Full Time Open Source Developer

This page was constructed to start a discussion/explanation of how one would become a FullTimeOpenSourceDeveloper and what kind of revenue streams one could depend on. Comments from someone who is presently a FullTimeOpenSourceDeveloper would be excellent. Please edit.

An FullTimeOpenSourceDeveloper is someone who creates software and invites other OpenSourceDevelopers? to enjoin in the project. Most of the time, people find a project that addresses a problem that they might be having and extending the software to solve the problem they are having.

Common technologies that FullTimeOpenSourceDeveloper uses:

Dependent Revenue Streams:

Issues with Becoming A FullTimeOpenSourceDeveloper:

Regarding adding "full time" to the page name: you have to understand that asking about getting paid to do full time open source work is extraordinarily rare, percentage-wise, and really is an utterly different subject than just asking about plain old open source development itself.

It's like the difference between asking about painting, versus asking about becoming rich by painting. Most people paint as a hobby; it is notoriously difficult to even make a good income in the arts and entertainment.

I've done part time open source development, as a hobby, for decades. Last year for the first time I worked with someone on an open source project that might also yield some income some day, maybe, no guarantees, and not any time soon.

Some options:

First and foremost, lower your expectations. You should now be working primarily for idealism, not for money. Cut your expenses. Simplify.
Get a day job. This could include becoming the homemaker of your partnership.
Find a patron. Some larger companies will fund your work on OpenSource technologies if it is important to their markets. Example: video card and printer companies fund a lot of work on the XwindowSystem.
Apply for a grant. This may require entering academia first.
Government work. See if any local government agencies or non-profits would fund you to create an OpenSource alternative to some expensive piece of business software. (This would be like contracting, so you'll have to be able to sell your idea.)

Try academia or BigScience - They often do cutting edge software development (see e.g. HyperTextHistory, GridComputing), and are often (at least in Europe) happy to release the results under an OpenSource license. Try checking for interesting projects at your closest university or research lab. -- VictorEngmark