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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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DankPods just switched to Linux!!! (iv.nboeck.de)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/27756512

(Apologies if the link doesn't work; Google are dicks)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It would be cool to pay a monthly subscription, that’s then distributed among the software I use or have installed. That could be integrated into a package manager even. I don’t know if any Linux distro does something like it.

I've been thinking the same thing lately. It would be cool if at least there were some sort of metadata maintainers could include on packages saying, "if you want to donate money, upstream accepts donations at this link: <...>". Then I (or someone else) could put together a tool that helps you track what upstream projects you're donating to.

I understand that isn't nearly as easy as just a subscription though. The issue I see with that is legal - you'd need a legal entity specifically for accepting payments and disbursing each upstream project's share, plus all the accounting and such that goes along with it. I don't see why it couldn't be shared across multiple distributions though. Upstream packages could create an account with the funding service, then distro maintainers could include some sort of Funding-Service-ID: gnu/coreutils metadata and a way to upload a list of Funding-Service-IDs to the funding service's servers.

I think that would be doable, but it would require buy-in from distributions, upstream maintainers, and someone who could operate such an organization. Not to mention users.