Much of the discussion here is about software useful to Internet businesses. These companies are likely to pay to support Open-Source that they depend on. Yet

Much of the discussion here is about software useful to Internet businesses. These companies are likely to pay to support Open-Source that they depend on. Yet, this focus misses vast areas of valuable software. For the last 6 years I've been working on an Open-Source CNC simulator called CAMotics. See http://CAMotics.org/ http://CAMotics.org/ With 100k+ users, I've struggled to get more than a few hundred dollars in donations per year. CAMotics is a mature software that my users rave about. Gaining corporate sponsorship is difficult for software that is not geared to benefit corporations even when creating tons of value for users world wide. It is important to recognize that there may not be a one size fits all solution to funding Open-Source software. Still, if we could find generalized solutions, with the right incentives, the world would reap massive benefits. An army of independent developers working on projects they love, full-time, would completely change the software landscape.