Quoting Steffen Möller (2025-12-06 14:14:52) > > I object to the participation. As much as it might help Debian, we urgently > > need to stop helping Google to play a part in everything. > It helps Debian to attract new hands, it helps Google with recruiting, and it > is an enormous opportunity for students from all over the world to make new > experiences. I wish there would be more programs like that with Debian > contributing - > https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/SOCIS_The_ESA_Summer_of_Code_in_Space > comes to mind, suggestions? > > I definitely want more of this, not less. And by more companies than Google, > yes, but other larger companies are to blame here that are not doing it, not > Google. In an ideal world, it would not be up to profit-driven mega-corporations to decide whether or not, who, where and when people can enjoy the privilege of spending a summer on helping out with a FOSS project. I agree that Google does not give the money away out of the goodness of their hearts but as a way to wash their image. On one hand it pains me to see Debian play a part in this but on the other hand, pragmatically speaking, it is a unique opportunity for some. Disclaimer: I was both a student and a mentor in the past. In 2016, Doctors Without Borders rejected a donation of pneumonia vaccines from Pfizer to protest that the company was keeping vaccine prices artificially high and instead of reducing the prices for all it pretends to be generous with a donation. Google could do *a lot* for FOSS if it would play nice with the huge software stack it maintains. Instead, Android is getting more and more closed down but to assure us how nice to FOSS they are we get a "generous" GSoC donation once a year. Should we not also protest Google's treatment of FOSS by rejecting their "donation" of GSoC money? Should we not instead urge them to either become a good FOSS citizen or otherwise STFU when it wants to pretend that it is through its dirty GSoC money? On the other hand, practically speaking, I have no answer for what we would do without corporate donations for DebConfs for example... Thanks! cheers, josch
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