Question about how to make a living from open source

[David Suna]

On 09/18/2014 02:56 PM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, tzahi ml wrote:
>
>> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300
>> From: tzahi ml <tzahi.ml at gmail.com>
>> To: "linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il" <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
>> Subject: Question about how to make a living from open source
>>
>> Hi All,I am in need of assistance.
>>
>> I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company.
>> However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much 
>> (and promotion is out of the question :) ).
>>
>> Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale.
A different way to say the same thing:
You can choose to be an employee in which case your earning potential is 
limited to what the current market value of someone with your skill set 
is. Doesn't "scale" but does provide you with benefits, a "guaranteed" 
salary and a corporate culture for advancement.

Or, you can choose to work for yourself. This have several variations:
1. Working as a contractor - Generally this allows you to charge a 
higher hourly rate. The down side is you have to provide your own 
benefits, accounting, etc. You also lose the stability of it being 
someone else's job to generate work for you. This also does not "scale" 
as you are limited to the number of hours a day you can work and the 
going market rate for the skill set you have.

2. Produce a product - Build a better mouse trap and sell it. This is 
not necessarily in line with the open source way of doing things. 
However, it is a common business plan. This has the potential to "scale" 
as you can develop the product once and sell it many times. You have the 
significant risk of startup and development costs and whether the 
product will be successful.

3. Provide a service - Along the lines of the idea you suggested of 
hosting complex solutions. This is similar to being a contractor but the 
focus is on marketing the service you provide rather you and your  skill 
set. This only has the potential to scale by having other people 
(employees or contractors) provide the service in the name of your 
company. Your profit is the cost you can charge the client minus the 
cost of the worker actually doing the work. You also take on the 
responsibility of generating enough work to cover the costs of the 
worker(s) and yourself. With all of the joys that Yonatan described in 
his email.


-- 
David Suna
david at davidsconsultants.com