Do you want OSNews to continue to exist? Do you like the selection of news items I manage to scrounge up almost every day? Do you want OSNews free from corporate influence, “AI”-generated nonsense, and the kind of SEO-optimised blogspam we all despise? Consider supporting OSNews financially, so I can keep running the site as an independent entity, free from the forces that make the web shittier every day. There are several ways you can support OSNews.
First, you can become a Patreon. Being an OSNews Patreon means no more ads on OSNews, access to the OSNews Matrix room, and some fancy flair on your comments. The goal is to eventually have enough Patreons supporting us to make us independent even from regular ads, which means we’ll need to hit at least €1500-€2000 a month. Once we achieve that, we will turn off ads for everyone. OSNews is my job, and thus my only source of income, so we can only turn off ads once community support is high enough to do so. This is obviously a long-term goal.
To help us all get there, I’ve added a brand new, even higher Patreon tier. If being a Platinum Patreon isn’t enough for you, you can now move on up and become an Antimatter Patreon for €50/month. You’ll get all the same benefits as the Platinum tier, but on top of that, you can opt to have your name permanently displayed on the frontpage in our sidebar. This tier is really specifically designed for the most hardcore supporters of OSNews, and can even be used as a bit of a marketing tool for yourself.
By the way, I do not know where to go after antimatter. What’s rarer and more expensive than antimatter?
Second, you can make an individual donation to OSNews through Ko-Fi. Recently, my wife, two kids, and I were all hit with, in order, bronchitis, flu, and then a minor cold. With all of us down and out, unable to work, our finances obviously took a bit of a hit. My wife works in home care for the elderly, which isn’t exactly a job with a fair wage, so any time we can’t work it hits us hard. Individual Ko-Fi donations have proven to be lifesavers. As such, I’ve set up a Ko-Fo donation target of €2500, so my wife, kids, and I can build up a bit of a buffer for emergencies. Creating such a buffer will be a huge load off our backs.
Third, we have official OSNews merch! Our merch store is filled with a ton of fun products for the operating system connoisseurs among us, from the basic OSNews T-shirt and mug, to the old-school ASCII-art OSNews T-shirt and sweatshirt, and finally three unique terminal T-shirts showing the terminal of MS-DOS, BeOS, and Mac OS X. Each of the terminal shirts sport the correct colour schemes, text, and fonts. The pricing has been set up in such a way that for each product sold, we receive about $8.
OSNews has always been a passion project for everyone involved, and I’d like to continue that. By making sure we’re independent, free from the forces that are destroying websites left, right, and centre, OSNews can keep doing what it’s always done: report on things nobody else covers, without the pressure to post 45 items about every new iPhone, stupid SEO blogspam nonsense about how to plug in a USB cable or whatever, or “AI”-generated drudgery.
The people making that possible are all of our Patreons, Ko-Fi donors, and merch customers. You have no idea how thankful I am for each and every one of you.
Already a patron! I love OSnews!
As for the substance, whatever neutron stars are made of. There’s a lot of it, but we have none on earth at all!
C’mon folks – plenty of us lurkers who have been around since nearly day 1 consuming this wonderful content.
Give back where you can.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Well I upped my Patreon subscription level. I’d do more if I could but I’m out of work right now due to a stroke back in June.
Donated. Lurker status will reset tomorrow.
The site lacks AmigaOS, AtariTOS, and C64 OS content. It was much better at it before, There’s so much going on in the world of Amiga. Virtual Desktops addon for AmigaOS, AmigaGPT client for ChatGPT, epub reader, AmiFOX WRP browser, Dopus 5,82 back, New A600GS Amiga computer +++ I don’t expect to see Amiga news every day,… but Amiga platform is one of the most loved computer platforms by its community. AROS going 64-bit. AmiBench is a new AROS sort of fork in development for A600GS and later other Amiga computers by Amigakit.com. Worms Directors Cut 1.5 is coming at Gerp 2025 by the original Worms devs. Final Writer 7 is new. OctaMED soundstudio is upgraded too.
Once you include all active OS systems. I am willing to donate.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPWWjfAmzwY – Virtual Desktops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3khggipjg0g – epub reader Legadon for Amiga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOYuZ_XDzxU – AmiFOX WRP browser for all Amigas
https://www.amigakit.com/a600gs-p-91329.html – A600GS Amiga Mini Computer
You do know there’s a “Submit News” button on top of the site right? If you want to see more Amiga/Atari/C64 content, submit it!
Ok, I will be that guy: Why does seemingly every YouTube channel and every blog plead for a Patreon subscription these days? I have a rule for myself: No subscriptions unless it’s absolutely necessary.
My subscriptions (other than essential utilities):
– ProtonVPN
– Google Drive 2TB (I use it to backup my data in addition to HDD backup)
That’s it. No content subscriptions, no GamePasses, no YouTube Premium, no Patreons, no software subscriptions (like the one Gitkraken tried to rope me in, I switched to gitg, nice try GitKraken).
