Sonar GNU/Linux merges with Vinux

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I agree with you, but when you say schools, you mean the government.
They provide the majority of funding schools use for that sort of thing.
I did not think of a grant writer.  That sounds like a good place to 
start.

--Kelly Prescott



On Thu, 27 Apr 2017, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Tony Baechler here.
>
> Your comments again emphasize the need for a nonprofit organization. I 
> wouldn't worry too much about the money. Funding will happen once the word 
> gets out. Oh, it takes time and it won't be immediate, but it can and will 
> happen. What we need is a grant writer. The government issues grants. There 
> are many private companies who put lots of funding into Linux. Most major 
> projects have outside funding. If Mozilla had to survive only on donors, they 
> wouldn't. Debian gets lots of money and servers from HP Enterprise and many 
> other companies. You're right that the Windows guys get their money mostly 
> from the government, but not all. Schools are a lot of the market.
>
> As I said before, start young. Get on social media where teens and young 
> people are and show them that there is another choice besides Windows and the 
> Mac. Even if they aren't programmers, they are potential users. One of the 
> reasons why the Apple II became so successful was because it was given to so 
> many schools. How many of you grew up on the Apple II in the classroom? There 
> was a company called Raised Dot Computing. They wrote and sold Bex and other 
> programs. They were a commercial business. When they started, they had no 
> money. All of their newsletters are online and well worth reading if you care 
> about the history of technology for the blind. They hired a grant writer. 
> After getting several grants, they were able to fund development of their 
> software, like Braille Edit which became Bex, a program to make AppleWorks 
> accessible and eventually Mega Dots for the PC. The point is it can be done 
> and it wouldn't be that difficult, especially with a good social media 
> presence.
>
> On 4/24/2017 4:56 AM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>>  Kelly Prescott here.
>>  The reason Windows has better accessibility, is that the government has
>>  largely funded it.  FS and all the other players get a large percentage of
>>  there purchases from VR dollars which is the good old tax payer!
>>  So while a private company developes it, Uncle Sam really foots the bill!
>>  I only say that to show how hard it is to get accessible software built
>>  and
>>  maintained.
>>  I am working on a UEFI boot loader that talks from bootup.  I am going to
>>  release it as open source.
>>  The thing is: I have to feed me and mine durring this effort.
>>  This means that I work on borring normal projects most of the time, and my
>>  boot loader when I have spare time.
>>  I think there are several developers me among them who would do this full
>>  time, but if there is no money in it, then we must continue to work on our
>>  normal jobs/projects until we either have time to work on it or we find
>>  some
>>  good funding to pay for it.
>>  Unfortunately, I do not know of good ways to obtain lots of money for
>>  part-time developers.  There is only so much free time and free work to go
>>  around.
>
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