Have you ever wondered how open source organizations get funded? Not just the developers, but the whole ecosystem around major open source projects, either at a FOSS Foundation, independent projects, or an open core project at a company?

Most major software projects we all rely on are hosted at Foundations like Apache, Eclipse, Linux, or Software Freedom Conservancy. Those foundations provide a wide variety of support to project communities, including legal and licensing assistance, trademark management, event support, and more. As non-profits, these foundations rely on donors and sponsors for all of their work. So who funds all of this critical support for open source foundations?

Come find out what companies are behind the popular open source foundations and major independent projects, and who's actually paying for all of the other support work that's done to keep the servers running, press releases coming, and license compliance work. Surprises are guaranteed; I know I was surprised when I realized how many different FOSS projects that Microsoft is an annual sponsor for, what projects a few other companies supported with their cash, and how big one foundation has gotten.