Christopher Kunz

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I partially agree. For the hotline bit, it's desirable to have someone there full-time, but you could still say "our hotline can be reached at these and those times". Makes it a bit cumbersome for clients, but then again, it's a start... And for the consulting/support contract stuff: I think everything is possible if you are upfront and honest about it. If you go ahead and tell your clients, "we will sell you support but we can only guarantee this and that response time", some might buy it, some might not - at least you have offered it. It should not be uncommon in the open-source community that developers are struggling to make a living off their software and that they have to support it by having a day job.

I think the usual way to capitalize on open source software is the best way to go: Create a small company that can write valid fiscal invoices; it might even be possible to make it a gGmbH (German charitable Ltd.) to save on taxes Sell consulting and support contracts (that include a hot-line) Provide a pay-per-call hotline (i.e. 0900 number or similar charging scheme) for those customers who don't want to commit to a contract Charge for specific feature requests (and then have the requestor give them to the open source domain if he wishes to) I think from the consulting and support contracts alone, you should be able to generate enough income to pay off a chunk of the froxlor-incurred costs. just my ? 0,02.