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Discussion on: There are plenty of good reasons to do open source for free

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Camilo

Totally understand the "do it because you can and want" idea. I wish I could dedicate full time to my open source projects and see how much impact those projects could have on people lives. But if the open source project does not generate a decent amount of income to support your living expenses then the only time dedicated to them is your leisure time.

For toy projects only leisure time is ok. For more serious projects that require huge amount of effort then you have two options. The first option is only leisure time and the project would be super slow to grow and maybe die by stagnation and be forgotten. The second option is to dedicate full time and see if you can make an impact, but that needs funding.

Without proper funds most open source projects not backed up by a non profit organization, or a company will die because lack of incentives and resources to continue development and marketing.

My opinion is:

1) Do free/open source software if you can and want.
2) If you want to create a project that will require huge amount of effort look for a way to fund or it will slowly die because lack of time and funds.

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Jerod Santo

Good points. I agree there is a time and a place for open source. My key takeaway from what you're saying here is "have a game plan" depending on what you're trying to accomplish. That's always great advice. 👌