> For me the long and short of it is: the only way I can foresee open source working in the way the purists want is if there is a universal basic income. I sus

> For me the long and short of it is: the only way I can foresee open source working in the way the purists want is if there is a universal basic income. I suspect I'm a "purist" by your measure, and I disagree completely. University professors, students and volunteer contributors/maintainers will continue to exist going forward. Nothing has to change. The problem is that this doesn't "scale" at the rate demanded by corporations, and corporate engineers[1]. The problem is not with FOSS - it is on the voracious consumption side. I suspect the volunteer vs corp usage will follow the Predator-Prey cycle, with volunteers being the prey. When the predator population grows too large, it will set off events that will lead to its population collapsing to a sustainable level. The onus is on startups/medium & large corps to help scale FOSS - not UBI or the like where the corps continue to freeride (which is fine, to a point) 1. Disclosure: I'm also one, in addition to being a volunteer contributor. I volunteer as a way to give back to an amazing project, and I earn a salary that meets all my needs.