Hi, > Can someone give a few *examples* of *how FOSS could be used > to earn a living* - in addition to setting up computer labs & > developing applications using FOSS.
FOSS Training, Consulting and Deployment are good money-spinners to start off with - in my opinion. I've been earning and making a living out of them for the last 8 years (after I quit my last job sometime in 2002). When I meant Training - I also meant corporate training. Many companies in the recent years (both big and small) have been looking at FOSS based solutions in their organizations. As of today, good skills on technologies like Python, Perl, Ruby, Linux, MySQL/PostgreSQL, NetBSD/FreeBSD, and the whole plethora of web technologies based on FOSS (Django, RoR, CodeIgniter, etc) are still in great in the industry. Having said that, there is an acute scarcity of knowledgeable resources in these area. Thus, most companies resort to updating skillsets of their existing workforce to tackle challenges in developing and/or deploying using FOSS by means of corporate training. So, there *is* a great demand for experienced, highly competent and industry proven corporate trainers in various FOSS technologies. There are niche FOSS related projects and technologies for which companies cannot easily hire a resource personnel, they often resort to hiring contract developers, consultants or administrators. > In other words, Can we make use of *readily available* > *FREE software* to *make money* - this might help someone > seriously look at FOSS for MONEY - also might attract more > people towards FOSS? There are many FOSS enthusiasts like me who make a living by working as freelance consultants on various FOSS technologies for contract development, consulting, administration/deployment, and corporate training. I'm a 'live' and kicking example of "how to make money *only* using FOSS" :-). I'm self employed, pay my house rent, taxes and raise a family without a company id card for the last 8 years. Last year, I started off my own company with an intent to contribute back to FOSS in someway or the other and to enlighten many more people about living a life without a "name-some-big-company-here" identity badge. There are many others like me in this list too. All others like me - please raise your hands :-D The point is - making money from FOSS is possible provided that you have the skills, experience, maturity, patience and passion towards what you are doing. > (I do understand that money must not be the deciding > factor in one's career choice) In an ideal world, it is not. But in a country like ours, if you have a dream/passion to achieve something - you need *money* first... fast... and lot of it :-). Else, you will be consumed into /dev/null too soon! I've been there, rebooted and did renice my priorities. > The reason why I ask is that it is the MONEY that is the > most important motivating factor in one's career choice - > that's the primary reason why we see so many fresh engineers > and graduates dying to get placed in an IT firm. Unless you are an idealist saint like RMS, you'll need money, and to earn money - you need a decent job first, and to get a decent job, you need a nice "IT" graduation tag to begin with - this has been the easiest mantra since the mid '90s. And in a competitive country like ours - you can't be an idealist without being financially self sustainable - as mentioned, you'll either be quarantined in /lost+found, mv'd to /dev/null or overwritten (rather corrupted) by /dev/urandom. > If we have some real life examples in the form of > entrepreneurs here, that would be great. There are many successful FOSS entrepreneurs here. I'm a just a small and budding example, right now :-) Cheers, Chandrashekar. -- http://www.chandrashekar.info/ http://www.slashprog.com/ _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
