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As a thesis for my graduation I'm going to start an open source project: My idea is to port a complete set of mathematical libraries to Android, to perform numeric and symbolic operations, in the form of a programmable calculator like matlab or sage.
I want to release this project under GPL, because I believe that ideas need to be free to work, but I also know that i will spend a lot of money to buy multiple device to do debug and fine tuning.
I thought about selling the prepacked app on the market for 0.99, while giving the source to compile on the site for free. It would be like a small tax on laziness.
What do you think? How do you think I could fund this project?
Note: Feel free to correct my poor grammar and remove this note.
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Yes, it is possible to make an open source project into a closed source project. The copyright holder can change the license of a project at any time, or cease to distribute source code of new releases. New releases can therefore be made closed source.
Depending on your personal circumstances, you can try raising money independently to fund your open source work. For example: @Homebrew (and many other maintainers and organizations) fund their work through GitHub Sponsors. @gaearon funded his work on Redux through a Patreon crowdfunding campaign.
Open source development could be looked at as a form of volunteering. Many developers have donated their time to either maintain or contribute to open source projects. These developers may not care about being compensated for their time—they are just happy for the experience, challenge or may just like helping others.
Making money out of open source projects is not an easy task, but it is possible. Clojure's creator Rich Hickey made a wonderful post covering ways to do it. Good luck.
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