Is open source hard

[Abhi]

We are all familiar with open source and free software. The benefits they give are enormous. But sometimes they are not the best option for the maintainers because of so many reasons.

How viable do you think that open source projects are in this world where everything is digital and people are willing to pay for those services ?

 

[admin]

Financially, yes. Depending on donations is not always easy.

But most prominent open source maintainers are super stars in the software world. They command a lot of respect and hype. What they tweet, what they quote etc get great amount of fan following. Fame is not a silly thing. People kill for it.

 

[PGen98]

I have to agree, a lot of the top open source software developers become highly regarded and command a living from other projects away from their main project, allowing it to continue on in an open source fashion. They become respected, admired, and they hold a lot of sway in the progression of certain software projects. It's not financially viable for all projects, but it can be a great outlet to gain other opportunities.

 

[Abhi]

I mean, look at Laravel. It is free and open-source. But Laracasts itself can be a good source of money.

Taylor Otwell has 120K followers on Twitter alone.

 

[PGen98]

@Abhi It's the same with prominent developers in various languages, they become keynote speakers, earn decent money talking about their areas of expertise and find projects that will compensate them greatly. It's very good work for a lot of open source developers, turning their passion into a financial future.

 

[Abhi]

> @PGen98 turning their passion into a financial future.

That is a good thing, isn't it ?

 

[PGen98]

@Abhi Yes, it most certainly is!

 

[Fait]

They could make money from ads but to me with the work they put in it seems hard.

 

[Abhi]

> @Fait They could make money from ads

True

> @Fait with the work they put in it seems hard.

Do you mean that they are not doing enough ?