How to get paid to write open source software

Val Henson describes her career in open source

Linux system programmers are in short supply
If you are vaguely competent and get some experience you become employed for life
Not all Linux programmers are idealists. Now days it is a for profit motivation.
her pay profile progressed very well. Started at 150,000 per year in 1999 and doubled after 10ish years.
Telecommuting seems to be the end of the evolutionary progression
She travels all over the world to visit other programmers.
She thinks San Diego has the best weather in the world. ( she obviously has not considered South America in that calculation )
What would Val do? If you will not get fired then why not do it ?
She knows developers who never leave the house
Hours are flexible
its not a 9-5 job. She does not know anyone who does not care. Hard to make it on 40 hours per week.
Side effect is you only end up dealing with positive motivated people
Open source is an enabling technology – good way to think about how and why a company would hire a person to help with open source from their point of view
You have to be able to admit you do not know something. ( duh!) Linuxchix
There are some famously rude people in the Linux community
Careful with email!
Some people get into open source by working on patches but much better to get a framework such as a job that gets you in contact with other people doing open source.
Should be able to fairly quickly get into a position where you can telecommute