On the contrary. As a user, if I cannot see that the software makers are either a big, well backed project OR at least they are able to sustain themselves by se

On the contrary. As a user, if I cannot see that the software makers are either a big, well backed project OR at least they are able to sustain themselves by selling premium versions etc, I avoid using it. Most of the projects that cannot fund themselves eventually get abandoned, leaving you, as the user, hanging. After getting burned by that a few times, I learned that the only way to deal with it was to ensure that those who run a project will be able to justify putting time into it when the actual realities and responsibilities of life like career, family, children etc start raining down. Its all fun and games when you are in college or fresh out of college and maintaining an open source project. But the time and effort put into it suddenly becomes difficult to justify when you have more responsibilities at work, or even further, a family to which you have to justify spending that time on that project. Now, the assumption of open source community is that, when that happens, someone else will take over the project and it will just keep going on. Except it rarely happens except for very large projects. The net is filled with abandoned projects. And even when someone takes over the project, there is no guarantee that the original vision and quality will be kept. So its much better to make sure that every open source project has a way to fund itself and its developers by making money in some way.