OpenBSD Journal

eRacks.com adds OpenBSD/SSH donations to existing services

Contributed by jj on from the Good-deeds-never-go-unpunished dept.

eRacks have decided to help out with OpenBSD/SSH donations and has therefore
made it possible to easily make a donation when ordering services from them.
Quotes from the announcement:

Open Source software projects are typically funded solely by donations from 
grateful users.

Since eRacks incorporates open source software in nearly all of its computers, 
it makes sense for the company to construct a new avenue for donations. eRacks' 
customers are now easily able to make a donation toward the OpenBSD Project 
along with the purchase of an eRacks rackmount server, with the simple click 
of a dropdown choice.

"eRacks is proud to provide a route for donations to the OpenBSD Project. 
Rock-solid security is a top priority for most of our customers; OpenBSD 
provides this." comments Joseph Wolff, CEO of eRacks Open Source Systems.
The complete statement is available here..

(Comments are closed)

Comments

  1. By Anonymous Coward (208.252.48.163) on

    Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the company making money off OpenBSD to make a donation, rather than trying to pass the buck onto customers? Seems to me like they're having their cake and eating it too.

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (83.5.222.113) on

      > Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the company making money off OpenBSD to make a donation, rather than trying to pass the buck onto customers? Seems to me like they're having their cake and eating it too.

      While I am loathe to criticize any initiative to funnel money into OpenBSD development, I would have to concur, they don't even seem to appear on donations.html. The main use for this would be to have it billed directly with the hardware, but maximum you can donate from their form is 50$ for a 9995$ server, that's 0.5% and less than a CD. Why limit this?

    2. By Anonymous Coward (149.169.135.113) on

      > Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the company making money off OpenBSD to make a donation, rather than trying to pass the buck onto customers? Seems to me like they're having their cake and eating it too.

      I'd be far more impressed if they matched any contributions.

      Comments

      1. By Noryungi (noryungi) on

        > > Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the company making money off OpenBSD to make a donation, rather than trying to pass the buck onto customers? Seems to me like they're having their cake and eating it too.
        >
        > I'd be far more impressed if they matched any contributions.

        Yes, but AT LEAST, they are organizing to give something back. Think about all the companies (Sun, I am looking at YOU!) who use OpenSSH and never, ever, ever give something back, or at least organize so that their customers can make a small donation.

        Sure, it would be nicer if eRacks was giving, say, 10 bucks to OpenBDS for every server bought. But, again, they are (a) acknowledging OpenBSD and OpenSSH and (b) providing an easy way to donate. That's more than 90% of all big corporations out there!

      2. By Noryungi (noryungi) on

        > > Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the company making money off OpenBSD to make a donation, rather than trying to pass the buck onto customers? Seems to me like they're having their cake and eating it too.
        >
        > I'd be far more impressed if they matched any contributions.

        Which they actually do: see the following page...

        http://eracks.com/products/Special%20Purpose%20Systems/config?sku=LITE

        >> Donation amount: eRacks will match your donation to your choice of non-profit Open Source / Digital Rights organization. Choose the donation amount in the Donation amount dropdown. <<

        This is displayed on every single ordering page. Let me be the first to say: STFU already, and do your homework before spouting nonsense.

        Comments

        1. By Cobalt (cobalt) on

          > This is displayed on every single ordering page. Let me be the first to say: STFU already, and do your homework before spouting nonsense.

          While I'm impressed they match, no need to get angry. This is probably the reason they cap the donation at $50 per order.

          Comments

          1. By Anonymous Coward (83.5.222.113) on

            > > This is displayed on every single ordering page. Let me be the first to say: STFU already, and do your homework before spouting nonsense.
            >

            Personally, and since I made the 2nd comment, I did check on 3 different pages. Although I skim-read, I very rarely miss info I am specifically looking for. I'm quite positive it wasn't there earlier in the day and it certainly wasn't in the PR, which I read in full. Perhaps the CMS had not updated the page yet. The alternative is that eracks cares what a few grumpy old gits say :) Anyway, I'm happy to withdraw my previous reservation. Go eracks go!!!

