Andy G:

Generally high-volume committing get paid. They get paid:
1, They are in academia and their education is funded by someone.
2, They are sponsored by an organisation to develop the software often for mutual benefit.
3, They pay for their development time by providing added value services such as support, or in the case of CMS/Network software installation and customization.

Many opensource developers may just fix one bug they are interested in, and rarely contribute. These contributions are unpaid but many people doing this gain the fix that they want for little cost.

The big cost is setting up the software and getting the original working system. How do large systems originate. Many large systems like browsers are donated, or their component parts are developed separately like webkit. Some software also is based on older software and has been incrementally modified, such as Linux’s networking stack which was based on code that was produced at Berkley (originally).

You might be interested in the (somewhat geeky) Google video attached. This guy analyzes how change occurs on the Linux kernel.

Also there are some people who see open source as the new way of organizing work, that will change the way that companies work.

See also the last section of the GNU manifesto for a GNU view of the world.

youmakemeverymad:

They sell support packages, at least ubuntu does.

Basically, when you get ubuntu, your on your own. And that’s bad for businesses, because they probably don’t have an ubuntu expert on staff. So Ubuntu sell you a support plan along with the free software.

And alot of open source programs are just put together by programmers in their free time, or are supported by donations from the open source community, If your entire operation is volunteer, there’s no black (or red) to be in.