My personal feeling is that funding has got to be the biggest issue with open source sustainability.
I'm the lead developer of an open source project[1] used in radiation therapy clinics around the world and I know I would be ecstatic to be able to get enough funding to work on the software full time. I'm trying to bootstrap a consulting business[2] around the software now, but it's tough getting people to open their wallets (and it's much less fun than writing code)!
I think having funding in place for OS projects might have trickle down effects as well. I know I would spend more time contributing patches back to other OS projects I use if I didn't have to worry about trying to build a business so I can put food on my kids table. I imagine there are many other project maintainers who feel the same.
I'm the lead developer of an open source project[1] used in radiation therapy clinics around the world and I know I would be ecstatic to be able to get enough funding to work on the software full time. I'm trying to bootstrap a consulting business[2] around the software now, but it's tough getting people to open their wallets (and it's much less fun than writing code)!
I think having funding in place for OS projects might have trickle down effects as well. I know I would spend more time contributing patches back to other OS projects I use if I didn't have to worry about trying to build a business so I can put food on my kids table. I imagine there are many other project maintainers who feel the same.
[1] http://qatrackplus.com [2] https://www.multileaf.ca