  2. By Anonymous Coward (151.136.100.2) on

    it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
    "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (153.2.246.32) on

      > it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
      > "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"

      Come on guys. Do you have to be so cynical? It was a step in the right direction.

      If you take a look over there, several of the order forms have OpenBSD listed as the default OS for new systems. One of the reasons why OpenBSD is BSD licensed and given away, no strings attached, is so there'll be better/more secure systems out there sharing the net with us. It's not for sale, so don't act like people who decide to give back are required to give any set amount.

      Also notice that many of their machines come pre-installed with Linux. But the only organizations in the drop-down donations list are OpenBSD/OpenSSH and the EFF.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (151.136.100.2) on

        > > it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
        > > "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"
        >
        > Come on guys. Do you have to be so cynical? It was a step in the right direction.

        right direction to what?
        people who want to support openbsd can do it already.
        what is this company getting credit for?

        Comments

        1. By Anonymous Coward (153.2.247.33) on

          > right direction to what?
          > people who want to support openbsd can do it already.
          > what is this company getting credit for?

          Putting the reminder right there in front of people, when and where they are making purchasing decisions and have cash/card/PO in hand. Remember all the complaints about "My company can't donate to OpenBSD because it would be a gift and not a purchase" "We can't donate without paperwork, receipts, tax info"? Here's a way around that.

          Comments

          1. By Anonymous Coward (82.135.30.22) on

            > > right direction to what?
            > > people who want to support openbsd can do it already.
            > > what is this company getting credit for?
            >
            > Putting the reminder right there in front of people, when and where they are making purchasing decisions and have cash/card/PO in hand. Remember all the complaints about "My company can't donate to OpenBSD because it would be a gift and not a purchase" "We can't donate without paperwork, receipts, tax info"? Here's a way around that.

            yes so this company makes people donate money and
            as a benefit it makes cheap pr on top of that?
            they benefit from openbsd in the first place and
            why would not they donate something from there?

            user can donate and decide how much as well by themselves.

            Comments

            1. By Anonymous Coward (213.119.198.47) on

              > > > right direction to what?
              > > > people who want to support openbsd can do it already.
              > > > what is this company getting credit for?
              > >
              > > Putting the reminder right there in front of people, when and where they are making purchasing decisions and have cash/card/PO in hand. Remember all the complaints about "My company can't donate to OpenBSD because it would be a gift and not a purchase" "We can't donate without paperwork, receipts, tax info"? Here's a way around that.
              >
              > yes so this company makes people donate money and
              > as a benefit it makes cheap pr on top of that?
              > they benefit from openbsd in the first place and
              > why would not they donate something from there?
              >
              > user can donate and decide how much as well by themselves.

              Given that nobody HAS to donate anything to OpenBSD, it's nice a company making profit from OpenBSD is trying to encourage their customers to donate to the project. The rest is just plain bullshit IMHO.

              Comments

              1. By Anonymous Coward (151.136.100.2) on

                > Given that nobody HAS to donate anything to OpenBSD, it's nice a company making profit from OpenBSD is trying to encourage their customers to donate to the project. The rest is just plain bullshit IMHO.

                or really?
                say 100 peoples donate 50 bucks each a month.
                do they send those moneys right away? probably not.
                so they have this 5k which they'd be paying a good
                interest on should they borrow 'em from the bank.
                get the picture?
                do you really know what are they going to do with the money?
                what is all this trust based on?

    2. By Anonymous Coward (128.171.90.200) on

      > it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
      > "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"

      Providing they are supporting OpenBSD I don't see it as a bad thing, maybe others will feel encouraged to do the same.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (82.135.30.22) on

        > > it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
        > > "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"
        >
        > Providing they are supporting OpenBSD I don't see it as a bad thing, maybe others will feel encouraged to do the same.

