[cannam]

> I have an old ThinkPad T42

I have a T40p running Arch which I still occasionally use, even for development, because it's just such a pleasing machine ergonomically. So I'm a bit concerned about this as well -- but then, I've been happily using Arch for years and it's not like I've ever contributed anything to the effort of maintaining it.

[akoster]

I completely agree with you on the pleasure of using such a well-crafted machine. From the keyboard, to the connectivity, to the overall build-quality and the way in which the designers thought out so many things so well, it makes me sad that that I cannot just swap out its socketed (yes socketed!) single-core processor for something more modern.

You make a good point- I too have been an open-source consumer. Yea I have filed a few bug reports, helped some people experience Linux or switch from IE6 to Firefox, but have not contributed much to these projects time- or money-wise. With things like the Linux kernel, that are suported by the likes of Red Hat and SUSE (which are in turn supported by big businesses), I am not too concerned about their survival. But after reading about the GPG maintainer and now the GNU Octave maintainer being forced to stop their their generous contributions, I realize perhaps I need to be doing more as a user for open-source things I care about being around in the future.