Forgive me but this part of the open source and foss confuses me. If you code and release an open source and free piece of software like say, a robust video player such as VLC, how is that dev being paid?

Because in my eyes (I’m not too privy to FOSS ins and outs)

I’m basically getting your software for free of no charge, it IS free as in free beer cos you’re not asking ME to pay it for so who is paying YOU?

Does it come via donations or wealthy corporations like Red Hat and Microsoft pay or fund open sourced projects that is given to the hard working developers of that OSS/FOSS project?

  • Faresh
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    3 months ago

    The f in foss is for free as in libre, not price. And I imagine it is used to avoid touching the topic of open source software vs libre software. So saying you can make money from one and not the other doesn’t make sense.

    • Vinny_93@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      In my experience, the term FOSS as in FLOSS is only (incorrectly, as you pointed out) used for software that is free if charge.

      But you are correct, the term says nothing about the pricing, they only say something about the licensing form.