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The licensing and distribution model for open source make it impossible to simply sell your open source product (i.e. you don't want to sell support, charge for documentation, create a SaaS, or create tiers of closed source and open source - you just want to sell your open source product direct to customers).

An alternative option is 'source available' - give your customers access to your product source code and permission to modify the code to meet their needs but without right to distribute the product. Lots of open source developers dislike this model, but it's up to you to make up your own mind.

I wrote a bit a bit more on this topic in the following recent discussion on HN about on how to make a living with open source. There lots of comments and differences in opinions. Worth a read:

Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23218943




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