It's like the American workforce, horribly underworked and mostly bored stiff, but always complaining about having "too much to do, can't possibly pick up any more..."
Maybe the reality of the situation isn't what's actually put down in writing and/or presented to the public. Or, as Ayn Rand was fond of saying, "Don't examine the fallacy. Examine the *result* of the fallacy."
Some people give away their hard work because money isn't what they're after. It's recognition and "bragging rights". But that's outside the scope of your question since you were asking about groups with an actual payroll to meet.
The Linux distribution types make their money off of selling support for the product. Sure, it's free to use and even modify, but if you want help...that'll cost you.
Other software vendors make their software in "tiers", with the first tier free. If you want the "advanced versions", they have those available for sale. This is akin to "normal shareware."
Sometimes, though, it's not necessary to actually turn a profit to be able to attract venture capital and other forms of income. Take Yahoo, for instance. Never seen a profitable day in its life and yet it continues to attract money. Investors are betting that it *will* make money, so they'll help Yahoo make payroll and build new servers and what not in the meantime.
Say...is this another of those business-related posts that needs a forum of its own? Hint hint hint... ;-)
Another, more historical example, is any "gold rush" you care to think of. How many miners got rich? Nowhere near as many as those who kept the miners supplied with food, tents, lanterns, picks, shovels, and so on. The gold was "free", right? Just waiting for someone to come get it...except that more people got rich off miners who never mined a nugget than off the actual gold.
Damn, I'm meandering here...I think I'll stop while I'm not totally drowning in rhetoric and speculation and still within a few hundred meters of the point... ;-)
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DavidRM
Samu Games
