Governments freeloading on FOSS, not helping with funding (and at the same time collecting taxes on income/donations sourced otherwise) are just as exploitative as privately held companies, maybe even worse...
I know punching down on Matrix is something people like to do here, but this was a good read about how difficult things are for them: https://lobste.rs/s/muk05v/reflections_on_matrix_criticism_over#c_8obbim #Matrix
Ps. Even of the little income/donations[1] I've been getting for my own open source work, roughly 33% is spent on taxes & mandatory healthcare payments.
Considering I'm working on my 200+ projects almost every single day, this results in ~18 Euro per day (after other infrastructure costs)... Clearly an unsustainable labor of love, and love it is! And, as with @matrix (and many other projects), 95% of the feedback received is only about shortcomings (highly contrasting with the many successes I've been encountering myself on various jobs with these tools)! 😩
[1] Eternal gratitude to my band of sponsors who keep me going!!! 🙏❤️
Karsten Schmidt
Matthias Büchse