[Nix-dev] NixOS Foundation

[Rob Vermaas]

Hi,

Last month, the NixOS Foundation came to life. The foundation was
started to support the NixOS related projects and its infrastructure,
and improve continuity for this.

One of the main reasons we needed to create a foundation, is to start
up fundraising for extending and maintaining the current
infrastructure. Until now, we have been greatly supported by
institutions and companies, such as Delft University of Technology,
LogicBlox and Rackspace. They will continue to do so, however, we need
to start raising funds if we want to extend our infrastructure and
keep the current infrastructure running.

Previously people and companies have asked if there is a way for them
to contribute hardware or donate money, to allow the infrastructure to
be extended, e.g. by adding build machines in the hydra.nixos.org
buildfarm. This was difficult, as there was no entity available to
receive such donations, except for private persons, which causes
issues with tax regulations and ownership. The foundation solves this
problem. Also, because the foundation will now take ownership of
maintaining the infrastructure, it will be easier for people to roll
on and off with regards to running and maintaining the infrastructure,
which should improve continuity.

Currently there are 3 board members for the foundation:

 - Eelco Dolstra, Chairman
 - Armijn Hemel, Secretary
 - Rob Vermaas, Treasurer

Note that the board members are doing this on a strictly voluntary
basis, which means they will not get paid by the foundation. In the
next year, we will try to add 1 or 2 more members from the NixOS
community.

More information on the can be found at: http://nixos.org/nixos/foundation.html

So now the begging starts :-) We would like people to start supporting
the NixOS foundation (financially, your commits/work have already been
awesome!). We have set up some PayPal buttons which can be used to do
a one-time donation to the foundation, or set up a monthly donation
(even better!) . Bank transfer is also available. We will list all
people/companies who have donated, if they wish to be listed, on the
foundation webpage.

Your donation would be very much appreciated! To give a good example,
I have personally donated 100 euro to the foundation.

The information on donations can be found here:
http://nixos.org/nixos/foundation.html

We will try to be as transparent as possible with regards to the
spending of donations to the foundation. We will extend the foundation
webpage with reports of donations received, and with reports about the
spending.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We are still in the
phase of starting up everything, so please bear with us!

Cheers,
-- 
Rob Vermaas

[email] rob.vermaas at gmail.com