[plg94]

One of the problems with the "money solution" in this case is that xz is a very small, relatively stable software. Sure things like the linux kernel, firefox, gnome or openssh could use huge donations to fund multiple developer day jobs for years. But xz is small, it doesn't need to add a lot of new features constantly. It does need maintenance, but probably only like a couple hours each month – surely not enough to warrant a full-time day job. So what does the dev do to spend the other 90% of his time (and earn the other 90% of the money)? Some people don't like juggling multiple jobs (very stressy), some corporate jobs don't allow it, plus you've done nothing to reduce the Bus-factor (ideally any vital library should have 2,3,… people working on it, but who can take of just 5% of his day job to devote to open source maintenance?)