Robin ... On 2002-12-01 at 0842.07 -0800, Robin Rowe typed this: > Carol, > > > $1k would not be enough to by the beer for the people who develop The > > GIMP (if i can at least add correctly). > > It's true that $1k isn't generally considered a lot of money in funding a > software project, but I appreciate getting anything. Linux Fund was very > kind to give me a grant. None of the grant is going toward beer, by the way. > It is for Film Gimp GUI enhancements and a keyboard/mouse macro > recorder/player. > > You've piqued my curiosity. How large is GIMP's development budget? How is > it funded? > first, this should be very clear. i am just guessing. observation, dirk gently like deduction and i probably have a lot of it wrong, as i tend to idealize things. The GIMP was originally a college project. a showcase of what people had learned from their coding class? i hope it got an A! from what i can see, many of those people working on the early gimp have gotten jobs from that work. i know of five developers (maybe there are more) whose companies might be allowing them some of their work time to work on gimp. this is cool, as long as that big plan (to 1.4) is respected. some have gotten jobs elsewhere doing other things, and show their gimp-love by letting The GIMP go. others have gotten jobs doing other things, yet maintain an active interest in things gimp. The GIMP artists were all hired as well. but this is for good work that they did. not in advance. the work, i think, was done for love of a project. some are able to contribute to The GIMP and get a trip to someplace nice where lots of other neat linuxy people are. that is sort of nice and much closer to funding. but generally the work is still done before hand and accepted or not. one of the news things i read about Film Gimp was that only half of the funding was gotten so only half of the proposal would be achieved.(?) i might have that wrong, and if i do, please forgive me. but from a user point of view, let me use "Map To Object" as an example. in the last year, i have used all of the Objects available there. i am glad that the whole thing was written. what i have found to be The GIMP's most charming quality is the lack of funding. i have heard it called the flagship Linux app. i tend to think that the lack of funding had a lot to do with that. this is where i am probably the most clueless though. i don't really believe in money. i am fiddling with The GIMP while i recover from some life changes. this is not a new thing either. some very nice gimp things have been "funded" this way. Robin, i can be pretty sure about this fact though. you will know you are in on the big developer funding when they send you to one of those public relations grooming classes. we will all know when that happens because you will cease typing stupid things. you will also not be so fun or charming (or honest) i bet. btw, if you had presented to me, a list of hardware they "donated" i would have liked you and the news about Film Gimp much more. but that is how to market things to me. and i don't have any money. so don't worry if it didn't sound so good to me ;) crap. i don't even believe in money. i volunteered to host tigerts site when it went down. i got laughed at. i had no idea tigerts site was so popular. it would cost me about $1000 to host tigerts site for three months. i mention this now because it is an example of funding "The GIMP" is getting that isn't obvious. i wanted to host it because it was important to me, because i use. i had *no* idea there were so many others out there that agree with me and visit often or whatever is going on there. so, to answer your question about gimp funding: define funding. carol
