(Originally written in about 2004. Moving off the main page.)
Pay for free software
Support free software by using it. If you can, support it by developing it. If, like most of us, you use far more free software than you can ever contribute, do the right thing and pay for it. Pay as you can, what you can. Anything over about $2 will make a difference. (If you feed them, they will code.) It doesn't take much, and you get to set the price anyway.
In addition to spot donations ("Yay AbiWord read my old WP51 files! $42!") I now include various projects in my annual charity budget. Had I remained in Windows, I would have accepted the idea of paying a couple of hundred every few years, just for the OS. So why not now?
I can't possibly pay for all the software I use on a free-software platform like Debian. Some I just don't notice, and some I tend to take for granted, like [X]emacs. But I can cover myself here by donating to large projects like:
- The Free Software Foundation. They set the standard and fight the fight. Plus, they produce Emacs, the gcc compiler suite, and lots of other software that we use all the time. Several members of Monash CSSE together paid a year's organizational membership to FSF, and now our tea room is an annual member.
- Big projects like, Debian, Gnome, and so forth.
Software isn't everything
The same principle applies to community service organizations: if you can't give the time, but it's important to you, give some money to someone who can. I think most people do this already, so I'll spare you my list of favorites.