        "tehy" are NOT supporting openbsd!

        Comments

        1. By Anonymous Coward (74.115.21.120) on

          > "tehy" are NOT supporting openbsd!

          Yes they are, they match donations. If you want to critisize, at least take the time to know what you are critisizing instead of just being a fucktard and spouting off with complete bullshit.

    3. By Chris (24.76.100.162) cl@drclaw.ca on

      > it's looks like a quite obvious pr program.
      > "look, ma! we are supporting openbsd!"
      >

      No fucking shit; welcome to the economy. It's win-win, so what's the problem?

  3. By Joe Price (63.87.178.215) on

    I [unconditionally] applaud their efforts.

    Comments

    1. By just some guy (122.49.158.36) on

      > I [unconditionally] applaud their efforts.
      >
      >

      Agreed. Some people here will find reason to put anyone down. Unfortunately they seem to be the most vocal.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (82.135.30.22) on

        > > I [unconditionally] applaud their efforts.
        > >
        > >
        >
        > Agreed. Some people here will find reason to put anyone down. Unfortunately they seem to be the most vocal.

        so you see a dude in a suit standing on the corner and
        asking for openbsd donations. do you give him moneys?
        what do you base your trust on? from the statement they
        have made so far i see nothing that makes me trust them.

        have you seen a buck from them yet?
        how about they actually put some money and then brag about it?
        nothing happened so far and you are pissing your pants
        from happiness already!

        Comments

        1. By blahblahblah (122.49.158.36) on

          I think you just proved my point. Thanks for your input.

  4. By Anonymous Coward (213.119.198.47) on

    This is great, hooray for eRacks.com! (-:

    Too bad some people have a bad comment on everything, even on the good stuff. (maybe they should read http://openbsd.org/policy.html again)

  5. By Joachim Schipper (Joachim) j.schipper@math.uu.nl on

    That's really nice, and their machines look good too. It's almost a pity I don't have any good excuse for buying one...

    Joachim

  6. By Anonymous Coward (66.31.44.163) on

    While I applaud their contributions (or facilitation of contributions), I have to tell anyone who will read this that eRacks, in my experience, is a really lousy outfit. My employer purchased 7 systems from them several years ago (approximately $16,000). Selling x86 servers is pretty much a no-brainer: Buy decent quality components, slap 'em together, burn 'em in and ship 'em out.

    Six of our seven servers are still serving after several years of servitude, no thanks to eRacks, though. I have personally tried to contact them at least a dozen times; via telephone, e-mail and through broken web-based surveys--and two of my associates made at least another 1/2 dozen attempts.

    Never. Not once. Never EVER did they reply. First we had some configuration questions. Then I wanted to purchase some replacement and spare parts from them. Finally, even though their service and support were completely non-existent, I wanted to buy a bunch of new machines (it's all commodity hardware, anyway). I know in this industry our measely $16,000 is not much to a big fancy outfit like eRacks, but come on.

    Sorry for the rant. 'You pays your money and you takes your chances'. I've just been fed up with them for about 5 or so years and this article has FINALLY provided with an outlet for my frustrations with them.

    If any of you reading this are in business--any kind of business, just remember, it really doesn't take much effort at all to make a customer happy and to KEEP them as a customer.

    Man I hope eRacks people read this. Just last week we took delivery of our 11th and 12th new Dell. We bought some 1850s, 1950s and 2850s. Nice machines. Probably not unlike the stuff eRacks sells. But, NOT TO US! :-)

    NOTE: This is all true.

    Comments

    1. By Anonymous Coward (208.252.48.163) on

      Thanks for the heads up, chief. I was considering pursuing them, despite being dubious of their donation claims, but I think I'd best steer clear.

  7. By Chris (24.76.100.162) cl@drclaw.ca on

    This is a great way to go about getting donations. Everybody wins.

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