Re: Donation to GNU Octave

[Ismael Núñez-Riboni]

Just for the records: it seems that the contribution (I cannot call it a 
"donation" anymore) from my institute to Octave will work. We will set 
an application for a service from GNU Octave and we will need afterwards 
an invoice. I think the best is an application/invoice for "support" 
since I realize that the sale of a GPL license is confusing or sounds, 
at the least,  suspicious. I think for sure that some people in the 
accounting department could find it fishy: to pay for a free software 
license? It sounds for the novice really weird, particularly these days 
here in Germany, when I'm not allowed to accept a 6.95€ box of 
chocolates from a colleague whom I helped with some data processing or 
buy 5.01€ flowers to the teachers of my daughter's Kindergarten as 
farewell gratification... Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, it's not so bad 
how the German institutions try to fight corruption, but I have to 
fulfill the saying in Spanish: Don't do good things that may seem bad 
(no hagas cosas buenas que parezcan malas). Ergo: it has to be a support 
contract...

I'm still unsure about the amount, but I believe we are talking here of 
magnitude order of 100€, surely not much but I hope that at least it 
pays for the fair-trade coffee in Octave's next developers meeting... 
:-) Or at least that it sets a precedent for future contributions from 
other sources. I do not know if it will always be possible or 
administratively justified; at least my case was a clear one of justice: 
If my institute saves ca. 2000€ on a Matlab license because I'm using 
Octave, why not to support GNU Octave with a bit of money? For sure I'm 
not using the software to play and it's also not like the money is 
completely irrelevant to have one day the next software release, is it?

Anyhow, I will need now a contact person to arrange the further details, 
like names, addresses and bank accounts...

Keep on the good job. Cheers, Ismael.