Ubuntu to allow users to decide where donations go

LINUX DISTRIBUTION Ubuntu has introduced a donation method in which money can be given to specific parts of the project.

Canonical, which is Ubuntu's primary sponsor, has been looking to make money out of the operating system by offering support contracts to large businesses, however the project still gently reminds users that it could do with a bit of extra cash to keep the lights on. Ubuntu's website now has a form in which donations can be directed to specific branches of the project, providing some level of control over how donations are spent.

Jono Bacon, Ubuntu's community manager said of the new donation method, "Although these contributions to Ubuntu were possible, the details of how to do so was pretty much buried in a growing ubuntu.com and many folks missed the link. In addition to this, the granularity of how you could contribute was limited, you could contribute an amount of money to the project, but there wasn't really a way to indicate how you wished that money to be used (such as using it for growing Debian/upstream relations, for desktop improvements, or other areas)."

Ubuntu's donation method allows those giving money to split up their donation. While the project doesn't provide full disclosure on how donations are spent, it is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to getting money towards those parts of the project that users feel deserve more resources.

Canonical's funding of the Ubuntu project has not been without criticisms, chief among which is the less than transparent financials of the firm. With Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth defending plans to embed Amazon search results into Ubuntu 12.10 by default, some had been calling for Ubuntu to improve donation methods rather than send data to a private company.

Ubuntu plans to release Ubuntu 12.10 by the end of October. µ