On Apr 20, 2010, at 10:52 AM, Arne Kepp wrote:
> Miles Fidelman wrote:
>> Mark Lucas wrote:
>>> I think that most of the developers that actively contribute to the OSSIM
>>> project are funded through government contracts. Having said that, most
>>> all of them contribute well beyond the time they are paid for. Often that
>>> is to move the baseline towards capabilities that are not covered by
>>> customer requirements. I spend most all of my time securing contracts so
>>> we can expand the team.
>>>
>>> The core team has worked together over the last decade as the individual
>>> contributors have switched companies several times.
>>>
>> This seems fairly typical of successful open source projects - an initial
>> period where work is funded by a research grant or an internal requirement,
>> evolving into a core team where employers fund time for various business
>> purposes, with support broadening over time (e.g., writing books,
>> consulting, etc.).
>>
>> I can't think of any successful (wide adoption, long-term sustainability)
>> open source projects that are pure labors of love.
>>
>> Miles Fidelman
>
> OpenTTD (a remake of a classic game) has been going for something like 10
> years and is highly successful by almost any measure. You can debate how many
> other games like this are successful, but few of them have any potential
> whatsoever to make money.
>
> On IRC someone (Yexo on OFTC) pointed out that it may work the other way
> around. It can be a labor of love, but if it is possible to make money off
> some piece of software, then somebody (maybe not the original author) will do
> just that. It could still have succeeded without, we'll never know.
>
> -Arne
FlightGear is an example of a successful mostly volunteer based long-term Open
Source Project
http://www.flightgear.org/introduction.html
Norman
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