Would you also agree that money is a poor motivator for producing good code?

Definitly Yes ! I code for my pleasure (of learning/creating) not for the money.
Even If I sometimes get paid to code it is rarely fulfilling.

Do you find that the free software you develop overall tends to provide a better learning experience/more fun/more satisfying than your day job?

Yes again ! Mainly beccause I don't have any constraint (time, at technical choice...) that allow me to code in good conditions.
When I code for myself, hubris (the source is available) leads me to produce better code than when my manager say 'I don't care about the tests and your other checkings, just let it like that...'

Can a career in free software development a.) be possible, b.) be more fruitful (happiness-wise) than proprietary development?

I'd like to believe that :
a) A carreer in free software developpement is possible,
But that the fact is that when you come into carreer talk you'll have to speak about money, and there is MUCH more money in standard devleppoment than in free software developpement.
b) A carreer in free softeware developpement is more fulfilling.
But (again) It's more difficut to find a position for this kind of job, just for economic reason...
I'm not linus, nor Merlyn, nor Damian few company (to be truely honest none) would hired me to work on free project.

Now just some comments :

I've never been the type to agonize over money

Never do I, but I've a family to feed, books to buy, computer to upgrade and a ferrari to paint ;-)


The worst of all for me, is that my job and duty let me far less time than I'd like to involve on Opensource projects...
But I try, and often find time to get involved in some (obscure) security projects, or text translations...
It's enough for me to be happy...


"Only Bad Coders Badly Code In Perl" (OBC2IP)