The key insight is that FOSS doesn't make any attempt to answer that question. It has nothing to do with how you get paid, and concerns itself only with the mat

The key insight is that FOSS doesn't make any attempt to answer that question. It has nothing to do with how you get paid, and concerns itself only with the matter of distribution and rights. It's still up to the author to come up with a viable business model if they want to utilize FOSS to create a profit, or if they want to do anything else, really. FOSS applies constraints to how you approach the problem, and offers benefits in return, but it doesn't solve the problem of business-building for you. If software can generate profits for someone else, it could have generated those profits for you. It can feel like a slap in the face when your little side project turns into profits for someone else, but ultimately that's part of the deal with FOSS. If you want to make money from it, you need to deliberately plan for it and take advantage of the profit potential yourself. You can make money in FOSS, but usually not by accident.