would count as Platinum. Gold is $25,000-$49,999. The rates were set when the Foundation was new and getting anyone to donate more than a few hundred dollars was hard. They've had to add Platinum, Iridium and Uranium on top of that (a few years ago, a company - NetApp, I think, but I could be wrong - donated on the condition that they were able to say that they were the only donor in the top category, so had a categor