Wow! That's incredibly disheartening to hear. The way some people treat others nowadays is getting pretty despicable. I'd love a paypal (maybe just your volkerdi at $YOUKNOWWHAT dot com email) or similar option to send you some immediate relief and I'd welcome the idea of a patreon or something similar where a more steady income could be generated for you. If you provide us the way, I'm sure you'll see the support.

I do have to say, I hope you find a way to continue selling Slackware merchandise (especially the clothing options). I love having Slackware swag available. But I'd also understand if you decided to completely do away with the merchandise considering how this last one has turned out.

I've used Slackware for almost twenty years, and only these last two I had enough stability at work to afford a yearly donation. I'm really pissed to read that they're ripping you off, Pat.

If you set up a Patreon or a Liberapay account, I'll be there every month. It's the least I can do. And I'll be happy to do it.

Joey Hess (ex-Debian developer, now writing software applications in his beloved Haskell) has a Patron page at

https://www.patreon.com/joeyh

As you will see, he is not too happy with recent changes to Patreon and has switched to another service instead...

https://liberapay.com/joeyh/

His funding level is ridiculously small (total $150 per week reading the comments). I imagine that Patron/Librepay can cope with the higher volume that would be generated from the Slackware community.

Alien Bob of course has a Paypal donation link on his blog, perhaps such a link would generate a short term infusion of cash if one could be placed at a prominent location. This post is bound to generate short term publicity given the proximity to the 25th birthday changelog.

Theo de Raadt (leader of the OpenBSD project) had problems paying the electricity bill for his server collection some years ago and asked for donations. The result was the setting up of a proper foundation &c - they had no form of corporate existence up until then. Talking of OpenBSD, they recently decided to stop doing the optical media.

Not sure how it works in the open source/free software world, but is it possible to make an application to a foundation for a grant to cover part of the development work for the release, or at least for capital to fund development and test machines?

PS: I must also express my surprise at this situation - I had no idea of the financial situation.

Wow, i thought the store was something you did yourself. Thats why i have a subscription and order T-shirts... damn.

I‘m in agreement with others. Please post some way for donations and ill send you what I can.

Kr
Melke

Speaking of T-shirts and other merchandise, i'd love to contribute to Slackware by buying some items... however, there's an ethical problem for me, that as i'm based in the UK, it costs more for shipping than it does for the merchandise itself... I feel like if i bought a t-shirt i'd be supporting FedEx or UPS more than i would the actual Slackware project.

I noticed a few years back, Patrick has a cafepress page with some t-shirts which is just the "flippy logo", would it be possible for something like this to be updated, with the other merch available on the slackware store? such as the normal slackware logo polo shirts, baseball caps etc. As it would mean i wouldn't have to pay extortionate shipping fees! And i would happily buy a number of things.

Pat,

In response to your posting, I am pulling out my subscription of the DVD from the store.
And hope you could setup paypal account to accept donation.

I did that after reading Pat's post. I want money that I donate to go to Pat.

Pat. - I'm in accord with the others - I will gladly participate in any scheme where a recurring donation will keep it possible for you to keep developing Slackware. When you decide on a mechanism, post it where the members of the forum can find it, and I'm sure it will be used.

I personally like the subscription DVD's when they arrive, but then I liked it when the media were produced by Walnut Creek or Wind River, too. I've ordered hats and shirts, too, and I liked them. But, it doesn't sound like I'm ordering more for awhile.

Let us know how we can help.

How is that done?

I sent an e-mail today to info@store.slackware.com and asked them to cancel my subscription.

Wow! This is incredibly disheartening, Pat. I never bought stuff from the store, I only ever donated because I thought that you'd get more money. Your work is definitely worth supporting.

Thanks for letting us know, I can imagine it was not an easy decision to go public with this story.

My suggestion would be to immediately publish the same information on slackware.com together with a donation link (PayPal or whatever).
When the story goes mainstream, I believe people will turn to slackware.com looking for a way to support the project financially.

I've just been donating whenever a new version of Slackware is released, so I'm definitely not happy to hear about this situation. I don't mind redoing my previous donations as long as the money is going to Pat (and it's under his control).

I've had a running subscription for a lot of years I will cancel. I only wished to support you and didn't need the disks. Please let us know how to help support the project and maybe you also.
Don

I could use a couple more T-shirts if you choose to produce them. My family used to work in silk-screening, mugs, other custom stuff - it's not difficult to go somewhere and get that stuff printed in small orders, or in bulk (but obviously there's the up-front costs and the storage, then mailing the merchandise, etc.)

I cancelled my DVD subscription, I'll be donating directly when a proper way is set up.

I would absolutely join patreon or whatever if you go that route.