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floss_fulltimeron Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

I've been working full-time on different FLOSS projects.

Most of the time the only viable option is to work for an organization (either as an employee or not).

Don't go for FAANGs. There are other orgs and companies out there.

Asking random users for donations works on very few cases.

It's a sad state of things. Most modern technologies have been researched with public funding (semiconductors, fiber optics, GSM, GPS, touchscreens) but now people don't even remember that.

floss_fulltimeron When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re selling

> Have you formal education in engineering?

Good point. In many countries getting a degree in engineering takes way, way more effort than in computer science.

Then it takes 10-15 years of work to be called "senior engineer".

floss_fulltimeron The fundamentalist FOSS mentality

Disclaimer: I've been working full time on various large FLOSS projects for many years and I contribute to other ones in my spare time.

You start with "I salute you. I’m a fan" and then call a lot of people "fundamentalist", then "You have made a choice based on an ideology", "blind to the realities of the world you live in".

Then "But like most utopian views, it’s naive", "It’s a pipe dream", and finally "Like all fundamentalists, they simply ignore some inconvenient truths".

Then you ramble through justifications of your business model (and quite a few logical fallacies).

For being a fan, you express your support in a strange way.

Now excuse me while I go back to writing software as a gift to whoever wants to use it.