I couldn't do this. My big thing is i always want to be working on personal projects that solve problems in my life. If that ends up with cool stuff, great! But i've been burnt out too many times on making things for other people.
It's one thing if i set out to make a passive income, but that's work in my opinion. My side projects are open source commitments of mine, and assuming the "thing" works well and solves my problem, i'm contributing to it for years to come. Or at least until the problem is solved in another way.
If i'm really lucky, side project can become passive income (ie, providing hosted versions, etc), but that has yet to happen, and i'm fine with that. I'm solving my own problems, which i find quite enjoyable!
I like this idea, I've got a handful of side project ideas that I always go back and forth on having/losing steam on and I end up never finishing them.
I also go back and forth on whether my side project should be open sourced or not. Why did you decide to open source all of your personal projects? What if it became something great that you later find out could be sold for extra income, would you regret open-sourcing?
> Why did you decide to open source all of your personal projects? What if it became something great that you later find out could be sold for extra income, would you regret open-sourcing?
I think that's a decision to be based off of what it is. If that's a concern, and if open source has limited inherent value to you or the project, perhaps it shouldn't be.
For me, i highly doubt my currently projects will make any money. Primarily home automation, and home cloud-lite stuff, Storage, etc. Nothing ground breaking, and where it might be "ground breaking" (though it's not), i specifically strive to not have it be ground breaking - a pillar of my work lately has been simplicity, ease of use and ease of maintenance - being side projects and all, i don't want anything i write to confuse me in two years.
So yea, i have no concerns about it being open source - and so i default to OSS. If it gains any adoption, i get contributors, testers, UX requesters, etc, all things i want. So OSS is purely a boon for me, in these cases.
edit: Plus, i like being able to add a trail of work on my resume/site/etc that i'm proud of. For few side projects that i have left closed source, i split off as much code as i could making them into OSS libraries and such. Even if the core of it can't be OSS, some of it can i'm sure :)
It's one thing if i set out to make a passive income, but that's work in my opinion. My side projects are open source commitments of mine, and assuming the "thing" works well and solves my problem, i'm contributing to it for years to come. Or at least until the problem is solved in another way.
If i'm really lucky, side project can become passive income (ie, providing hosted versions, etc), but that has yet to happen, and i'm fine with that. I'm solving my own problems, which i find quite enjoyable!
(not trying to be negative, just my take on it)