Blender FoundationBlender is a hugely powerful open source animation suite with a full range of 3d modeling tools and high quality render engines. The program also contains a (developing) game engine, video editor and other misc tools.
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The Blender Foundation often run crowd funded projects where they focus on improving and proving the tools in a professional environment by funding a team to create a completed product with a limited time, these have proved a great success and helped add many features into the program.
DebianOne of the foremost linux distributions upon which much of the open source community relies, as of writing this three of the top five distros on distrowatch are Debian based, including the top two; mint and ubuntu. Described as 'the rock upon which Ubuntu is built' by the ubuntu website, they goes on to explain the project comprises of 'more than 1,000 members with official developer status, and many more volunteers and contributors. It has expanded to encompass over 29,000 'packages' of free and open-source applications and documentation.'
Donations collected through a non-profit organization called 'Software in the Public Interest, Inc' are spent on running and equipment costs, for such a large and busy project they are woefully underfunded. |
http://www.spi-inc.org/donations/
(remember to say the donation is for Debian) |
The debian website states 'Given the small budget Debian runs on it is not possible, at this time, for Debian to purchase and maintain its own computers and network connections. We therefore rely on the donation of equipment and services from companies and universities to keep Debian connected to the world.'
GNUGNU is the backbone of most open source operating systems, it provides the framework within which the Linux Kernel can work. Started by Richard Stallman or 'RMS' in 1984 with the release of the 'GNU Manifesto' the ideology and practice of a cooperation and sharing has helped shape and form the open source world as it is today.
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The GNU project is sponsored by the FSF and donations are made through the fsf organization.
The Linux Foundation
Started by Linus Torvalds in 1991 to create and maintain a free and open source 'Kernel' upon which open source platforms would come to rely. The Linux Kernel is the basis for most major open operating systems such including among many others; debian, ubuntu and fedora,
'The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and advances Linux by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source development community to ensure Linux remains free and technically advanced.' |
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The don't appear to solicit donations but instead offer (complicated) membership packages which offer a range of advantages and benefits for joining.
LibreOffice
This project fills one of the most obvious and universal requirements of a computer by providing complete and elegant range of office tools including Word processor, spreadsheet and desktop publishing facilities.
The need a lot of volunteers for all sorts of tasks and donations to cover the running expenses of such a large organization. |
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GnomeMakers of the desktop environment of the same name and supporters of various software programs Gnome is a large and vital part of the open source world.
Currently they are running a donation drive using the 'sponsor a hacker' model in which users pledge a monthly fee to pay the expenses of a coder, among other donation options. They also collect money for other programs such as GIMP, but i couldn't work out how on their website. |
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KDEA large and fully featured desktop environment,
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Apache Foundationa vital project which is involved in many areas of open development, very important in running the internet - largely corporate funded with a stable business model, if your business uses the web then learning about the apache foundation is a must.
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Python Software Foundation
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