by Colin Finck | June 23, 2019

The Annual Report 2018 of ReactOS Deutschland e.V., the non-profit organization supporting the ReactOS Project, has just been finished.

In the past, these reports have exclusively been published on the ReactOS Deutschland e.V. subsite, but only got little attention there. Hence, the latest report is now released on the main ReactOS website.

In our quest for transparency, we hope that the report offers an insight into the foundation's activities in 2018 and the plans for 2019.

Once again, let us express our deepest thanks for all your donations, which keep ReactOS and the foundation running!

As stated in the report, we're also still looking for students and freelancers to work on sponsored ReactOS tasks.

If this sounds interesting to you and you think that you have the necessary skills, don't hesitate to get in touch with us on the ReactOS Chat.

Annual Report 2018

As stipulated in the Articles of Assocation of ReactOS Deutschland e.V., the Annual Report gives an overview of the work of the Association in the year 2018. It is separated into Activities, Outlook, and Finances. The primary purpose of the Assocation lies in the support of the ReactOS Project. In 2018, the main tasks were:

Organizing the ReactOS Hackfest 2018

Organizing the participation in Google Summer of Code

Presenting the project on popular exhibitions/events

Activities

The following annual activities, which directly contribute to the Association’s purpose, are not presented in detail. These were in particular:

Continued development on the operating system ReactOS and related components (like RosBE), also by non-members

Receiving donations and managing the collected funds

Accounting and managing the members

During the year of 2018, the ReactOS Project continued to deliver on the reestablished 3-month release schedule. Three ReactOS versions were published this year and guaranteed a steady inflow of donations, even surpassing the good result from 2017.

Part of these funds were used to continue a scholarship from the previous year. It ran until end of March, when the student could no longer fulfill the requirements and the scholarship had to be terminated. Paid development on ReactOS also occurred in February in the form of contract work on the USB stack. ReactOS Deutschland e.V. has been seeking for additional eligible students and freelancers throughout the rest of the year. However, due to a lack of suitable candidates, no further scholarships and contracts have been awarded in 2018.

Yet another time, members of the ReactOS Project presented the operating system at popular Open-Source exhibitions in 2018, such as the FOSDEM in Brussels in February and the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage in Chemnitz in March. This year, Association member Pierre Schweitzer also gave a talk about ReactOS at the RMLL in Strasbourgh in July.

As every year, ReactOS Deutschland e.V. supported all presentations by providing merchandising material and covering the travelling expenses.

From May through September, the ReactOS Project could again participate in the yearly Google Summer of Code event, where Google pays university students to work on selected Open-Source projects. In contrast to the previous year, only a single student qualified for one of the available tasks. Fortunately, he could be mentored by four ReactOS developers, thereby successfully completing his task and becoming a member of the ReactOS development team afterwards. ReactOS Deutschland e.V. was awarded the sum of $3200 for successfully mentoring him and sending up to two people to the Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit in Sunnyvale, California. Association member Colin Finck used that opportunity in October to exchange experiences with fellow Open-Source projects and gain insights on how to improve our future Summer of Code participations.

As already planned in 2017, ReactOS Deutschland e.V. organized another ReactOS Hackfest in 2018, this time taking place from 16th to 21st August in Berlin. The room was generously provided for free by IN-Berlin e.V., which has a strong track record of supporting similar conferences from like-minded Open-Source projects. As such, the booking was very straightforward and the room came with all amneties required for the event. ReactOS Deutschland e.V. only had to cover the travel expenses of some attendees. All in all, the ReactOS Hackfest 2018 in Berlin was received very well and we are looking forward to the next Hackfest there!

The ReactOS infrastructure stayed largely unchanged until November, when two long-time dedicated servers were replaced by a fleet of rented virtual machines and a dedicated storage system. In contrast to the previous setup, these virtual machines operate independent of one another, so that a failure of one service can no longer adversely affect other services. To further increase reliability and decentralization, the virtual machines are also spread between multiple European locations. As a side effect of the migration, the ReactOS web services are again reachable from certain countries, where they became victims of bulk IP bans. Due to the ever-decreasing price of server hosting, the better infrastructure comes at roughly the same monthly costs, but requires less maintenance.

By the end of the year, ReactOS Deutschland e.V. had its annual General Assembly. Apart from discharging the responsibilites of the Board and the usual presentation of all current and upcoming activities, the Articles of Association have been changed to add a fourth Board member. Based on his successful handling of various project matters in the past, long-time ReactOS member Pierre Schweitzer has been elected on the additional Vice President position, enabling ReactOS Deutschland e.V. to better represent the project internationally.

Outlook

ReactOS Deutschland e.V. will continue to support the ReactOS Project in 2019.

Another scholarship is already planned and due to be awarded in March. Apart from that, expect the Association to also manage donations, support ReactOS’ participation at popular Open-Source events, and maintain the ReactOS infrastructure in the next year. The ReactOS Hackfest 2019 is already planned and likely going to happen at the same location in Berlin around August.

Finances

Incomes

Donations 18,783.51 € Google Summer of Code Student Mentoring 2,680.14 €

Expenses

Scholarships 3,104.00 € Infrastructure costs (Servers) 2,349.50 € Travel expenses 2,172.59 € Lump sum paid to the honorary officer (“Ehrenamtspauschale”) 720.00 € Specific Research and Development Activities 338.70 € Infrastructure costs (Domains) 32.32 € Bank fees 0.30 €

Totals

Total incomes 21,463.65 € Total expenses 8,717.41 € Reserves from 2017 36,626.00 € Balance on 2018-12-31 49,372.24 €

Allocation of reserves

Due to the positive development of finances within the last 3 years, ReactOS Deutschland e.V. is legally obliged to provide a list detailing the allocation of reserves. This is why the Annual Report contains this section for the first time.

From the final balance on 2018-12-31, the following funds are allocated to reserves for expenses within the next 3 years:

Scholarships and other forms of paid development 23,484.00 € Advertisement costs 5,000.00 € Investments in server infrastructure 3,000.00 € Legal consultation 3,000.00 € Periodically recurring infrastructure expenses 2,192.00 € Organization and travel expenses of ReactOS Hackfests 2,000.00 € Travel expenses for Open-Source exhibitions 1,600.00 €

Matthias Kupfer (President of the Board)

Daniel Reimer (Vice President)

Pierre Schweitzer (Vice President)

Colin Finck (Board Member/Treasurer)