The model du jour has been to build dev tools that are open source and then sell consulting. But you should keep in mind that it wasn't always that way: Once up

The model du jour has been to build dev tools that are open source and then sell consulting. But you should keep in mind that it wasn't always that way: Once upon a time there was a company called Borland and they made their money through dev tools. Also if you really think about it things like databases are really sold to geeks, so even big shots like Oracle are selling dev tools. And on the low end even tools like Flash are dev tools too. So yes if you figure out a new way reinvent programming you can build a business on that...