I think you need to examine niches carefully. I was able to create an open source piece of software that allowed me to sell over $50,000 worth of ebooks (traini

I think you need to examine niches carefully. I was able to create an open source piece of software that allowed me to sell over $50,000 worth of ebooks (training manual) over the course of 5 years. Eventually I was able to sell the entire software for a small five figure sum. The money involved was not huge but it was great to have. Users did not care that the software was OSS. They cared that is solved a problem and the ebook I sold made it even easier. That is how OSS makes money - by solving problems. OSS is not a business strategy, it is just a software license. You do not "make money" by adopting a software license, whatever it's moral merits. You need a business that solves a problem and OSS can be part of that.