How is LinuxCNC funded?

I assume that there are some expenses incurred in hosting the web site and such. How are the bills paid?

I found a couple of posts that talked about "paid" support but I find the community support to be fantastic, and very supportive of my offbeat project. Could LCNC benefit from some money from users?

I have been involved in a few open source projects and usually things like the website is paid for by a core contributor as a donation beyond just time for programming. Sometimes there are ways to donate, but LinuxCNC is such an old project they haven't adopted many modern open source methods. For example, I don't see them on Open Collective or Patreon.

opencollective.com/search?q=linuxcnc

Often times open source contributors will say things like "donate some programming" but this is easier said than done. Breaking into an old project like this is very difficult even for the most savvy programmers.

Mr. Bond,

If we had a donate section it could be the fact that we must vote for update's like hiring an opengl programmer to add some
future stuff into linuxcnc. But the todo list is so big that we could be bankrupt at once.

So we decided to do not make a donate section.

What would happened if we had 1 miljion to spend? Would linuxcnc be rewritten in QT at this time?

It's indeed very, very difficult to hack into linuxcnc, even for a dedicated programmer just as Luke describes.

The good thing is. Every linuxcnc section is making the best a men can get !!
And sometimes there is a woman that can do QT programming at once.

I think Apple is googling github every day to look for some code examples.
You see also motorola developpers on QT forum's publishing some fine tuned code.

when money is involved the direction of the project will head towards money,
This i agree 100%.

If you look at Purelogic from Russia. They started with Mach3, they developped their own cnc software.
Now you can get a lifetime licence for free. Look at CSMIO/IP-S | 6-axis Motion Controller (STEP/DIR), Ethernet
also developped their own software CSMIO/IP controllers use CS-Lab’s own control software simCNC.

They are not happy with linuxcnc.

I have one 6 axis CSMIO controller that was not working with the windows thc function. I complained about that. But they say
that the controller would work on torch height control. So i started with linuxcnc.

Thanks for the info, I didn’t want to be a total freeloader. Linuxcnc is a wonderful program and community.

The funny thing is,

I have an idea for you to solve....

Try to catch some dependencies.

Maybe you did in the past something like : sudo apt-get install geany

Try this : sudo apt-get download geany

Will not work.

You have to do first : sudo thunar

Open terminal in thunar and type : apt-get download geany

This will work.

Now try to install it. Just google it.

In short therms. With a ssd memory card, you could install the latest linux version offline including updates and custom dependencies.

In the end you will problably be providing a linux distro.

I hope you can help with a how to install info.txt how to install a downloaded dependencie file....
If you get it and could write a short document how to install, that would be great ! We can share this information.
We all can use your information.

For example. If you are on holiday and you want to install your latest linux version and you have no internet available?
You have the solution in your hand's, you only have to provide the how to file.

A great way to contribute and promote the use of LinuxCNC by new users would be to create a detailed guide on your system. Any of us who set up a system, regardless of how savvy we are in terms of development, can document our builds and provide examples of actual working HAL/INI and script setups.

For example, there is not a single working example of a 7i76/G540 setup with a working (bi-directional) estop out there. I know because I downloaded them all and tried them out.
I had to cobble it together from several sources and some experimentation, took me about a week of evenings and weekends.

If we had a library of machines, documented with parts list (control, switches, and motors), pinout, wiring diagram, and code, it would be basically plug and play for new users to replicate a known good configuration.

And I know we all want to do slightly different things with our machines.

But Average Joe Woodworker or Average Joe Metalworker doesn't care because he hasn't learned a machine yet. Give him a setup that's known to work, he'll build it and be happy with it.