There exist people who write operating systems purely for curiosity's sake. This is essentially the story of Linux. But it doesn't make sense to advocate fund

There exist people who write operating systems purely for curiosity's sake. This is essentially the story of Linux. But it doesn't make sense to advocate funding these ventures. The people who are motivated purely by curiosity will by definition not be motivated by funding. No amount of funding would produce a second Linux. In fact, too much funding might have distracted Linus into working on something else instead. If you're really passionate about something, you figure out how to do it. Maybe you moonlight, or do it part-time, maybe you save up for a few years and cash out. But I think any software developer who feels that he cannot pursue a software project because of lack of funding needs either a reality check or a career change.