I think working on open source, both unpaid and paid, projects definitely has been worth it for me professionally. Independent of self gratification and such (rather important IMO), it has lead to offers for interesting jobs and by that increased what kind of remuneration I could get. Above what I think the additional years of experience themselves would incur.
I think it's harder to answer that on the angle of open sourcing projects. I've, together with colleagues, spent the last few years doing paid for feature development for an open source projects. It's possible to have a company around that and support, and grow. But it's not easy.
My impression, more from the side lines, being a technical person occasionally involved in sales, is that it help in lead generation, but that the conversion ratio tends to be lower than with leads for a closed product.
>My impression, more from the side lines, being a technical person occasionally involved in sales, is that it help in lead generation, but that the conversion ratio tends to be lower than with leads for a closed product.
This is what I'm seeing. Even when I had free trials, vast majority of people were just free loaders, some even going as far as using a prepaid card to get past the requirement.
Which is why I'm hesitant to jump on the Open source wagon, I don't want an army of freeloaders now demanding and whining, like I see all the time on github.
I think it's hard to answer you questions without more information about the type of product. My impression is that plays a large role in viability. ISTM infrastructure type pieces have a bigger chance to open source successfully.
Was it worth it open sourcing your product?
Did you get lot more leads and exposure?
I'm afraid of open sourcing because I'm not sure if it will do anything for me, and that I'm giving away years of work away for free.