X.Org Foundation Loses Its 501(c)(3) Status

[Recursion]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQ0MzU

The X.Org Foundation has lost its 501(c)(3) non-profit status and is now seeking new options, including possibly joining a larger organization.

It was revealed this week that the X.Org Foundation is no longer a 501(c)(3) organization as they failed to file their taxes on time (or at all) for the past three years or possibly as far back as 2005.

Stuart Kreitman, the X.Org Foundation accountant and Oracle employee, wrote during the Board of Directors' IRC meeting this week, "The status of the 501c3 is lost because we (me) failed to file the 3 past years' tax returns on time. Note that we've Never filed returns since our first re-organization to the LLC in 2005. I was taken by surprize that the IRS hit us so rudely. I've had little issues with my own returns and have always found them to be reasonable and friendly."

The foundation only officially obtained 501(c)(3) status with the US government in 2012 after years of paper wrangling and delayed work. The foundation really didn't even get around to taking advantage of its non-profit status with no major fundraising drivers or soliciting for donations from major corporations having a stake in X.Org-related open-source projects.

X may join a larger group like Apache now. Sigh.

[TroglodyteScholar]

1. Isn't x.org on its way out anyway?

Won't be long until Wayland and/or Mir will do what X does, only better.

[Recursion]

3. I doubt Mir or Wayland will fully replace X for a long time

For one thing, neither offers network transparency the way X does.

[phantom power]

4. X's longevity has been a bit of a mystery to me

I mean, it's on its 3rd or 4th incarnation now, but it's 30 year old technology. It's hard to program against -- one of those systems that fails the "hello world" test spectacularly.

Not really my wheel house, but I don't get it.

[Recursion]

5. It's the case in point for "worse is better"

It worked, just well enough, at the time when monitors that could display it were getting cheap. So here we are.

[phantom power]

2. interesting, did he just not know he was expected to file them?