On 12/02/2012 04:02 PM, Ian Jackson wrote:
Ian Jackson writes (""Anonymous donation" to Debconf 13"):I have heard some disturbing rumours regarding Debconf13, site choice and funding. It seems to be difficult to find clear facts and of course I don't want to be spreading unverified rumours.I have had private emails from various people on this topic. They seem to me to confirm that there is something to worry about here. Please would someone from the Debconf team answer my questions. Needless to say these answers must come in public.
AFAIK there was an offer of a huge "anonymous donation", which at the end seemed more a loan, and IIRC to speed up the process and not let discuss about lack of money. I don't know the source and I don't know if there was string attached. Anyway that offer endured only few days because debconf-team and localteam declined such offer.
There was an other small anonymous donation (which was initially classified as "anonymous sponsorship", but this was a small amount, not very different to the other donations received by Debian. No strings attached. You should see it as a small donation because our high value in software (and it is also free as free beer!), but without going to the full bureaucratic procedures of a big company and without a public endorsement "Company A uses/support Debian".
I've not yet seen other anonymous donations.But if I'm wrong, i encourage the other localteam/debconf-team members to correct me.
ciao cate