Open Collective
Open Collective
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Solus

We build open source desktop experiences and the Solus operating system that is designed for home computing.

About



Solus is an open source project dedicated to building an independent and cohesive Linux desktop experience aimed at home and office use.

  • We deliver continuous updates on 4 distinct editions: Budgie, GNOME, Plasma, and XFCE.
  • We maintain our own kernel and toolchain, optimized for desktop users.
  • We curate a central package recipe repository where everyone can learn to contribute.
  • We build welcoming communities on the Solus Forum, in the Solus Matrix Rooms, and on Reddit.
  • We share project news with the world through our blog posts, and on Mastodon.

Your support pays for:
  • Recurring expenses, including:
    • Website hosting (Digital Ocean)
    • Package building infrastructure (Hetzner)
    • Mass mailer service (Mailgun)
    • Email and Document hosting (Google Workspaces)
    • Shared account access (Bitwarden)
    • Domain registration and upkeep
    • Content Distribution Network (Cloudflare)
  • Direct compensation of developers, for example:
    • Paying Solus Staff for the time they spend on completing particularly arduous, complex or tedious tasks, such as large stack upgrades, tooling upgrades, infrastructure work, wholesale reworks of documentation, etc.
    • Paying Community Contributors a bounty to solve thorny issues
  • Reimbursement for hardware purchases by Solus Staff. Hardware purchases enables the following:
    • Increased compatibility through direct testing of hardware components
    • Increased productivity via sensible upgrades to more modern hardware that speeds up development workflows
  • Other expenses at the discretion of the Solus Staff

Solus project expenses are recommended by the Solus Staff Admin team, then voted on by the larger Solus Staff group. All expenses are publicly disclosed here on the Open Collective platform.

To support Budgie Desktop development, which is separate and under the Buddies of Budgie organization, visit their Open Collective.

Our team

Estimated Annual Budget
$9,848
Today's Balance
$12,507.45
2 Full-time Developers
$100,000
per year

Contribute


Become a financial contributor.

Financial Contributions

Membership
Backers

Help support Solus development with a monthly donation!

Starts at
$1 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 80
Membership
Release Testers

Want to help us test before the next release? Perks: Access to Release Candidate (RC) ISOs for all editions.

Starts at
$3 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 140
Membership
Beta Testers

Want to help us test pre-release ISOs, and have access to the most up to date ISOs every month? Perks: Access to Snapshot ISOs for all editions mo... Read more

Starts at
$10 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 71
Membership
Crew

Welcome aboard! Perks: Access to snapshot ISOs for all editions every sync (usually weekly), as well as Release Canidate ISOs for all editions.

Starts at
$25 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 28
Custom contribution
Donation
Make a custom one-time or recurring contribution.

Latest activity by


+ 593

Top financial contributors

Individuals

1
Incognito

$1,100 USD since Jun 2021

2
Reilly Brogan

$1,075 USD since May 2021

3
Incognito

$1,075 USD since May 2021

4
hash

$1,075 USD since Jul 2021

5
Phillip Melvin

$975 USD since Oct 2021

6
Joe Alden

$840 USD since May 2021

7
Tracey Clark

$787 USD since May 2021

8
Collin

$775 USD since May 2021

9
WetGeek

$750 USD since May 2021

10
Eric Hecker

$725 USD since Aug 2022

11
Tom Scharbach

$600 USD since Jul 2021

12
Wini-Buh

$600 USD since Dec 2021

13
Max Bradbury

$575 USD since Jun 2021

14
Stuart Rose

$575 USD since Jun 2021

15
Ahmed Al Naqbi

$575 USD since Jun 2021

Organizations

1
Nalo Labs

$370 USD since Nov 2021

2
PRAZEWORKS

$112 USD since Aug 2021

Solus is all of us

Our contributors 601

Thank you for supporting Solus.

Tracey Clark

Admin

$787 USD

David Harder

Admin

$35 USD

EbonJaeger

Core Contributor

Incognito

Crew

$1,100 USD

Reilly Brogan

Crew

$1,075 USD

Incognito

Crew

$1,075 USD

hash

Crew

$1,075 USD

Phillip Melvin

Crew

$975 USD

Joe Alden

Crew

$840 USD

Budget


Transparent and open finances.

+$3.00USD
Completed
Contribution #803717
+$3.00USD
Completed
Contribution #669581
+$2.00USD
Completed
Contribution #706972
$
Today’s balance

$12,507.45 USD

Total raised

$37,741.11 USD

Total disbursed

$25,233.66 USD

Estimated annual budget

$9,847.55 USD

Connect


Let’s get the ball rolling!

News from Solus

Updates on our activities and progress.

The ISOs are rolling again

We've had several weeks without ISOs being mailed out; the pause was needed to roll out the initial stages of the usr merge. With...
Read more
Published on September 27, 2024 by Tracey Clark

Solus MATE Transition Tool v0.3 will be made available to Beta Testers later this week

As you may be aware as of the Solus 4.4 the MATE Edition was deprecated, and, of Solus 4.5 we're no longer producing a MATE Edition. For existing Solus MATE users we wish to provide a way to safety transition to another desktop environment...
Read more
Published on January 21, 2024 by Joey Riches

Solus 4.5 Release Candidate 5 ISOs avaiable to backers

Solus is happy to announce that the Release Candidate 5 ISOs are available for Solus 4.5 - Resilience. An email has been sent to...
Read more
Published on December 30, 2023 by Tracey Clark