Tootfinder

Free Floating or Merely Detached? #FreeFloatingPlanets, we estimate that about one-half of the reported 'free-floating' Neptunes are not free but merely 'detached'" -> Detached but Not Alone: https://aasnova.org/2026/06/26/detached-but-not-alone/

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #GuyGarveysFinestHour
Free:
🎵 Lying In The Sunshine
#Free
https://open.spotify.com/track/7iA3xHruObBBOiqYRUVKTD

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #90TEEN
Free Throw:
🎵 Pallet Town
#FreeThrow
https://polarislandpkwy.bandcamp.com/track/free-throw-pallet-town-short-cover
https://open.spotify.com/track/2MxG5l4bd3HgVzEuY5EvMt

The excellent Streets of Rage 4 is free on the Epic mobile store in regions where it is available. #freegames

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #GuyGarveysFinestHour
Free:
🎵 Lying In The Sunshine
#Free
https://open.spotify.com/track/7iA3xHruObBBOiqYRUVKTD

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Free the Robots:
🎵 Jazzhole
#FreetheRobots
https://open.spotify.com/track/3WfLsIeKFsLLnZSGaIEEt9

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PositiveVibrations
Free Nationals & Chronixx:
🎵 Eternal Light
#FreeNationals #Chronixx
https://villem.bandcamp.com/track/free-nationals-feat-chronixx-eternal-light-villems-version
https://open.spotify.com/track/1CbxG199T0fzfUV5EO7aPV

I've been talking before why money won't solve the burnout problem. But let's for a minute assume that you really wanted to help people maintaining #FreeSoftware by paying them. The problem is that:
1. You have to pay them a living wage.
While all monetary help is appreciated by developers, they need a living wage. Not "that should prevent you from starving to death" but the kind of money that can support a honest (but not lavish) lifestyle: pay the bills, feed your family, cover other living costs such as repairs, clothes, appliances, and let you save enough for future emergencies.
It's simple as that. If you can't do that, they're going to need a dayjob. If they're lucky, it won't collide with their #FLOSS work. If they're not, it will kill them. Or they'll fall somewhere in the middle, slowly burning out until they can neither maintain their projects, nor work.
2. You need to guarantee that the payouts will continue.
People need security. They're not going to stay unemployed, let alone quit their job or turn down a job offer, unless they either have good guaranties or substantial savings (or they're in a really bad shape and wouldn't be able to handle the job anyway). The job market is hell, and people just know that when the payments stop, they may not be able to find a job soon, let alone a good job. Even "passively" looking for a job can burn you out.
So yeah, one-off payments and pinky swears won't do. And it isn't even a matter of whether we can trust you; it's a matter if you'll actually be able to continue paying us. And honestly, I don't really know how to solve that. Perhaps by paying up front, but for how long? Finding a job may take more than a year, finding a good job may be once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
3. It can't end up being a job.
Perhaps most difficult of all, these payments can't really come with explicit obligations. I mean, that's the whole point: you want to support FLOSS, not turn it into a corporate project. You want the maintainer to remain free and enjoy the work. That is unlikely to happen if their livelihood is now dependent on your satisfaction. And even if it isn't, I for example would still feel indebted to whoever's paying me to do FLOSS, even if they really didn't expect anything in return, and would fall into a spiral of guilt-inflicted burnout if I failed to maintain the software satisfactorily.
#OpenSource

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Free Life:
🎵 There's Something Better
#FreeLife
https://discofunkcollection.bandcamp.com/track/theres-somenthing-better

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SonicReducer
Free Zorba The Hooligan:
🎵 Amerika
#FreeZorbaTheHooligan
https://open.spotify.com/track/3B15llsMvZ8rUfsLQj48Dq

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #EasternEchoes
Free the Robots:
🎵 Jazzhole
#FreetheRobots
https://freetherobots.bandcamp.com/track/jazzhole-2
https://open.spotify.com/track/3WfLsIeKFsLLnZSGaIEEt9

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #ChrisHawkins
Queen Latifah, Shades & Free:
🎵 Mr. Big Stuff
#QueenLatifah #Shades #Free