I wish you also be able to get a card like ATI x800 to test Ogre on, because it has some unresolved issues under OpenGL.

I would suggest to get several machines for your tests and buy them as parts with small factor cases, so they dont clog your working space a lot. You can get even used parts off eBay or craigslist.org. I even can help you to find parts here in US and ship them over to your lovely island (I like it from the photos).

Sometimes I see companies are selling computers after the upgrade, and the prices are quite low.

Regarding the donation drive, I think that you should try to style it differently. I thought that the Ogre Membership idea a few months back was quite good. That way users see some immediate personal benefit(“Neat Badge!” “My own Ogre Blog” “My own Ogre email redirect”). I am sure that either way, the community would be more than willing to help fund Ogre’s ongoing development.

Good luck in choosing a new upgrade!

Yes MacBooks have great CPU / RAM specs but the GPU is always lacking for the price. I can get a much better specced Rock laptop for cheaper than that.

Yes, JustinWalsh is our OSX maintainer and does a good job, but it’s tough for him to handle it on his own. There have been occasional offers from other OSX users to help out but they always seem to evapourate within a couple of weeks. Justin is the only one that’s stayed around for any length of time, and I’m very grateful to him for that.

I signed up for the Sourceforge services beta but when I saw how it was organised I wasn’t so keen. It’s mostly useful for things that can be purchased on fixed terms, like support, since the buyer appears to be able to form a contract by responding to a service advertisement. That’s not how I do things, I need to be able to accept or turn down each piece of work on its merits. SF also take a sizeable cut from the earnings. I figure I’m better just offering services direct as I do now.

I’m still thinking about the premium memberships although the time to set-up and maintain is a potential issue. I was thinking of that because I had an ethical dilemma with donations (as discussed), but having thought about it more recently, having reviewed incomings / outgoings on OGRE and realising that outgoings have been winning by a margin, even before you count potentially paid time I’ve spent on it instead, I’ve moderated my opinion. I’m still approaching the issue carefully because there’s still an ethical balance to be maintained here but I’m starting to think it can be proportionate to still allow donations. It’s good to be able to bounce that off other people in the community first though.

As for being able to buy new things, maybe the new licensing could help if a company catches on? You never know who may want to use it, I mean it was used by scientists on CNN after all!

(nit-pick: second paragraph search for “proces”, should be “prices”)

In example I’d love to help with some new features and coding (which is IMHO the most valuable help), but due to other stuff I’m involved in I can only watch Ogre growing and wish there is another way to help… like donations.

And that is ethical for sure. (especially for those who are making money out of Ogre).

As a side note, there’s new Services sourceforge feature for projects. Maybe you should consider launching that too?

The regulars in the forum are well aware that you’re giving up income to work on Ogre, and that work benefits us directly.

I make money by doing contract work that uses Ogre. I would happily donate, or pay to get a “badge”, or participate at whatever level I can afford.

And this reminds me that I once pledged a donation to pjcast and never followed through. I’ll have to take care of that.