Rather than monetize the software, fund its creators. They, along with everyone else, get great use value out of the software and they are empowered to live, live, do, play, and generally be.
Valve is a great example of this. Aside from just shipping Proton as a single layer to manage the various compatibility libraries involved with playing Windows games on Linux, they've also hired multiple developers that were already working on projects like DXVK and Zink because of how their platform benefits from the underlying enhancements to Vulkan as an ecosystem.
Users and supporters do. And they make the money to pay however they usually do.
They may also make money using the software to do whatever it is other people will pay for. That is the case for one project I contribute to on Pateron. Use value is real high and a community of users is funding the developer.
I am supporting a couple of other projects that way right now. I've got good developers on Patreon, and I'm happy to know that they're developing the software that I value. That's the end of it.
I'm also happy to know that software is out there for general use too. I don't really care if everyone's paying. Would I do care about is the developers are getting paid.
I think more developers should communicate where they are at in terms of support, and I think a whole lot more of us need to put small amounts of money toward making sure those developers are okay.
Rather than monetize the software, fund its creators. They, along with everyone else, get great use value out of the software and they are empowered to live, live, do, play, and generally be.