In a move that's sure to raise a few eyebrows, the Blender Foundation has announced that Facebook has joined the Blender Development Fund.
Facebook are joining as a Corporate Patron, meaning they will be supplying Blender with at least €120K/year or more. It's not a small sum but for the likes of Facebook, it's likely still money they found down the back of a sofa. Ton Roosendaal, Chairman of the Blender Foundation mentions, "We at Blender see this as another important signal of the industry’s willingness to migrate to open source, and contribute to open source’s continual improvement.".
This money will go towards funding Blender developers to improve this excellent open source 3D creation suite. It does mean at this level that Facebook will be a bit more involved, as Corporate Membership gives companies the option to monitor what gets funded with their monies and access to speak to the Blender team directly.
Lots of companies are doing this now including NVIDIA, AMD, Unity and Epic Games at this same level. At lower levels you also have the likes of Microsoft, Ubisoft, Intel and more. Checking in on the Blender funding page, they're now hitting €116,507 a month but it's not clear if the Facebook monies has been added to it yet.
Learn more about Blender on their website. Free, open source, used by game developers, film creators and more.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Kimyrielle Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
1 Likes, Who?
ObsidianBlk Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Famous last words of "Nokia" and many other companies striking a deal with Microsoft®
11 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ObsidianBlkQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
You mean like AMD, NVidia, Google, Microsoft, Canonical, Ubisoft, Epic... Because they are all corporate sponsors.
5 Likes, Who?
Quoting: pete910Why Fakebook, Trying to see the connection
Better 3D content creation software will translate into better VR games and yield more Oculus VR sales and Facebook users.
6 Likes, Who?
QuoteIn a move that's sure to raise a few eyebrows, the Blender Foundation has announced that Facebook has joined the Blender Development Fund.
It's not really that big a deal: others have already shown that donating money to Blender is an easy and cheap way to get some positive PR, and I'd imagine that they would like people to be able to make game assets so they can sell them in their games store to run on their games hardware.
More interesting is oomd, which is a proper open source infrastructure product out of Facebook that serves a genuine need in the Linux ecosystem. They had an itch that needed scratching, and everyone benefits, exactly as it should be.
4 Likes, Who?
If they were the only big corporate donor, I'd be worried. But they're just one of the pack, this won't put them in a position to take the reins.
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Quoting: barotto"Please log in with your Facebook account to continue"
Thanks, I almost had beer all over my monitor then :-)
3 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: ObsidianBlkQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
I guess the point of a -donation- is that doesn't come with strings attached. If Facebook wanted to control Blender, they could just throw a few million at the developers to bribe them into accepting a job offer...
2 Likes, Who?
Arehandoro Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
I guess money from slavery or child abuse doesn't matter where it comes from... ;)
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: pete910Why Fakebook, Trying to see the connection
They have a lot of investiment in gaming these days with Facebook Gaming and Oculus
2 Likes, Who?
ObsidianBlk Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: ObsidianBlkQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
I guess the point of a -donation- is that doesn't come with strings attached. If Facebook wanted to control Blender, they could just throw a few million at the developers to bribe them into accepting a job offer...
"It does mean at this level that Facebook will be a bit more involved, as Corporate Membership gives companies the option to monitor what gets funded with their monies and access to speak to the Blender team directly."
This doesn't sound like it's strictly a donation... so I stand by my original statement.
3 Likes, Who?
Is there an alternative to blender then ;)
1 Likes, Who?
ObsidianBlk Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: TuxeeQuoting: ObsidianBlkQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
You mean like AMD, NVidia, Google, Microsoft, Canonical, Ubisoft, Epic... Because they are all corporate sponsors.
Would depend of the relative size of the "donation". Look... I get it... more than likely Facebook wouldn't do anything and Blender will continue on being Blender as we all know and love. Doesn't mean I should be perfectly comfortable with their involvement.
I'm not exactly comfortable with Microsoft being on that list either (the creators of such things as "embrace extend extinguish").
Ultimately, all I was commenting on was the idea that "Money is money"... which is not the case. I'm not saying anything is going to happen here, I'm just saying Facebook (and the others) are not simply being altruistic and it's worth being vigilant. That's all.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: KimyrielleThat's the thing with corporate donations though.Quoting: ObsidianBlkQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.
I guess the point of a -donation- is that doesn't come with strings attached. If Facebook wanted to control Blender, they could just throw a few million at the developers to bribe them into accepting a job offer...
QuoteChecking in on the Blender funding page, they're now hitting €116,507 a month but it's not clear if the Facebook monies has been added to it yet.Even if it isn't, topping 200k a month is peanuts for a company like Facebook, but it would make all the difference for a team like Blender's. "So, did you like our little warm shower? No strings attached, you know, but if we like what we see, there might be more where that came from..."
1 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle Nov 20, 2020
Quoting: ArehandoroQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.
Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)
I guess money from slavery or child abuse doesn't matter where it comes from... ;)
I dislike Facebook with passion too, but throwing them in the same pot with the above is a little extreme.
2 Likes, Who?
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