If open source projects had always required $50,000+ to get started, we might not have GNU/Linux today.

Why can't you start the project first and then ask for donations later? Are you saying that unless you guys get paid you're not going to work on the project?

You will not nearly get as much money if you ask for donations later. Certainly not enough to pay for your cost of living. People have the tendency of thinking

"hey I can get this for free, and I can get this TODAY. hm those developers are cool. maybe I'll donate some day"

Then they download and use the thing. 97% forget about donating and never return. Of the remaining people, they donate maybe $100 or something.

proof?

FooBarWidget (who you replied to) is actually Phusion, the maker of Passenger (the very popular Rails app server). I think they have some very strong anecdotal evidence.

Up until recently Passenger was completely free, with donation options. Now they have an Enterprise offering - which we are happily paying for. I suspect the Enterprise licenses are orders of magnitude more than the donations ever were.

Human observation. How many open source applications do you use that you have paid for?

That have tried to raise money later?

Regardless if they have raised before or after.

We answered this in the FAQ: We will still build it, but development will take much longer and the finished product will be less polished.

We're experimenting with a model that allows us to work full-time on a project for long enough to make it a viable production system.