If you want to make your YouTube channel or blog your main gig (instead of the ad-supported sidegig it should be, since those things weren’t meant to be a day job and don’t offer the protections of a full-time job), that’s fine, but this doesn’t mean I have an obligation to be your ersatz employer or even part of a group of people that acts as your ersatz employer, your YouTube channel or blog isn’t that important, there is always some alternative.
kurkosdr,
It’s one thing that you don’t want to pay, but you speak as though people don’t need to feed themselves and their families. That’s the simple reason they do it.
As for being dependent on advertisements, the advertisers invade user privacy and the vast majority of users hate them. 1st party sponsorship deals aren’t as bad IMHO, but they may not be very reliable and the relationship may be seen as conflicting with journalistic impartiality.
All the while money remains important for long term viability. I concede that I don’t have a good answer, it’s not an easy environment to stay afloat in.
See, this is what I don’t understand: YouTube channels and blogs are side-gigs (basically a way to make some extra money from your hobby), they were never meant to be full-time jobs that feed a person or their families. You should not quit your day job or use them as an excuse to not look for a new day job after getting fired from your day job.
The whole “I need you to be my ersatz employer or I may have to shut this whole thing down” blackmail is ridiculous. It’s your hobby, why should I care if you quit your hobby? If OSNews disappears, I will move to Slashdot or TheRegister or ExtremeTech, OSNews is not something that adds so much value to my life to be worth me paying a subscription, it’s literally yet another tech blog.
The GDPR fixed the privacy issue here in the EU, and anyway, this is how the internet as we know it was built. Imagine if every website had a little Patreon tollbooth, we’d never have gotten the internet as we know it. BTW 1st party sponsorship deals can include things like electric shavers or electric toothbrushes which don’t conflict with the subject matter covered.
This, this is what I don’t understand in particular: How can a YouTube channel or blog be “non-viable” long-term? It’s not a TV station, it doesn’t have RF towers broadcasting 24/7 consuming tons of power, and it’s not a newspaper, it doesn’t have to churn out daily or weekly issues. It’s something you update when you have something worthwhile to say, and hosting is either free or very cheap.
kurkosdr,
Why do you think it has to be a “side gig”? Not for nothing, but the gig economy has become a primary sources of income for many workers. This is true for so many gig workers these days. Take an uber driver as an example, you could label that a side gig, but I’m sure there are many drivers for whom it’s a full time job. As a software dev or graphic artist, many make a living on short term assignments because that’s what the local businesses need.
There may be less prestige in gig work, but that doesn’t mean that many people don’t genuinely rely on it to survive.
Osnews isn;t forcing anybody to pay…calling it “blackmail” is ridiculous. Do you realize how many tech sites have shut down throughout the years? Thom’s being honest about where osnews sits. Even if you don’t respect the financial needs of others, making a stink about it seems downright petty to me.
Wikipedia and NPR do the same thing, do you complain then? In fact wikipedia is running a fundraising campaign right now. The fact of the matter is that if nobody paid then it would end up being taken over by corporate interests. Same with so many media sources that have been taken over by corporate interests and done away with impartial journalism.
But that’s the thing, osnews has NOT imposed a tollbooth as you are accusing here. Some sites actually do put up a paywall to actively block content until you pay, but blaming osnews for this has no merit whatsoever. Honestly I find osnews fundraising efforts like this as innocuous as can be. It’s just a fundraising article. It seems entitled as heck to complain about voluntary fundraising – even though you don’t pay, you benefit from those who do.
What’s the likelihood those kinds of companies would pay to sponser osnews though?
Human labor costs more.
There is no blackmail, nothing. OSNews is entirely free for everyone. What are you even talking about? People like to support the things they enjoy; there’s nothing new or even odd about that at all. It’s been like that since the dawn of time. If I want to get paid for working on OSNews, and people are willing to pay for that, that’s no different than any other job in the world. I work, I get paid. You work, you get paid. What’s the difference? It’s just supply and demand, except with far fewer middlemen.
A plumber offers their services, either through their own one-man business, or through working for a larger plumbing company, and you pay them for their work. I offer my services in the form of almost daily work on OSNews, and people pay me for my work. That’s all it is. There’s nothing strange, weird, or unique about it at all.
What you seem to object to is that those that do pay get a little bit extra in return, and you dislike that you’re not getting that. Well, bud, I don’t get my plumbing done for free either.
Donated again (under no impression that it’s obligated or that I think I’m an ersatz employer).
Saw this post a couple days after the fact. Donated. Appreciate what you do. Long-time lurker. Hope everyone is healthy soon, and glad you’re using your free time on a hobby that benefits our little corner of the nerd-world. You are one of maybe four sites I visit multiple times a week for tech news and interesting stuff.