I see a lot of open source hackers getting jaded by the vampire-like community using their libraries for free and then complaining like a customer. I know that some libraries have a donation button, but most people won't donate. I feel like if these open-source developers would charge for priority support, or put "bounties" on feature requests and bugs, it would become more financially viable for them to work on their open-source projects.
Brent Simmons (makes NetNewsWire for Mac and iPhone) made a very good post on this topic (well, charging for features, not related to open source specifically) awhile back: <a href="http://inessential.com/2009/07/16/dont_offer_50_for_your_favorite_feat" rel="nofollow">http://inessential.com/2009/07/16/dont_offer_50_for_your_fav...</a>. Its well worth reading (as are Daniel Jalkut's thoughts on the conversation, linked to from the blog post).<p>Basically, the points they make are that the motivator for most developers (on all projects, not just open source ones) is to make something good, with money being a side result of your efforts, but not the goal. Or, to paraphrase Daniel a bit, you want <i>freaking awesome</i> and not to simply be going through motions to pay off bills.
many of the projects with less-technical users do just that. The guy who wrote the billing system i use, <a href="http://freeside.biz" rel="nofollow">http://freeside.biz</a> is a good example. He charges for features and if you want it installation and other support.