How Do Open Source Software Developers Make Money From Their Efforts?

Open-source software doesn’t have to be free. The two go hand-in-hand very well, but open-source licensing like the GPL only stipulates that the source code be made available at no additional cost not that the software can’t be sold commercially.
For free open-source software, covering their expenses happens in a number of ways. You can buy copies of various Linux distributions, usually for premade disks and possibly a printed manual, pay for support, or contribute in the form of a donation. Sometimes the developers themselves will pay for operation costs out of their own pockets.
Most people contributing to free open-source projects do so simply because they like doing it.

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