81 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
81 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
+++
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type = "news"
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title = "2011: From the desk of Haiku, Inc."
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date = "2012-01-03T03:42:16.000Z"
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tags = ["contracting", "donations", "haiku inc"]
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<img src="/files/haiku-inc.png" border="8" align="left" />
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<p>
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2011 has been an amazing year for Haiku in many ways. It is easy to
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see the improvements in Haiku (the operating system) by looking at
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the nightly builds or the bug tracker. In quite such a tangible way.
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<a href="http://www.haiku-inc.org">Haiku, Inc.</a> serves as the business arm of the project, if you will,
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collecting donations, handling paperwork, dealing with web hosting,
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etc. It is a little harder to see some of the improvements in
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Haiku, Inc. sometimes - they are a little more "behind the scenes",
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so we wanted to take this time to talk about all of the good stuff
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that has happened!
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</p>
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<!--more-->
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<p>
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A big part of the reason for all of the improvements in the code base
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is that Haiku, Inc. was able to fund more developer time than ever
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before. More than 1,100 hours of development was paid this year,
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including, for the first time ever, a 6 month contract! Contracts
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with Oliver, Ingo and Michael have resulted in massive improvements
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in the code. As with all of Haiku's contributors, they give of their
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time and their talent freely whenever they can, but you know that
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when YOU get home from work, it is hard to motivate yourself to do
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EVEN MORE work. By making Haiku their paid work as well as their
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hobby, we make it easier for Haiku to move toward R1.
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</p>
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<p>
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Of course, you can't pay developers without money. Haiku, Inc. has
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received far more donations this year than ever. While the final
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numbers have not yet been calculated, we came close to our goal of
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$30,000 for the year! So far, that includes donations from 349 unique
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donors (up from 193 last year). We would like to give special thanks
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to <a href="http://www.haikuware.com">Haikuware</a> which donated $10,000 as well as $2,000
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from his <a href="http://www.haikuware.com/bounties">Haikuware Bounties</a> project. A couple of things to remember:
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<ul>
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<li>Haiku, Inc. is a 501(c)3 which means that your donation is tax deductible (of course, talk to your accountant to be sure!)</li>
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<li>Haiku, Inc. has (almost) no administrative overhead. All of the administration is done on a volunteer basis. This means that (almost) every penny goes to either web hosting or funding development</li>
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<li>Donors are mentioned on the <a href="http://www.haiku-inc.org/public-sponsors.html">public sponsors</a> page (if they wish)</li>
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<li>Since November, all financial contributors are acknowledged with a thank-you letter</li>
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</ul>
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Because of the increase in donations, Haiku, Inc. has crossed the
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$25,000 threshold the IRS (United States Internal Revenue Service)
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sets for public charities. Smaller charities have a simpler, shorter
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form to fill out. Haiku, for the first time ever, will now have to
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fill out the longer, more complex form. A good "problem" to have!
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</p>
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<p>
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Haiku, Inc. also handles all of the trademarks for Haiku. As you all
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know, Haiku is open source (MIT licensed). This allows ANYONE to use
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the source code and build whatever system best suits them. They can
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choose to send us their changes or not (as they choose). This allows
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maximum freedom for all users. In order to ensure, though, that no
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one can call something Haiku that really isn't, we have registered
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trademarks on our logo and our name. This is similar to what
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<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/list.html">Mozilla</a> has done with Firefox - it
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doesn't stop true open source development, as is evidenced by
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IceWeasel, but it does make sure that if you download
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something that LOOKS like Firefox, it IS Firefox.
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</p>
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<p>
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As we look forward to 2012, we are happy to be able to announce that
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we have the finances to support Michael Lotz for a SECOND 6 month term.
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We are also in a position to be able to consider additional contracts
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from other contributors who are interested in working on Haiku! We
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look forward to seeing proposals from those who are interested! Of
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course, the best way to apply is to "make a name for yourself" by
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submitting code first.
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</p>
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<p>
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Thank you to everyone who has donated, submitted bug reports, code
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changes, or been active in any way with Haiku and/or Haiku, Inc. We
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look forward to a bright Haiku future!
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</p> |