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Free software as in freedom of speech, not necessarily as in free beer. Maintainers also need to pay the bills.
I've always been curious how people who give away software for a living make that living. I have a few OSS projects but I make my living other ways, those OSS projects are hobbies and my living takes precedence every time because I like to eat food and buy things.
Like they can sell support, but I have never paid for a solution. They can sell packaged solutions, but I can compile it myself. They can survive on donations but, while I have donated to a lot of FOSS projects, I imagine most people don't donate.
A lot of good FOSS projects start off as a company’s internal tooling, which they release to the public. The main source of income is sometimes an entirely different product/service.