Ubuntu MATE is not a small project anymore and it has a lot of fans. Many of these fans are donating money and the Ubuntu MATE devs are using some of those funds to sponsor other open source projects.

There was quite a furious debate in the Linux community about what the elementary OS devs said about financial contributions from the community. They didn't say it exactly like this, but they felt that users should pay for projects they really like and use, like elementary OS for example. In fact, their words were much less gracious than this.

They also receive donations and they make donations themselves, but they are basing their work on someone else’s, and even if they build a lot of tools and apps themselves, it's still kind of a morally grey area. Ubuntu MATE devs, on the other hand, don't have this kind of expectations from their users and they just release a report on how much money they got and what they did with it.

Open source also means transparency regarding money from donations

Not all of the open source projects do this, but some of the developers like to share with everyone how much money they receive each month. Of the top of my head, Ubuntu MATE and Linux Mint have monthly communiques regarding this. To make things more interesting, Ubuntu MATE also published details about a project they donate to. That particular project was made specifically for Ubuntu MATE, before any donations were placed.

"Ubuntu MATE is comprised of many Open Source projects, we recognise that. Each month that Ubuntu MATE has a surplus of funds we will make a contribution to an Open Source project that Ubuntu MATE directly benefits from. This month’s choice was easy. So, we are delighted to say that Ubuntu MATE has donated $50 to the Folder Color project and also $50 to the Gufw project, both developed by Marcos Costales," said Martin Wimpress, one of the devs from the Ubuntu MATE team.

It's nice to see that some of the open source projects out there remember that transparency is not only about the development process, it's about everything that involves users.

You can download the latest Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Beta 1 and give it a spin.

Folder color