Donate and support GrapheneOS!

Hi. I know it was months but i want to share my proposition. I don't use yet graphenos because i'm saving for pixel 6, but i really appreciate a work given to this project and I want to see it alive. So in my opinion instead of taking away features from users, we should award this who donating. Easy example and easy, simple thing. Badgets on signal. Everyone see that you donated and i think it encourages others to contribute. So maybe adding some motive that you are a sponsor on always on display? Or new wallpapers only for sponsors? It would work for me. Or whatever to say thank you for this who paid. But that being said there should be something in my opinion to a little force people to pay for GOS without ruining a whole project and for that i have no idea

I donate 20 bucks every month. Even if you can't do 20 or 10 bucks, everything helps!

Hi again. So I thought that through and i went up with idea:
what if makes GrapheneOS similar to Ubuntu LTS?
What i mean?
Add 3 free years of support and for any further support you would have to activate extended version of GrapheneOS. (Name it "GrapheneOS extended")
How would it works?
Everything would still be the same; downloading, installation... (only at the website you could download only the most recent free software)
The difference would start after 3 years. At the website you could buy extended years for software: 1 year, 3 years, 5 years or 10 years. For privacy measures there should be option to buy them by monero or other cryptocurrency. Then you get a activation code which you could activate at chosen device. Similar how works Cryptomator. For example. You bought 5 years of extended support and want to activate it at Pixel 6 (which has now 5 years of support). So then you used 2 years of your 5 years plan. 5-2=3. So after this you left with 3 years to activate on another device.
Details:

• next to "install" at website should be an icon "buy extended software" or something similar
• option to gift it as a present. Nice detail
• maybe you could pay more for extended years and get code which would have things i mention in previous post for thanks for donator:)
• if software is not up to date. "Software update" section in settings should be whole red. It would mentally force people to buy extended version. And if they click it, there should be nice button for buying extended GOS

Problems which I see right now

• factory phone reset
  • solution: add an option to deregister a GrapheneOS extended from device (reregister option should be only for the same phone to avoid activate it for every supported device by GraphenOS)
• a view of how many years left
  • you could view it directly at your device
• to make it still open source all of this upgrades still should be at GitHub, but that being said, not too much people would manual updates their phones
  yea, probably i could add a lot more, but thats just my randoms things i would do if I know that i have to save a project. I hope it's helpful because i think thats a good idea. If i were a creator it's what i would probably do. But there is a good chance that I don't sea some big problem with this which makes it complete nonsens. I'm only teenager so maybe you could find more downside of this idea

krzemyk I don't use yet graphenos because i'm saving for pixel 6,

You should not save for the Pixel 6, but go for Pixel 7, 7a or the 8th generation. It's not that much more to save up, and you get a lot more years of support. Pixel 6 is already 2,5 generations old, and has 2,5 years of guaranteed support left. There was/is several hardware problems with the 6th generation that was fixed in the 7th generation. You will have much less problems with 7th gen.

https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

krzemyk If I'm reading this proposal right, you are proposing that a device will stop receiving both security and feature updates after x amount of years, regardless of whether Google's device support – including both firmware and software updates – will not end for several years, unless the user pays for it.

From my reading of the GrapheneOS' statements over the last year, including announcements, toots, chat messages, etc.: this is extremely unlikely to happen; it would result in lots of users using insecure devices, possibly for years.

If GrapheneOS is going to switch to a payment model, a better approach in my opinion, would be for the user to pay for the OS up front; thus ensuring non-interrupted updates for the life of the device. I think a payment model in general is unlikely to happen.

