I was thinking about this in the past, but seeing the comments here, by DoreenMichele and jondubois, for example, both of whom seem to agree that being an open source author is not a wise life decision right now, only reinforces my hypothesis that maybe this OSS has a lot of marketing behind it. I don't mean a certain project, but the very idea of it. Because, in the end, it just means the people basically have a second job, only it pays nothing. It means extra work is being done, tools are being created and the people who know how to monetize it, do, while the poor souls how keep soldiering on with the 80+ hour work week get only the "fame".

So isn't it possible that powerful corporations pushed and continue to push this OSS ideal, the ideal that you do meaningful work, that you'll bask in glory at the end of it, that your name will be carried on by armies of software developers until the end of time? Isn't it possible for all of this, or at least partially, to be just marketing coming out from the hands of people who really know how to tickle our emotions?

How much would git or linux or emacs cost to develop? Instead, they are developed/maintained partly by armies of "passionate" developers who get zilch for they work. But they are used by money-loving corporations for free. Now isn't that convenient.