That’s actually three questions:
- 1. Why do people work with FOSS?
- 2. How does one earn money from programming in FOSS?
- 3. How does one earn money from FOSS?
Answer to (1) is pretty simple, if long. People work with FOSS because of one or more of the following:
- It’s better.
- It gives anyone an opportunity to go beyond just using and into actively contributing to applications.
- There’s a strong sense of community when you’re working with and contributing to FOSS.
- There’s a strong sense of achievement when you see your contribution actually being used out in the wild.
- You get tons of peer approval (and adulation if you happen to be Linus Torvalds) if that’s what turns you on.
- Your market value is higher if you know FOSS technologies.
- You believe that software should be free and try to avoid proprietary technologies for that reason.
The second question (earning money programming in FOSS) is slightly tougher, but it’s still possible to do it:
- There are bounty providers who will pay you money to write FOSS code. RH and Google spring to mind. Sarai also does the same.
- You can specialise in extending and customising specific FOSS packages for customer requirements. If the original package happens to be under a GPL-like licence your results will also be FOSS.
- You can just tell your clients that any software you write will be FOSS, and if the software is meant to scratch a specific itch they probably won’t mind. Of course, if the software implements any part of their business strategy they won’t be that happy with a FOSS solution.
Finally, earning money from FOSS is dead easy — I do it all the time. Rather than make out my own list of ways to make money off FOSS, let me point you to Eric Raymond’s essay on the subject:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldron/magic-cauldron.html Specific strategies for making money from FOSS are in Chapter 9 http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldron/magic-cauldron-9.html
Note that these are ways of making money from coding; you can also make ample money from supporting, installing, customising and integrating FOSS components for clients.
Comments and additions to this list welcome.
Regards
Arun–Arun Singh. arun[DOT]arwachin [AT] gmail [DOT] com. http://www.arunsingh.info
