Linux Credit Card Re-Launches

An anonymous reader writes "The all-new Linux Fund Visa Card launched on July 24th. The Linux Fund began in 1999, and lasted until Bank of America bought MBNA and canceled the program earlier this year. Before that time the fund had distributed $100,000 a year on average. US Bank has inked a new deal to resurrect the program with new features. Currently, the project is open to ideas for supporting well-loved and community-supported software that is underfunded. The current list of supported projects includes Debian, Wikipedia, FreeGeek, Freenode, and Blender."

Wikipedia?

[niceone]

I wonder why they picked Wikipedia? All the others seem pretty geeky low visibility things that would have trouble raising non-geek funds whereas Wikipedia is pretty widely known.

Re:But how do they select projects?

[Vintermann]

Still, they decide, it seems. Why shouldn't there be a vote?

And for us non-USians?

[Svenne]

It sounds interesting and I'd like to participate, but unfortunately this is only available for citizens of the United States.

Has anyone seen or heard of anything similar for us Europeans?

Why trust them?

[NovaX]

They don't explain why, as a previous card holder, I should go back. I held the original card from 1999 (my first card, when leaving for college) until a few weeks ago when my replacement (non-branded version) came. The only difference I see so far is a less attractive card and that they switched from MBNA (now BoA) to US Bank for the United States. Since they failed for years to actually donate the funds contributed, the most satasfaction I got out of the card was when a waitress would complement that it was cute.

On their website, they gloss over the past and don't offer a reason why I should trust them again. I'm inclined to believe that new management will help ensure proactive measures are taken, but I'm also tempted to go reward some other charity.

Re:Important Question

[QuantumG]

Generally speaking, I think people on here pay off their cards and don't get their payments in late.

Uh huh.

Big projects only?

[blindcoder]

Debian, Wikipedia, FreeGeek, Freenode, and Blender

So the money goes to projects that already have a big financial supporting community?
Wikipedias fundraiser usually works great, no? So does Freenodes. Blender has been 'bought into freedom'.

So, realistically speaking. How are the chances of small, say 1-5 people, projects getting support to actually be able to have a nice booth at a Linux Fair or similiar?

Debt is DUMB. Donate directly--don't use this card

[gblues]

OK, so you want to help out the F/OSS community, that's great. If you've got the money to contribute, contribute. Don't waste your time supporting others with consumer debt. With the infinitesimally small returns these cards' so-called "rewards" programs generate, you could contribute the same amount or more directly, spend less money overall, and NOT be in debt to someone else.

I'm also going debunk the "geeks are smart enough to pay off their balance each month" myth. Bullshit. Personal finance is 80% behavior, and only 20% head knowledge. Being smart doesn't mean you'll win. There are plenty of brilliant folks out there that are absolute idiots with their money.

Nathan

Re:Wikipedia?

[owlnation]

I wonder why they picked Wikipedia? All the others seem pretty geeky low visibility things that would have trouble raising non-geek funds whereas Wikipedia is pretty widely known.

Yes, this is very questionable. Particularly with the relentless controversies that pursue Wikipedia like a pack of hounds. And will continue to do so for a long time to come.

Also, while the wiki template is open, large parts of the content are very much not open in any true sense. You can very easily get your IP address banned if some Wikinazi disagrees with your opinion, no matter who knowledgeable or correct your opinion is. Entire countries have had their IP addresses banned. This in not in any way open by my definition.

In addition the relationship with Wikipedia and the for-profit Wikia is not as distinct as anyone claims.

There are a great many open source projects that really benefit the community. There are projects that are struggling and this funding would help them. Wikipedia is not one of them.

Wikipedia shouldn't be funded by anything other than advertising (especially since a significant percentage of its content is already advertising copy anyway), or by donations from those who are so inclined to spend their money that way. I'm sure political parties and NGOs would cough up something for ensuring their views continue to be "freely" expressed. Especially the right-wing ones.

Re:Important Question

[apt142]

I was going to say that geekiness does not translate to common sense. The smartest geek can be as good or as bad with money as the next person. Also, geeky people tend to get themselves in financial straights just getting educated. It takes a lot to feed a geek's brain after all. That's aside from family troubles, natural disasters, bad luck, recessions and taxes. But, you my friend have said all that in just 2 words.

Uh huh.

Can somebody mod this guy +1(Has a Clue Bat)?

12.24 or 14.24 minimum interest

[nightsweat]

Bankrate.com shows Pulaski Bank & Trust offering a 7.99% card.

Yes, I recognize Pulaski doesn't donate money to Linux, but if you carry a balance, save yourself the money and donate directly to the project you want to support.

If you don't carry a balance and never intend to, these rewards cards are probably just as good as any.

Re:Wikipedia?

[Taxman415a]

It's pretty funny how comments bashing Wikipedia get modded up with such ease even when they have nothing insightful or informative to say. "You can very easily get your IP address banned if some Wikinazi disagrees with your opinion, no matter who knowledgeable or correct your opinion is." In addition to fulfilling Godwin's law [wikipedia.org] for us, it's false. One actually has to work pretty hard and behave pretty poorly to get blocked and it's really easy to get unblocked unless you're misbehaving. It's really nearly impossible to get blocked just for disagreeing with people. Any admin that did that would get blocked themselves. The reality is you have to misbehave to get blocked.

"There are a great many open source projects that really benefit the community. There are projects that are struggling and this funding would help them. Wikipedia is not one of them." - Oh yes, Wikipedia just gets millions of hits per day because it's pure trash, thank you for letting us know that it doesn't help anyone. I do however agree there are lots of deserving projects out there and that's why this credit card program is a great idea. It lets people donate without giving up cash flow. Even if you carry no balance, merchants still pay in the range of 4% to the cc company for the service and part of that fee is what goes to this donation.

And the link to apply goes to a windows 2K sit

[awpoopy]

The link to apply for the credit card goes to a website running on Windows 2000 IIS. Do YOU trust your credit card information on a Windows 2000 machine?

Re:Important Question

[mgblst]

You answered your own question: "To me, it appears credit-cards are designed to milk those who are stupid, or who are unable to control their urges sufficiently to do what is wise rather than what is smart." That's exactly it. There are certain kinds of people in the US (and elsewhere too, I'm sure) who feel entitled to have material things. They see it as a need. Additionally, parents tend to coddle their kids - and credit card companies know it, so they give thousands of dollars in credit to college kids, knowing that Mommy and Daddy will pay it off.

Don't be too harsh, there is a billion dollar industry around convincing everyone that they do need these material positions. That there lives are crap without them. They use a variety of psychological manipulations to trick people into this.

Of course, the ultimate blame still lies with the consumer.

Re:Wikipedia?

[Bluesman]

"no matter who knowledgeable or correct your opinion is."

Opinions don't belong in encyclopedias. Facts do. Maybe this is why you've had trouble?

Re:But how do they select projects?

[sybesis]

can you support what you are saying ? I don't care about photoshop or gimp...But gimp does work very great for many things... Can you tell me wich features professional needs that Gimp don't seriously if you want to put some information here add some meat around the bones because right now...this post is just useless. Or even...if gimp is so bad why don't we bring them some money so they could put more time on their damn fucking missing features? so then we could have a rock solid image application... As far as i know, i too eard that many professional are starting to adopt gimp. as image processing application. If you can't provide any link or number to what you say... I'll just add one more thing...the community of the gimp probably can just grow more everyday as linux does. Slow but steady... Thats like saying that linux isn't use more and more as a day to day desktop Os... Just freaking stupid...