The talk of joining an umbrella organization and disbanding the Gentoo Foundation (GF) has been recurring over the last years. To the best of my knowledge, even some unofficial talks have been had earlier. However, so far our major obstacle for joining one was the bad standing of the Gentoo Foundation with the IRS. Now that that is hopefully out of the way, we can start actively working towards it.
But why would we want to join an umbrella in the first place? Isn’t having our own dedicated Foundation better? I believe that an umbrella is better for three reasons:
- Long-term sustainability. A dedicated professional entity that supports multiple projects has better chances than a small body run by volunteers from the developer community.
- Cost efficiency. Less money spent on organizational support, more money for what really matters to Gentoo.
- Added value. Umbrellas can offer us services and status that we currently haven’t been able to achieve.
I’ll expand on all three points.
Continue reading “Is an umbrella organization a good choice for Gentoo?”