With the Linux Vendor Firmware Service serving more than 135 million downloads for Linux users updating their system and device firmware, LVFS has been working to get more hardware vendors to contribute either engineering resources or directly contributing annual dues as sponsors. Framework Computer is now the first one to have executed an agreement under these new sponsorship efforts.
Red Hat in employing lead developer Richard Hughes has contributed the most to LVFS/Fwupd’s success, the Linux Foundation has also hosted the project since it has shifted into their umbrella, AMD’s Mario Limonciello is among the significant contributors, and now Framework Computer is a new sponsor to the project.
I continue to contribute in the most minor way to both, and it’s very true that Hughes LARGELY runs this repo. This is becoming a problem, especially since the majority of companies do not contribute, though they use the upstream just like everyone else.
If Amazon, Google, Dell, Hetzner, Equinox, DR, DO…etc all paid their fair share, they’d be able to pay honest contributors just simply for making what is already available MORE readily available. That’s what this project is about.
On the hardware manufacturer side: AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Realtek…etc are also not chipping in.
This is a CRUCIAL project for larger adoption for home users. Yes, most enterprise-sized companies manage their own semver releases for firmware, but they still use these tools. They should contribute, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but a miniscule amount of money for them to do so to ensure the same people making this such a success can continue to do so.