So… are there any FOSS hackers who stream themselves working on free software? But like, the focus is on them, not just the code? And like maybe they get up to get a cup of tea or do some stretching etc and you can just imagine their inner monologue going “should I break out all this code into a library, it’s getting pretty big… and maybe I will need this in the future… just like I need a hug… or maybe I should open a flower shop and bake my own bread and live more in the moment” and the programmer takes a deep breath and everyone watching is confronted with a realization that they are distracting themselves from their own existential dread by watching someone else go through existential feelings.

Ask 100 random people if they know what is open source software and if they know what is porn.

My guess is 100% will know what is porn and maybe 10% will know about open source software.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Instead of (only) complaining about it, take action and donate a bit to your favorite FOSS projects. I do. Many more should do. I get that one of the major draws to FOSS is that you can use it mostly for free. But developers still need support. In some form or another.

GitHub stars don’t equate to donations, of course. I use GitHub as a form of bookmark system. 🤷‍♂️

This is comparing two pretty extreme scenarios… which are both pretty strange but for different reasons

A lot of performing arts (music, sports) and related industries have a “winner takes all” model, where the most famous performer makes exponentially more than the average one. OF is a bit similar. So if you are a top OF model who won the genetic lottery, you could make millions… which hides the fact that the average OF model doesn’t make remotely as much (as others have pointed out)

Open source is more like a normal business, but with the problem that it doesn’t really generate profits given that many FOSS software are free as in free beer… If there is no revenue then of course there wouldn’t be a good salary either…

I do think there is a rather similar but interesting counter example: academic scientists. Many scientists do make rather comfortable wages; where I live now, postdocs/professors actually get paid above the national average. However, this is because science is very important to society… so the money we make come from governments/taxpayers. Governments generally agree to fund science at the taxpayers’ expense, because it will pay off in the long run. If governments don’t fund science then most scientists (barring some engineers) would make peanuts as well… So yeah, if governments believe FOSS has societal benefits and fund FOSS developers, that might be a way for them to make a lot more

If you’re seriously asking that, then you need to actually look at the world and the people in it, and make more realistic expectations based on what you see. People pay significantly more time and money on what makes them feel good than what they know is good for them. It’s one of the most basic obvious truths of humanity.

Sure, some people focus enough on logic or have enough willpower to do what’s good for them, but when you get a huge group of people together, those individuals fade into the mindless crowd.

Humanity isn’t going to suddenly do what it needs to do simply because it’s necessary, no matter how much we might hope it will. Like a child who doesn’t want to eat their vegetables, humanity needs an authority figure to coerce it into doing what needs to be done, whether that be a governmental body, a revolutionary, or some other figure or organization. They simply operate on their most basic desires otherwise.

I mean… People like boobs.

This might be the dumbest question ever asked.

A free market will not value all products the same.

Have you ever heard the saying “sex sells”?

Simps are gonna simp. Most people don’t give supporting the software they run a single thought. Devs just aren’t valued and sex has been selling since the dawn of man.

FOSS is not as sexy as tits.

Because the developers aren’t equivalent to OnlyFans models.
OnlyFans models are for-profit business owners using OnlyFans as infrastructure, not employees or volunteers.

So you’d have to compare their profits with for-profit business owners using opensource software as infrastructure.
Examples of those are Red Hat, Canonical, VMWare, Broadcom, Microsoft, Apple, etc.

Those two aren’t in any way related.

people like jerking off to OF girls,/guys and they pay thier subscriptions, plus some of them “meet up with OF FANS” sometimes. and that adds up, OF people also have marketing on places like reddit and other social media platforms more exposure more traffic to thier subscription multiply that by hundreds if not thousands of followers , compared to a niche following for tech developers. i doubt developers are driving traffic to github, since they are unlikely to draw eyes from social media to OF.

the top of people are earning way more than 1k.