Hmmm ... Romanticism at work? As far as I can remember open source always has been a sponsored or subsidized undertaking as far as it concerns meaningful or ce

Hmmm ... Romanticism at work? As far as I can remember open source always has been a sponsored or subsidized undertaking as far as it concerns meaningful or central projects. Without it, the linux kernel would be only teaching material on Finnish universities, MySQL would not exist, Erlang would be a Danish mathematician and a waiting cue formula. The basis for the ASF is the web server which was developed at the NCSA. So you're on the right track with the "Can you imagine..." question. Whats wrong with someone who want to make a meaningful addition to OS and asks money to be able to give full attention to the project? Isn't that more realistic than to hope for loosely coordinated efforts of spare time developers? [note: I use this term not to criticize the persons in question but to point at the focus of the contribution. Also scratching-own-itch projects can easily err on the wrong side of the pareto ratio]