I think it is likely an alternative career path for a handful of FOSS unicorns whose work is so instrumental that private corporations desperately need their work to continue.
Among us, some "entrepreneurs" will produce 100 little projects and try to get them all funded and then Show HN how they make a living off of dozens of lightly funded projects.
Funds for Open Source will globalize some work inasmuch as some developers will get paid some money in places where no development career paths exist now. Look at the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness report and you can find at least 20 countries where tech companies do not hire.
To your point, the reason people open source for free is that they cannot produce free software and get paid. There is no way for them to be compensated for working in alignment with their own values. Funds for Open Source attacks that problem.
I don't know that Funds is a good organization, or that they are fair in their pricing, or whether they are the best equipped private, for-profit company to wedge themselves between free-thinking developers and the corporate entities that consume their work for free, but I think the business model for Funds makes a lot of sense.
Among us, some "entrepreneurs" will produce 100 little projects and try to get them all funded and then Show HN how they make a living off of dozens of lightly funded projects.
Funds for Open Source will globalize some work inasmuch as some developers will get paid some money in places where no development career paths exist now. Look at the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness report and you can find at least 20 countries where tech companies do not hire.
To your point, the reason people open source for free is that they cannot produce free software and get paid. There is no way for them to be compensated for working in alignment with their own values. Funds for Open Source attacks that problem.
I don't know that Funds is a good organization, or that they are fair in their pricing, or whether they are the best equipped private, for-profit company to wedge themselves between free-thinking developers and the corporate entities that consume their work for free, but I think the business model for Funds makes a lot of sense.