Panda-na price difference is too high for me right now; i prefer older device and 2.5 years is enough for me

fid02 hm.. yeah you're probably right. But when i start reading about FOSS I start think that it shouldn't be free. Signal and other messenger apps have to because otherwise nobody would use them, but when it comes from software that only you use, then i don't see why not to pay for that. It's not that making this is free. Maybe if they wouldn't have problems with financial, but they have.
Further more, who install GrapheneOS? Probably anyone who can install custom OS after seeing in about one week big red information about insecure operating settings would buy extended software. But this is in my opinion plus... It's not like it will be me, who will have to decide how to earn more money to keep a project alive.
I think that it would be beautiful if anyone who use FOSS would donate but it not working like that, so we should make people to pay for this. Cashew, bitwarden, cryptomator have something you can pay for.
okey, i stop there because this discussion happen before and i wanted just to share my ideas.
Just... We need to tell people why we have to donate FOSS. It worked recently on me on signal, when i read how much they spent and how much it cost them per user. So maybe if we educate more people like me... It's hard topic:(

krzemyk From my point of view, charging a subscription fee for automatic security updates is unacceptable and unethical, you can't compare it with something like Cryptomator.

Either GrapheneOS is 100% free for everyone, or it's 100% paid for everyone.

It's 100% free and that's why they've set up a donation system, open-source software needs recurring funding to live, so consider making donations if you want GrapheneOS to live, even a small amount is beneficial.

I like the idea of a progression bar for the foundation with set milestones, e.g. minimum amount, +1 more developer, OS feature updates, new hardware, etc ... which could be published on the donate website and updated once a quarter.

I think the main issue is that there is not enough transparency of how much money is needed, how much money is provided, how the money would be used and how many people are contributing..

Xtreix i more see it as a extended support like in Ubuntu LTS as i mention before. But i understand your point of view; it's problematic:(

krzemyk Maybe if they wouldn't have problems with financial, but they have.

Would you kindly provide a source for this? I would like to know more.

krzemyk i more see it as a extended support like in Ubuntu LTS

The comparison with Ubuntu TLS is irrelevant, it's something drastically different, GrapheneOS relies on firmware updates, admitting that a device is supported for 5 years, it won't provide full security updates beyond the 5 years, only extended support the time for the user to change device, but will never be able to provide full security updates if the firmware is no longer maintained.

I'm also thinking of acceptable ways other than donations that might suit most, the main problem is when software isn't directly paying, most people don't donate, most users have got used to using free software that stays free and this is the dominant thinking in open-source, poor remuneration of developers explains why the security and confidentiality of a lot of software is so poor, if software isn't financed by a salary or recurring donations, it's financed by the resale of your bandwidth, the personal information you transmit to it, etc. And those who don't do this when they already have no funding end up in difficulty, they abandon the project, someone else creates a fork and the cycle starts all over again.

fid02 it's just thought after reading this post. Even if not having financial problem then underpaid software. But I don't know and won't stand up for this thesis

Xtreix Yes, that's why i didn't suggest to go beyond what google offers. But i understand that compare it to Ubuntu LTS could not be the best and whole idea too

Ugh, I'm so happy that it isn't up to me to make decision to keep FOSS alive; it's so problematic
And I end my part of discussion here because I don't have anything useful to say anymore:)

AlanZ Some of what you're saying here is addressed on the website at https://grapheneos.org/faq#company

They have a good a point though... The donation model sadly doesn't really bring in a lot of money (or so it seems) for what the talent and effort behind the project is clearly worth.

I wonder if a subscription model or one lifetime payment would work. Must be open source, allow for crypto and all of that, but my assumption is that way more people would gladly pay if paying is the default and not an opt-in thing.

But since the devs will never do that (stubborn little altruistic pack ^^) maybe there's a better way to remind people of donating. A little supporter badge on the profile images (similar to Signal) or just a reminder notification once per year on installation date come to mind...

£10 from the UK should now be in your Wise Account.
Thank you

Just set up higher monthly payment plan on GitHub.
Transaction ID: ch_3PfrhgEQsq43iHhX166z92nw
Thanks for all your great work, team!

I would like to thank the developer or the developer team. Naturally, I have set up a monthly donation. Great to have an Open Source alternative to the evil data collector Google.

You are doing a unique job, keep it up, much strength and energy for the future.