A Man Has to Eat, Doesn't He?

[blur xc]

I've been wondering for some time now, how do open source developers earn a living?

I understand there are a lot of us w/ day jobs that make small contributions, but I can't comprehend how a whole bunch of small contributions added together can add up to a sophisticated piece of software. Now, I imagine people are motivated to make contributions in whatever way they can because they are getting something for free- but there has to be some main group of developers who have to be devoting all their time to whatever project they are working on, and then the load it up into the repos and give it away for free? How does that work?

BM


(re-read it, and I think it makes sense)

[BlackRoijaX]

Donations, corporate funding, hackers. Thats pretty much it.

[swoll1980]

I believe most of them just do it in there spare time, unless, of course, they get a job developing for an open source giant like google, or red hat.

[23meg]

but there has to be some main group of developers who have to be devoting all their time to whatever project they are working on, and then the load it up into the repos and give it away for free? How does that work?

They are employed by companies who either produce free software, or have a vested interest in the existence of it.

[lukeiamyourfather]

Open source doesn't mean free, its just as expensive as developing any other proprietary software for larger and more complex projects. Many projects have funding from corporations like Google, HP, Red Hat, Canonical, Sun, and many other technology companies, governments, and businesses. There are also many kind individuals who donate to projects. This is an interesting example of one business model to profit from open source software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Foundation#Financing

Other models charge for support and customization. Long story short there's no such thing as a free lunch!

[dragos240]

Open source doesn't mean free, its just as expensive as developing any other proprietary software for larger and more complex projects. Many projects have funding from corporations like Google, HP, Red Hat, Canonical, Sun, and many other technology companies, governments, and businesses. There are also many kind individuals who donate to projects. This is an interesting example of one business model to profit from open source software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Foundation#Financing

Other models charge for support and customization. Long story short there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Open source lunch! :popcorn:

[Woormy]

A Man Has to Eat, Doesn't He?

This is a myth perpetuated by big corporate agro. I haven't eaten in years.

[amauk]

75% of kernel development is done by developers employed full time by tech companies

See this presentation by Novell's Greg Kroah-Hartman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw

A man does have to eat
that's why he has a job

[neo_1in]

I haven't eaten in years.
I knew it! keira knightley is on ubuntuforums.):P

[loell]

why do you think some small free software projects are crappy, buggy, has stagnated and abandoned? ;) well, they have to do something else that can put food on the table!

I guess to some degree, food is the no. 1 enemy of free software. :lolflag:

[Chronon]

Some people get paid to write proprietary stuff and work on free stuff in their spare (free!) time.

[MikeTheC]

I haven't eaten in years.
Yeah, it's all so over-rated anyhow.

[racerraul]

Free as in freedom... not free as in not allowed to be sold or free for all to exploit.

Developers get paid for the most part, though there are some that work strictly off donations or their own free will.

Donate when you can, even if its just a buck. Don't go around saying you don't support linux financially cause its supposed to be free and you don't want to make someone else rich... that just makes you sound like an idiot.

[lisati]

Why worry about luxuries like food on the table and a roof over your head when you have the means to do something you love, like volunteering your time on the forums?

[Nevon]

For smaller projects that don't neccessarily require you to work full time with them, working on that can actually be an investment on its own for some people. Take me for example. I'm 18, I'll be going to university studying software engineering this fall. Once I'm done with that, I won't have any relevant work experience, however, at least I can show off my contributions to the open source community. Not only does that show that I know how to program, it also shows that I can work in a team oriented environment, and is willing to put in some work that doesn't directly benefit me.

Not to mention that it's an investment in knowledge.

For me, that's a worthwhile investment of my time. However, if I had a family to support, I would probably have to cut back on the time allotted to projects like that. After all, developers do need to eat.

[Grant A.]

Well, Linus doesn't have anything else to do. Stock contributions from Redhat and SourceForge raised his net worth to $26,000,000. With the recent spike in Redhat stock, though, he's probably worth anywhere from $50,000,000 - $100,000,000.