Yes. But I think asking happy users to donate ultimately produces better code than asking unhappy users to pay for support.

So true. So true. I wish happy users would donate more as well.

Unfortunately when happy users get used to the culture of free and good quality software, they started to have a sense of entitlement (instead of donating). That if the software didn't provide exactly what they wanted, they starting to swear and whine instead of being... calm and helpful.

I think a big part of the entitlement problem is not being clear about the business model, or positioning oneself to take advantage of it.

One key thing is, I think, to advertise services and ways of making money. IOW, giving people the option to get new features, etc. is an important thing.

There is a lot of solid FOSS out there: PostgreSQL, BSD, Linux, CUPS, and more all come to mind. These often are less sexy than heavily marketed, inferior counterparts. But these all also have solid business models attached.

I highly recommend that folks who start open source software look around at business models surrounding the better open source products and see what they can do to capitalize on that.

Long run, one wants happy users to donate sales/marketing effort with recommendations, and pay for development of new features.

I'd MUCH rather be paid to produce new features than fix bugs.