> Why should someone start developing open source if there is no way to make a living from it long term ?
If you cannot answer this question for yourself you definitely should not start or participate in an open source project. Is there someone saying you should? GP isn’t.
If it adds any context to this, Peter is one of the founders of Percona, a company built entirely around open source software and associated services.
That doesn’t mean you should agree with him, but when he says “ those crying how horrible Open Source is simply should not gone with Open Source to begin with” it does have a different meaning if you know where he comes from.
That’s the point. OSS is generally not a good business model. And that’s okay.
Not all software is easily monetized or particularly valuable. The value of standardizing on an interface and outsourcing the maintenance and security to others provides more value than the software itself.
Should we just expect OSS devs to work for free (or scraps via sponsors/kofi)?
I guess there are a lot selfless individuals who would still use a significant portion of their lifetime to build OSS.
But what about software that needs significant effort to build and constant updates?
I find your view very cynical and I exactly the attitude why I wouldn’t start an ambitious OSS project for something more complex.