Under the free software model, how are programmers expected to pay the rent the ISP bill?
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The software doesn't have to be free as Linux based firms such as Red Hat demonstrate.
What remains free is access to the code and the ability - without fear of the wind and vertigo of legal tangles - to modify that code to suit your requirements.
"Closed source" vendors like Microsoft will send you to the 9th level of hell for altering the internals of their OSes and applications. This is because, ultimately, vigorous IP enforcement protects their yearly profit objectives and is understood as being more important than the product itself or the customer's needs.
The GNU General Public License
see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpl>
is designed to prevent this (legal attacks to wall off IP) from happening while allowing for profit taking from software artifacts made under the license.
Profit can come from packaged versions of the GPL'ed product - again, see Red Hat and Novell/SUSE et. al. - and also from offering professional support and enhancement services, among other activities.
.d.
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