Hello Board,
So Linux Fund who has volunteered some funds to help sponsor development
on our text tool has not received the matching that they would need to
pay for the full development cost. They would like to either fund it,
or free up the funds by the end of their fiscal year, which is the end
of this month.
The difference is $630. They would like the foundation to pay the
difference.
I have very mixed feelings on this. While it seems like a very small
amount to pay for a feature that is weak in Inkscape, I'm also concerned
about the prescient that it sets as we certainly don't have the money to
fund development regularly. Though, there are already "funded"
developers working on Inkscape through GSoC even though there are major
restrictions on the eligibility by having to be enrolled in school.
Lastly, there are some political implications. Linux Fund has
volunteered to help us, turning this down probably would mean that they
wouldn't make that offer again. I don't believe that to be a major
downside, but also something that should be considered.
I'm proposing that we do a simple vote on it. How about votes due by
Sunday evening? Depending on that I'll either write a nice e-mail to
Linux Fund thanking them for their generosity or ask the Software
Conservancy to send the money.
--Ted