[WheelsAtLarge]

No, there are fairer ways to finance it. Also, government will only get in the way since they have to satisfy so many constituents so there will be a huge amount of bureaucracy to keep it going.

Right now there are billionaires that are directly benefiting from the advantages of open source. It's time that they create foundations that focus on maintaining open source software and making sure that the movement continues. Or users need to pay a minimum amount at a certain point after they adopt it in a for profit venture. It doesn't have to be a large amount but it needs to be enough to keep the software up to date and free of bugs.

The Linux foundation is a good model. The foundation pays Linus Torvalds to oversee the OS's development and make sure it continues to be kept up to date.

I agree that software needs to be libre but it can't be at no cost forever. It's not maintainable. Very few people can donate their time and know-how for very long before they run out of money. At the very least, the programmers behind the software need to eat and have a place to live.