Forgive me but this part of the open source and foss confuses me. If you code and release an open source and free piece of software like say, a robust video player such as VLC, how is that dev being paid?
Because in my eyes (I’m not too privy to FOSS ins and outs)
I’m basically getting your software for free of no charge, it IS free as in free beer cos you’re not asking ME to pay it for so who is paying YOU?
Does it come via donations or wealthy corporations like Red Hat and Microsoft pay or fund open sourced projects that is given to the hard working developers of that OSS/FOSS project?
Most open source projects will have a donation page / link, so it relies on people feeling compelled to donate because the software provided is useful to them.
Lemmy for example has options for financially supporting its development. Some Lemmy instances also feature a link to a donation page to cover the hosting costs.
Some have an organisation behind it, like
Firefox has the Mozilla Foundation to finance it. Actually it’s the other way around, see ahal’s comment belowThe team behind VLC has a “for profit” branch that adapts the video software for companies, allowing them to also finance VLC’s development in addition to donations.
Some of Lemmy development is/was paid by foundation funding.
The Firefox example is actually the reverse, Firefox funds the Mozilla Foundation. This is a case of an open source project successfully monetising through search referrals (mostly from Google).
Oh wow thanks for the correction, I’ll edit my comment
Would “Freelance” be a good word for it?
I think consulting would be a better word