As part of my new advertising initiative, Microsoft and I are teaming up to donate $10,000 in support of open source .NET projects.
Oh, and dasBlog also. 
SharpDevelop
NProf / NProfiler / Prof-It for C#
DotGNU / Mono
Diva (a very nice open source video editor)
I too am a long-time user of SharpDevelop. One of the big (and very needed) tools I’ve relied on has been nProf. Sadly, development on the 3 major open-source performance profilers seems slow at best (nProf, NProfiler, and Prof-It for C#). An infusion of funds could possibly really help.
Open source doesn’t need money to become solid, it needs attention.
I agree, but we have to crawl before we can walk. There will soon be open source MVPs, from what I hear…
Just throwing money at open source is what MS is doing for years and it hasn’t payed off.
When has MS “thrown money” at open source? I’ve cited multiple blog posts above from people who ask for exactly that, so educate us, Frans. I realize that money is not the answer to all problems, but it’s a great starting point for a larger conversation.
http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/
Phenomenal new blogging engine. I prefer it to dasBlog, Community Server, and subText already, and it has only had 3 revisions. (And no I am not affiliated.)
Castle Project
"I really think we can extend the incubator idea Rob had to existing projects and also form some sort of organization to provide OSS mentoring. I’d be happy to teach the hard lessons I’ve learned, as well as learn from those who’ve run projects even more successful than mine."
So, Phil, in other words, a foundation of some sort should be founded, which receives donations and acts as a form of VC for OSS projects? (so OSS developers can get funding from that foundation to develop the projects) ?
Sounds interesting 
Would a small consideration be enough to get the NDoc project up and running again with support for .NET 2.0? It’s more than a shame that this project died due to lack of financial support (OK, that was one of the reasons) before Sandcastle was ready to take over.
ZedGraph (easy flexible charting) is the absolute killer .NET open source tool, better even than most commercial products. MBUnit and Reflector would also be on my list.
How about telling us about the details?
That is a phenomenal question. We’re still trying to crank out the details (atleast I am, I’m sure Jeff has been thinking about this for a lot longer than I have). But I’m glad we’re having this discussion - it gives us a lot to think about.
Thanks!
ai
SubSonic, of course.
Has to be MbUnit
Subsonic is also very good.
While Reflector is great, it’s not open source.
SharpLudus:
a href="http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~sharpludus"http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~sharpludus/a
It is a software factory for game development. Support would be great for us to create an upcoming XNA-enabled version of the factory (what the site shows is a prototype of a Managed DirectX version). Activities include the creation of game engines, domain-specific designers and code generators to be used by game programmers.
Regards,
– AFurtado
[andrewilsonfurtado [at] yahoo.com.br]
What about sponsoring a competion? Like the XPrize, but you can call it the NPrize.
Basically come up with a set of requirements for an open source project that would be nice to have (it could certainly be one that already exists), provide a deadline, and then, if there are multiple projects that have been nominated, your readers can vote for their favorite. It should be a winner take all competition.
It can be an annual competion. I’m sure some of your readers would be willing to contribute money for the prize. A competition might raise awareness as well as encourage the creation or improvement of a useful application.
Definitely the Castle project and NHibernate, i couldn’t work without them.
Maybe the SharpDevelop?