I'm 99% sure that everyone receiving tips has a job. Many of these people probably also love what they're doing. I also know that a lot of them are very self motivated and build things on their own time in order to solve common problems in an elegant way. But isn't that what they're also trying to do at a "job"?

I've been building products based on open source technology for the past 10 years. However, I've seen a HUGE increase int the diversity and the amount of open code I've used over the past 3 years! I feel personally indebted to a number of people that I've never met, because I'm using their work! Therefore, I'm happy to tip them a modest amount weekly (what little I can afford)

I love the idea of gittip, and I think it could make "open source developer" a viable job... BUT I don't think it's going to happen overnight. And it may not even happen while individuals are the only ones tipping.

So, what if companies could (or would) tip? There are probably a number of small companies that use open source tech, who can't afford the salary of a mid-level silicon valley engineer, but could afford to pool their resources to support great open source projects (side note: $160k/year is a very comfortable living in the Southeastern US, and probably elsewhere not right on East/West Coast).