Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Facebook are now funding the open source 3D creation suite Blender

By - | Views: 29,535

In a move that's sure to raise a few eyebrows, the Blender Foundation has announced that Facebook has joined the Blender Development Fund.

Facebook are joining as a Corporate Patron, meaning they will be supplying Blender with at least €120K/year or more. It's not a small sum but for the likes of Facebook, it's likely still money they found down the back of a sofa. Ton Roosendaal, Chairman of the Blender Foundation mentions, "We at Blender see this as another important signal of the industry’s willingness to migrate to open source, and contribute to open source’s continual improvement.".

This money will go towards funding Blender developers to improve this excellent open source 3D creation suite. It does mean at this level that Facebook will be a bit more involved, as Corporate Membership gives companies the option to monitor what gets funded with their monies and access to speak to the Blender team directly.

Lots of companies are doing this now including NVIDIA, AMD, Unity and Epic Games at this same level. At lower levels you also have the likes of Microsoft, Ubisoft, Intel and more. Checking in on the Blender funding page, they're now hitting €116,507 a month but it's not clear if the Facebook monies has been added to it yet.

Learn more about Blender on their website. Free, open source, used by game developers, film creators and more.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
28 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
28 comments
Page: «3/3
  Go to:

Arehandoro Nov 21, 2020
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: Arehandoro
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

I guess money from slavery or child abuse doesn't matter where it comes from... ;)

I dislike Facebook with passion too, but throwing them in the same pot with the above is a little extreme.

It was an exaggeration to express that money does matter where it comes from :)
Arehandoro Nov 21, 2020
Quoting: Guest116 k€ a month is not that much. It really depends on where the programmers are living.

Here: https://fund.blender.org/about/

I read this which i do not understand very well.

Quote25K Euro/month: 5 full-time developers.
50K Euro/month: 10 full-time developers.
100K Euro/month: 20 full-time developers.

A €5K/month salary is a lot of money in any European country. In some more than others, but still a lot of money. Hell, I would say that it would be a lot of money even for any country.
Arehandoro Nov 21, 2020
I was actually thinking those were tax-free -Blender Foundation is a non-profit, so thought it might have certain benefits when it comes to pay employees- or after taxes already. However, 2.5K is a good salary, but still well below the average for developers (At least in the UK).
randyl Nov 21, 2020
Quoting: Alm888
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

Famous last words of "Nokia" and many other companies striking a deal with Microsoft®
Nokia didn't have to sell out. Key words there, sell out. Their Windows Phone was a great phone, and very innovative for the time and was crushed out of existence by Google and Apple. Microsoft got pushed out of the competition and left a losing battle, much like the Firefox Phone and how Pinephone will end up. Nokia is still making phones. I'm not seeing your point at all.


Last edited by randyl on 21 November 2020 at 6:21 pm UTC
CyberRat Nov 22, 2020
Bye bye Blender.
Removed from all my machines.
pete910 Nov 22, 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
There's always one
areamanplaysgame Nov 23, 2020
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: Arehandoro
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil.

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

I guess money from slavery or child abuse doesn't matter where it comes from... ;)

I dislike Facebook with passion too, but throwing them in the same pot with the above is a little extreme.

Only a little, when you consider the things that Facebook has enabled, and profited from, worldwide in the past few years. The destabilization of democracies perpetrated by certain bad actors would be possible without Facebook, but it would definitely be a lot harder and more expensive.
nate Nov 23, 2020
Quoting: barotto"Please log in with your Facebook account to continue"

That was the first thing that I thought of too! I have heard of people who had multiple Facebook accounts, which is apparently a "TOS violation", that are now not allowed to even use the Oculus VR headsets that they bought and own. I would never willingly give any of my money to a horrible company like that. That being said, I will continue using Blender (not that I use it much) and React, because both are free.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.