I read the article. Why not work at a intellectually undemanding dayjob like a barrista or waiter or bookstore clerk and then work on an interesting open source project on your own free time?
I'm actually doing this right now. Working at a Target warehouse and on my startup and projects when I'm off. The problem is there are 2 kinds of jobs generally, physically demanding and mentally demanding. If you do something mentally demanding you will lose all motivation to work on your own projects when you get home. When you work a physically demanding job where you can daydream and think while at work and come home to code, don't bother because you'll be physically exhausted at the end of your shift. The perfect match seems to be finding a part time job. 20 hours a week, no more no less.
> They're not exactly as supported, because they're not on by default
I really don't get this. In almost any software there are features that are not 'on by default', but it's still implemented and supported (except explicitly stated otherwise). How can this be a reason to not use the functionality when you need it?
It's like using Outlook to respond to mail on a mailing list. Sure, it's theoretically possible to use some combination of manual configuration and extra work to construct a post that won't violate social norms, but the tool doesn't encourage it, so mailing lists with a significant number of Outlook users on them tend to fail to follow the standard mailing list conventions of other lists, and develop their own conventions.
The same holds for any tool used in a workflow that involves anyone other than yourself: any tool with a default workflow tends to encourage people to follow that default workflow.
Or use TortoiseHg or SourceTree, if you're not comfortable with the CLI. They both work great. Also, if you need to host 'your own github', try RhodeCode.
