"What about Red Ryder, way back when, or Toady, of Dwarf Fortress, or the relative legions of successful webcomic artists that live on donations?"

I could be wrong, but those people probably have other sources of income.

The presently available materials on Red Ryder are unclear, but Toady definitely survives solely on donations [http://www.kwanzoo.com/social-trivia/tarn-adams-interview-pa...]

Randy Mulholland of the webcomic Something Positive quit his job when he received in a month donations that exceeded his yearly salary.

Most webcomics that are 'full time jobs' for the artist also sell t-shirts, taking them a slight step outside of 'pure' donationware, but including these artists, the numbers of successful donationware vendors go up.

"The presently available materials on Red Ryder are unclear, but Toady definitely survives solely on donations [http://www.kwanzoo.com/social-trivia/tarn-adams-interview-pa...

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

"Randy Mulholland of the webcomic Something Positive quit his job when he received in a month donations that exceeded his yearly salary."

This is nice for now, but will this continue in the long-term? I know nothing is definite, even when you sell a product, but I just don't see pure donationware working in the long-term (without some other way of supplementing income).