An organization that among other things provides hosting for over 500 free and open source projects from all over the world suddenly finds itself needing a helping hand.
An essential but little known open source institution has announced that it’s on the ropes. Yesterday Lance Albertson, the director of Open Source Labs, announced in a blog post that OSL needs funds, and it needs them fast.
“Over the past several years, we have been operating at a deficit due to a decline in corporate donations,” Albertson said. “While the Oregon State College of Engineering has generously filled this gap, recent changes in university funding makes our current funding model no longer sustainable. As a result, our current funding model is no longer sustainable.
“Unless we secure $250,000 in committed funds, the OSL will shut down later this year. I have reached out to our largest corporate sponsor and they are working to increase their support as we update our contract, but that still may not be enough.”
He’s also working against a tight deadline. “I need to provide leadership with an update on any funding changes by Wednesday, May 14, 2025,” he said. “Please reach out directly via donations@osuosl.org if you’re able to help us make it through this difficult time.”
Indispensable Project With a Low Profile
Albertson’s post immediately got other open sourcers sounding the alarm. Larabel posted about it on Phoronix, as did the folks at Gentoo Linux, who pointed out that, “OSL has been a major supporter of Gentoo Linux and many other software projects for years.” Gentoo included the link, which is to a long list that reads like a Who’s Who of open-source projects and includes the likes of the Apache Software Foundation, the Linux Foundation, and Drupal.
According to the project’s website, OSL works in partnership with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University, and the projects they host “deliver nearly 430 terabytes of information to people around the world every month.” OSL says it’s the most active organization of its kind on the planet, and in addition to hosting provides professional software development and on-the-ground training for promising students interested in open source management and programming.
“Over the course of its 22-year existence, the OSL has mentored over 130 students, many of whom have gone on to create their own companies and work throughout the larger tech ecosystem,” Albertson said.
Notable OSL milestones include:
- Provided hosting for Mozilla Firefox when they needed help in the early days and hosted the release of 1.0
- Was the home of the Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, Kernel.org, and Mozilla for many years
- Offers fast and reliable software mirroring for projects
- Currently provides infrastructure hosting for projects such as Drupal, Gentoo Linux, Debian, Fedora, phpBB, OpenID, Buildroot/Busybox, Inkscape, Cinc and many more
- Virtual machines for x86, aarch64 and ppc64le are used by many projects for CI and other hosted services
How to Help
Although OSL probably needs help from corporate sponsors with deep pockets the most, there’s no reason why regular everyday users of Linux and open source shouldn’t chip in with some donations too — especially right now while the situation is… well, somewhat desperate.
“If any of you can assist or connect me with potential supporters, please reach out as soon as possible,” Albertson said. “The OSU Foundation is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, which provides many donors a tax advantage. Please contact the OSU Foundation directly if you have questions about your eligibility. You can donate directly to us by visiting our donation page.
“Your commitment is crucial for us to move forward. I am available to answer any questions you might have.”
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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