There are many of us out there who do pay money for the open source software that they use. The usual questions when offering support by donations are the following.

1. When supporting the operating system the various components like for example openoffice, k3b do they in turn get supported

2. If supporting an OS — how much would someone be expected to pay. I usually calculate it as how much would I pay for a Windows OS ? Also the scenario with most people who are trying out linux run either dual boot systems or are always trying new flavours of linux and cannot justify one single donation

3. If we were to support individual applications — then what is an adequate breakup between the os and the various components. Also how frequent should be the cycles of support ( I think once a year).

If we want opensource to survive and have a growing band of linux users then we need to have a better understanding how payments should be disseminated between OS and application. Also the fact that opensource has changed the way ALOT of people operate we must feel the need to support every component.