Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

I don't own/lead any significant open source projects, but it seems like there are very few projects that even attempt to monetize via dual-licensing, service contracts, etc. Is there some major barrier to monetiziation (i.e. legal fees)? Is it a philosophical barrier?

When you open source a project you don't always want to monetize that project but it fits in your plan to make money. For example big companies release open source projects so the community get expertise in their tools which means it will be cheaper to hire people with that expertise and it becomes easier to move the community to use your other paid tools. Another example to open source a project it is because it is not a key thing in your product and you can have people to use it at the same time they help you to maintain it. You can open source your pet projects so they gave visibility to you and makes easier to find a job.

Monetize it is not always the goal.

I think it's that A: you have to have a huge open source project for the 1% of the 1% of your audience who will actually pay in any useful quantity to be big enough to support you and B: by the time you've grown to that size, you must have found some way to become that large without the direct monetization, so you may not feel much of a need.

Because most of the time you can't monetize it enough to be able to escape your day job.

So at the end of the day, it's just beer money, and just creates more headaches (legal, taxes etc.)

Unfortunately the reality of trying to monetize open source projects is that Red Hat will just eat your lunch if its any sort of real significant business.