What about Google Summer Code?

What is your opinion about Google Summer Code? Can this be used in favor or Librem5? Maybe I do not understand something, but it seems that Google pays for foss projects without intervention. Is this right?

In Greece, for example, the campaign for mentoring projects for this has already started and I wonder if it can be used for some development in favor of Librem5?

What do you think? I just do not know if all this is OK from the FOSS+privacy point of view or not.

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I seriously question Google’s intentions with anything these days.

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With all due respect, what you suggest is against my common sense

Google is in business to gain profit, ownership & control
hence, Google only pays for foss projects without intervention -
if it promotes Google’s interests - such as PR

Google (and the likes) is the reason why Purism exist :
To counter Google’s data collection & sale, privacy infringement
and all sorts of big brother manipulation of end users data.

The above is based on my common sense
I may be wrong

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Yes, it is. And that’s awesome, even if one dislikes Google. You cannot avoid it anyway, as Google is a top contributor to the Linux kernel, and was also involved in coreboot, for example. It that case both directly and indirectly via GSoC. So, while it’s true that Google is the reason why we need Purism, it’s also true that Debian, PureOS, coreboot, gcc, clang and some of the applications we like (Inkscape, Blender, vlc) would not be as good as they are without Google.

If you have a look at the list or participating organizations, you’ll find all the FOSS gems there. Even the GNU project itself participates.

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What about upstream projects the librem 5 utilizes ? Do they count ?

I could see developing/improving a external application to use on the Librem 5 being in scope, but I am no expert there.

i dislike some business practices that Google as a company has but not Google itself and i think that more people would benefit in the long run if Google were to change it’s bad rutine.

yes by law prisoners are required to be fed and sheltered even educated and offered redemption oportunities so that guards can have an ocupation and empower a corrupt sistem that spreads its tentacles in more and more jars each day.

I would prefer a strictly no G**gle policy.

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Google isn’t a social purpose company like puri.sm is and so they are beholden to complete with their competitors unless otherwise beneficial somehow. So, it ain’t never gonna happen. However, indirectly though work on KDE, etc. etc. could benefit us (?)

BTW I’m in no way cheering for Google here. Those rat bastards once removed me from contract for having a “yellow shirt”. Bullshit! (I dry clean my uniform shirts because I’m lazy as F*&*ck). I highly suspect they just got pissed because my access card shows that I went out for a cigarette twice in a 12 hour shift. Oh! two 15 minutes breaks in a 12 hour shift…to smoke no less!!!.. who the hell did I think I was !!! I’m someone who doesn’t forget and doesn’t stay in ‘my lane’ is who.

This thread is really toxic (with the exception of @Caliga)

Yes, pretty much all of us in this forum despises Google in one way or the other, but the thread is not about Google itself but about a stipend Google gives out for a good cause.

Google Summer of Code has been around for a long time and is genuinely good for everyone and especially the Open Source community. It gives stipends to students who wants to get started with developing Open Source software.

Even if Google is a shit company, we should encourage them to do the things they do right. Not taking the opportunity to get support via Google Summer of Code would be as stupid as people in Africa not taking malaria medicine they get from Gates and Melinda Foundation because they don’t like Microsoft.

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i’ll accept as much malaria medicine i can get my hands on IF by doing so nobody is BEEING FORCED (directly or indirectly) to USE Microsoft.

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No one is being forced to use Google services to be able to receive funds from Google Summer of Code, so your argument is moot.

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This is a misunderstanding. I do not suggest anything. I just posed a question that troubles me. That is all.

I am not so sure about this. I talked to RMS to see his view on this question and he told me that it is OK to take money from Google, the only bad thing is that developers are forced to use some non free java program to communicate with Google. If you do not accept this, you do not communicate with Google and then you do not participate.
So it is still puzzling me although it looks more OK now, since I see many foss projects there, kde, gnome etc.

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The only thing you need to sign up is a Google account and then they’ll contact you through mail. No need for any Java apps, you only need to access Google Summer of Code website and then you can use any email client you wish.