Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by londons_explore » Mon, May 18, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

AdrianB1 wrote: post #96

londons_explore wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of your reward is that traffic cone will stay in people's minds for decades or maybe centuries longer than the products of most of us here.

I tried to pay part of the rent with something like that and it never worked. What am I doing wrong?

In a way you can pay the rent with it...

As soon as you're famous enough in a particular field, companies will hire you just for your name. Doesn't matter if you don't do much useful or only work one day a month - they'll still pay you decently to have your name associated with their brand and products.

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

#202

Post by franciscop » Mon, May 18, 2020, 1:59 PM UTC

kthartic wrote: post #63

Lemmih wrote: post #4

I have sponsors on Github and rake in a cool $2 per month. It's obviously less after taxes so I also have a day job. https://github.com/sponsors/Lemmih

Just curious (clicked on your GitHub profile), why Singapore? Do you remote work/freelance? I'm thinking about moving to SE Asia and working remotely. It would be cool to hear other HN user's experiences :)

To avoid paying too many taxes on those sweet donations of course /s

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

#203

Post by filesystemdude » Mon, May 18, 2020, 1:59 PM UTC

Easy question: I get a paycheck every other week from my employer, Red Hat, who pays me and thousands of other people to build, maintain, and support enterprise open source software.

We're still hiring, by the way.

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

#204

Post by woodrowbarlow » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

antocv wrote: post #175

Accujack wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you surprised they didn't respond? Your solution to this problem seems to be focused on what other people can do to make things easier for you and others like you, but that's not how humanity works. You're ignoring that your request is unreasonable because you're taking the easy way out - looking for a source of money and convincing yourself that your efforts deserve it because it's easier than doing the work you…

> The rich aren't obligated to hand you money > use your own money to support open s... Why should he feel obligated to support others?

you cut out the "if you prefer, [...] use your own money".

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

#205

Post by sgummaluri » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #194

umvi wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 25 FTEs is an incredible achievement, and you should be very proud. I know this is a stupid question, but I tried googling and it wasn't obvious... what does FTE stand for? "Full Time Equivalent?" Does that mean they are paying for 25 full time employees?

Full-time employee, I presume.

Yes, FTE means Full Time Emoloyee

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

#206

Post by jmiskovic » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

I love open source and I would love to get paid for doing it. Yes, I'd say open source solutions on average have far better quality than proprietary solutions, and they encourage interoperability between systems. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer on how to make it a sustainable occupation.

It feels wrong to charge for end product. It means using DRM to block people who wouldn't pay anyway, from accessing a copy of software that costs me nothing. I want to be payed for the development effort, not for copy of product.

There should be a agreement of platform over which developers want to receive money (for example, Microsoft's GitHub Sponsor might not be the best choice), followed by strong media push to change the mindset that open source is free for taking. Most companies can spare the money and in the long run everybody benefits.

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

#207

Post by Closi » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

umvi wrote: post #192

ddevault wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25 FTEs is an incredible achievement, and you should be very proud. The rewards are enormous - VideoLAN has a massive impact on human culture, more so than 99% of all businesses. Taking on VC to "grow" may be difficult, but is it something you really need to do? What you've built is amazing, and if you can sustain it at its current size, you'd be doing wonderful work. Endlessly chasing growth is a fool's errand, and…

> 25 FTEs is an incredible achievement, and you should be very proud. I know this is a stupid question, but I tried googling and it wasn't obvious... what does FTE stand for? "Full Time Equivalent?" Does that mean they are paying for 25 full time employees?

I usually take it to mean full time equivalent...

It usually means either 25 full time employees, or a number of part time and full time staff that equal the paid hours of 25 full time employees.

e.g. 50 part time employees that work half the typical working week would be 25 fte

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

#208

Post by yaseer » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

bullen wrote: post #174

Lemmih wrote: post #4

I have sponsors on Github and rake in a cool $2 per month. It's obviously less after taxes so I also have a day job. https://github.com/sponsors/Lemmih

In Sweden gifts are tax-free, where do you live and how much tax do you have to pay on those 2$?

It's an interesting question (as far as tax can be interesting!), whether patreon and other contribution/donations systems count as gifts, or income from your work.

I'm sure the tax authorities would like argue it is income, if you're making $8K monthly on patreon (e.g. Dwarf fortress creators).

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

#209

Post by bluGill » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

boomlinde wrote: post #98

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA, any non-shady organization will send you a 1099- report of how much income you generated. You're supposed to submit that form when you do your taxes, which is kind of dumb, because a copy of the 1099 was already sent to the IRS. USA tax filing is not efficient for reasons... gives Intuit the stink eye

> You're supposed to submit that form when you do your taxes, which is kind of dumb, because a copy of the 1099 was already sent to the IRS. Isn't that just an escape hatch if you do have additional income to report? The tax office should present it as such. Here, the tax office gets that kind of report from a bank. If I agree that it's correct, all I have to do is sign a prefilled form digitally. Unless I've generat…

It isn't though, even though the irs has that information for most people we have to fill out tax forms as if the irs had nothing.

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

#210

Post by airlines55 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #199

> What are some tips to get into open source and turn it into fulltime career[?] Don't. If you want money get a job. If you can't help but write software, if coding is what you do, all day, every day, because everything else is fucking dull, if you, like Asimov, take your typewriter on vacation, then , one day, your skill and art will be superlative. On that day, give the world your software. I roll out of bed and wi…

The truth is that making money off of software is not a software problem. It's a business problem, to be solved with business skills and intuition.

I always think of the remote ok guy who makes most if his products in php, jQuery, as sqlite3. Software engineers engineering sense is ultimately what holds them back. I know it does for me.