> if your business model is free software, it needs to be monetized some other way Mutual self-interest is a good, solid business model. JPEG was developed lo

> if your business model is free software, it needs to be monetized some other way Mutual self-interest is a good, solid business model. JPEG was developed long ago by a bunch of companies who needed a good, standard image format. Now AV1 is being developed by a bunch of companies who want to use less bandwidth for the video and will save truckloads of money not paying patent license fees. Not to mention standarization, economies of scale, and interoperability benefits. A company simply not having to pay the fees for something proprietary can be all the funding needed to support a free software version. Free software development generally only needs about 1/10th as much monetization to begin with. You may get to start with the works of other people; others using your work builds the user base quickly without paying to advertise and sell your product; you'll get a lot of free testing/debugging/code feedback; etc.