Subj : Open Source Programming Careers
To   : All
From : warmfuzzy
Date : Sun Nov 27 2022 01:43:34

A friend of mine recently wrote that he wanted to know if being an open source software developer could ever bring in enough money to live on, or whether he should just jump ship and do closed source software development.  I'd like to bring to all of your attention a person who answers this question really well.  His alias is Toad and he has done development on the Freenet Project for many years now.  He is a full time opensource developer of the anonymous communications network known as Freenet (www.freenetproject.org).  Freenet is one of the three big names in Darknet communication, with TOR (www.torproject.org) and I2P (geti2p.net) being the other two.  Toad has proven that it is actually possible to earn a living off of open source projects. However, from a practical standpoint, just because your code is open source doesn't mean its quality software.  You will still need to compete with other software offerings that may be more or less useful than other's software. Opening your software to a Libre license is only half of the need, the second part is making something that really shines.  So yes, a person can do very well in Libre/OpenSource but it means that you will have to find people to donate to your Patreon (patreon.com).  That will take time away from your programming work, but it can quickly add up to something that will allow you to at least do part-time programming... so what's the w0rd? SAY YES TO OPENSOURCE! =)

Cheers!
-warmfuzzy

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