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Joined 9 days ago
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Cake day: March 23rd, 2025

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  • The initiative to build FOSS alternatives for the administration in Europe goes back years. In a nutshell: Corporate software is getting very expensive for the administration and poses security risks. As an alternative, FOSS Software is put together to replace the administrative systems. The reason there is so many news now is that the first Software bundles are being released and are coming online in databases.


  • To give that more context: The BundesMessenger is developed for secure communication in the German army (named Bundeswehr in German). So it’s most likely not only about cash but also about security. It’s e2e encrypted, can be federated to several locations, etc. Seems a smart move to me. Edit: Actually I’m mistaken. It’s for the whole public administration. Not only the army. Not sure how I got that impression. Argument holds, though. 🙈


  • gsvtoOpensourcehow much do you donate to projects?
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    3 days ago

    So and so. The projects I like a lot and heavily use I give 5€ a month, but there are very few. That would also be the usual member fee for instance for the Wikimedia foundation. Beyond that, it’s usually between a coffee and 20€, depending on how much potential I see, how much it has helped me, and how much the project needs the money. Maybe needless to say: Bug reports help a lot so I place them where I find one. Finally, when it comes to code contributions I find it hard. Usually that requires a lot of preparation and time to get into the depth of the project beyond the API/fronted. And that is, more often than not, a road block for me.

    I think though, that the amount given is not a good measure on its own. It depends a lot on what one has and is able to give. There are so many people out there who earn way more than they need (including me, although I am nowhere rich). They could easily give a lot more and cover for a general user base. And the latter, making the project more popular and maybe contributing some bug reports is just as essential.