I’ve always been curious how people who give away software for a living make that living. I have a few OSS projects but I make my living other ways, those OSS projects are hobbies and my living takes precedence every time because I like to eat food and buy things.
Like they can sell support, but I have never paid for a solution. They can sell packaged solutions, but I can compile it myself. They can survive on donations but, while I have donated to a lot of FOSS projects, I imagine most people don’t donate.
A lot of good FOSS projects start off as a company’s internal tooling, which they release to the public. The main source of income is sometimes an entirely different product/service.
I’ve always been curious how people who give away software for a living make that living. I have a few OSS projects but I make my living other ways, those OSS projects are hobbies and my living takes precedence every time because I like to eat food and buy things.
Like they can sell support, but I have never paid for a solution. They can sell packaged solutions, but I can compile it myself. They can survive on donations but, while I have donated to a lot of FOSS projects, I imagine most people don’t donate.
A lot of good FOSS projects start off as a company’s internal tooling, which they release to the public. The main source of income is sometimes an entirely different product/service.