[mensetmanusman]

I wish there were more well run 501.3c open source initiatives that relied on major donations from organizations wanting to diversify their risk to being forever beholden to major software providers.

E.g. if an O365 subscription costs your organization $10MM per year, why not donate $100k per year (along with 10 of your peers) to a group writing open source bare bones versions that handle 90% of your employee needs.

The world would seem to benefit in this model...

[save_ferris]

The adage "nobody gets fired for choosing IBM" rings true here. Management at companies that pay $10MM per year on O365 don't see Office as a risk, they see it as foundational to their work. For that amount, they're probably also getting special deals from Microsoft to further integrate into their ecosystem and are constantly sold on all of the features that Microsoft products provide.

[Zhyl]

Ah, the Valve Proton model!

[marcinzm]

As the saying goes "If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."

An organization that pays $10MM per year has a lot of leverage and likely has long term contracts to hedge risk. So why, basically, waste $100k?

[jtsiskin]

The world really would. I wish there was a way this could work and could pay the same salaries as FANGs do. I think you would like https://www.fsf.org/

[acomjean]

If you look the reaction when Red Hat wanted to force the move from free CentOS clone to paid RHEL... That incoming cash would help Linux get better.

Free though helps businesses start. Though economies of scale in tech are so huge now.