It is however a possibility.
I make some software. You like what it does and want to use it. I ask for money. If the price is right you give me cash and I give you an executable file.
How is that not a business model?
And what's definitely not a business model is releasing something as open source and hoping that somebody gives me money. Businesses don't just happen. Somebody has to build them.
I never claimed open source was a business model. I said the inability to easily monetize OSS is a limiting factor on its development because people need to eat and pay rent.
> I make some software. You like what it does and want to use it. I ask for money. If the price is right you give me cash and I give you an executable file. How is that not a business model?
That business model is selling executables that let your customers do some unspecified thing they care about. I have paid money to people who give me executables for both open- and closed-source software, so that description applies to both.
Making and releasing open-source software to the public, though, is not a business model. Which is why the Octave developer is struggling.
> I said the inability to easily monetize OSS is a limiting factor on its development because people need to eat and pay rent.
Right. But that's not specific to open-source software. Needing to eat, etc, is a limiting factor on making all software. And making almost anything else.
I have a ton of closed-source software in my projects folder. That's not a business model. Neither is open-source software, where I take some of that stuff and throw it up on GitHub.
A business model is where I repeatably create value for others and receive money in exchange. A modern software company can do that in a variety of ways, including selling training, documentation, support, custom features, consulting, services, and licensing.
Both open- and closed-source companies do that. They have business models. But open source on its own is not a business model, and neither is closed source.
And what's definitely not a business model is releasing something as open source and hoping that somebody gives me money. Businesses don't just happen. Somebody has to build them.