Well, I hate to be obvious, but I'm with merlyn on this one. Support is the big money maker. Low cost of entry is often what gets a software package in the door.

I can:

Folks who don't need support will use it of course, and if it is OSS, contribute code. Think about this: People in your industry, familiar with their workflow and processes, working to make a better product. (Not to mention the name recognition should you seek another job in that industry...)

Making money is one of those Tao of Steve things many times. Actively pursuing money will cause it to run from you. Bheold the great DobbsHead and recieve thy fair dose of slack my friend.

Come to think of it, it's a shame that Linus didn't just "Bounty Hunt" out portions of the Linux kernel and try to sell it for $60. Oh wait, BeOS tried that....

The annals of software companies are littered with the corpses of those who came before and focused on the money for their products, not the acceptance of their products. When Wolf3D (That's 3D?? HaHaHa...) went the shareware route, most game companies thought it was suicide for ID. Those companies are pretty much out of buisness now.

I'm pulling reciepts now, and 4 scripts that I offer for free on my website netted me $12,000 last year in support and configuration. Oddly enough, I made $1,650 supporting Matt Wright's "Formmail.pl" script.

Think about it.
~Hammy

In reply to Re: Funding Open Source / bounty-hunting... by HamNRye
in thread Funding Open Source / bounty-hunting... by ff

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