How do open source programmers make a living?

Answer 1

Open source programmers make money mainly in one of two ways:

1. A large proportion of open source programmers have day jobs programming 'closed' source code as it where. They use their free time to creat/update and publish the open source code; historically, this started off as a movement of enthusiasts who were doing it for the love of programming and as a hobby and not for financial returns.

2. Increasingly, open source programmers can sell services around the code instead of the code itself. To put it simply: for the average user (whether individual or Small/Mid size enterprise) the challenge of actually implement/using/extracting utility from 'free' open source code is still a challenge; some open source programmers provide technical services around the code for a fee, or else 'package' the code into a software package with various ongoing support options. This model is quickly gaining momentum, and not surprisingly.... about 80% if not more of the income of major software companies (including Microsoft) come from the services around the software and not the software itself.

Answer 2

Simple. We don't give up our day jobs... I am a contracting software engineer, and have been contributing to open-source projects in one form or another for over a decade. Writing open-source is good for developers for a number of reasons. Here are my top 2
1) It gives me an arena to work with technologies that are very interesting even though they are not technically what I am "working" on.
2) If you have an idea that you would like to do, and have a general idea of how to do, it lets you network with others that want the functionality. In the end, everyone wins.

Answer 3

There are at least 4 sources of funding for free software:

1. Income unrelated to free software (main salary, other contracts)
2. Support fees
3. Donations from users
4. Google ads

Answer 4

Researcher has it right. Some open source software users also donate money to projects that they use a lot, often to get features they need added to the project.

Answer 5

maximum open source initiatives are completely voluntary so no longer something is earned from it, yet e.g. pink Hat promises a version of Linux that you ought to pay for and get complete help for. It nevertheless is much more low-priced than living house windows although. that is a person-pleasant false impression that open source software isn't any cost (loose as in loose beer) in accordance to se.

Answer 6

Support, support, support!

Oh, and donations.