Most open source software work is done completely unpaid.
Some open source software is useful enough that a company that would benefit from the software being better will "donate" developers to work on it. For example, RedHat - who markets a paid version of linux - may pay for developers to improve certain parts of GNU Linux.
Some open source software has paid support, or paid consultants. So, MySQL was free, but also offered professional consulting based around the software they were already experts on.
But most open source work? Unpaid. Normally, it's a great thing to put on a resume to get you a paying gig.
Look at Linux, MySql and many others. There are huge corporations behind the most successful projects, so people will work there as they'd do for any other employer.
When you say "professional", by definition you are establishing the value and compensation context of your question/statement. But software is not just created as an outcome of the fruits of a profession. Software is art. Some writers have to write, some painters have to paint. Coders need to code. We all acknowledge that it would be nice to be paid for doing what we are. Some are better at it than others is all.
Most of what I've done on FOSS projects has been unpaid, either building a tool or some functionality that I need at the time - "scratching my own itch", as ESR puts it. This doesn't mean that it doesn't make me money. As a freelancer, the tool I build/improve today could help me land a project tomorrow or help me get an existing project done more quickly, either of which is good for my bank account.
Back when I was working as someone else's employee, there were also times when I developed code on the clock that would help with my job, or other employees' jobs, but my employer wasn't in the business of selling software anyhow, so they were willing to let me release it under a FOSS license.
Today, I offer clients a discount on work done for them which will be released under a FOSS license, in which case I would be getting paid directly for work on FOSS code. Nobody's actually taken me up on it yet, but a current client has asked whether certain parts of their project would be suitable for open sourcing, so they're clearly open to such arrangements and looking for an opportunity to get that discount.
Edited to add: Freelancing has not been kind to me in the six months since I originally posted this answer (too hard to find paying clients for my language of choice), so I have accepted a full-time job with the local university's library, where I will be helping to clean up their in-house collection management application so that it can be released under a FOSS license sometime next year.
So, yes, there are jobs out there where writing FOSS is the primary job responsibility. I suspect that they're mostly in the public sector or at educational institutions, but there are also some private corporations (like, say, Red Hat) where such jobs can be found.
Eric S. Raymond wrote The Cathedral and the Bazaar and other essays about this, and these are probably the best place to start. There's also a Joel on Software essay somewhere with some good points.
Some people write free/open source software because it's something they personally want. Some do it as part of a reputation game, similar to academia. Some people get paid for it.
Companies pay for it because they make money off it somehow. O'Reilly Books makes money by selling books on using free software. Red Hat makes money by providing enterprise-quality support. Apple makes money by adapting it to their needs and selling computers using it. I think IBM is working on Linux so they can slowly move away from AIX. Some companies find it more economical to develop free software in conjunction with other companies, so everybody can use it and nobody has to pay too much.
Companies that make their money selling software, like Microsoft, will generally avoid free software. Companies that make their money on something related to software will want the software as cheap as possible, preferably free. In some cases, this means software the customers use, and in some cases this means software for internal use.
On Stack Overflow, we get a lot of good quality answers (and questions).
But somebody needs to write the answers. How are they paid? Surely no professional would spend time hanging out here and answering questions for nothing.
...
This, of course, is not how it works: people get pleasure from contributing to something, from testing and extending their knowledge, from being part of a community. Thus they write for SO in their spare time, and enjoy doing so.
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通常没有人，除非你在 Mozilla、Google、Yahoo 等公司工作。
Usually nobody unless you work for Mozilla, Google, Yahoo, etc.
我的猜测：
由开发商完成 支付费用
公司
My guess:
done by developers payed by
corporations
我发现了一篇好文章：开源的简单经济学 作者：乔什·勒纳：
I found a good article: The simple econimics of open source by Josh Lerner:
我目前正在从事几个开源 (GPL) 项目。工资来自当地大学的各种政府补助。
I am currently working on several open source (GPL) projects. Pay comes from various government grants via the local university.
大多数开源软件工作都是完全无偿完成的。
一些开源软件非常有用，以至于能够从更好的软件中受益的公司会“捐赠”开发人员来开发它。例如，RedHat（销售 Linux 的付费版本）可能会向开发人员付费以改进 GNU Linux 的某些部分。
有些开源软件有付费支持，或者付费顾问。因此，MySQL 是免费的，但也提供基于他们已经是专家的软件的专业咨询。
但大多数开源工作？未付。通常情况下，通过简历来获得一份有报酬的工作是一件很棒的事情。
Most open source software work is done completely unpaid.
Some open source software is useful enough that a company that would benefit from the software being better will "donate" developers to work on it. For example, RedHat - who markets a paid version of linux - may pay for developers to improve certain parts of GNU Linux.
Some open source software has paid support, or paid consultants. So, MySQL was free, but also offered professional consulting based around the software they were already experts on.
But most open source work? Unpaid. Normally, it's a great thing to put on a resume to get you a paying gig.
看看Linux、MySql 和许多其他的。最成功的项目背后都有大公司，因此人们会像为其他雇主一样在那里工作。
详细讨论如下：http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/27/0048250/Why-Making-Money-From-Free-Software-Matters
Look at Linux, MySql and many others. There are huge corporations behind the most successful projects, so people will work there as they'd do for any other employer.
A detailed discussion here: http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/27/0048250/Why-Making-Money-From-Free-Software-Matters
当您说“专业”时，根据定义，您正在建立您的问题/陈述的价值和补偿背景。但软件的诞生不仅仅是职业成果的结果。软件就是艺术。有的作家必须写作，有的画家必须画画。编码员需要编码。我们都承认，如果我们所做的事情能够得到报酬，那就太好了。有些人比其他人更擅长，仅此而已。
When you say "professional", by definition you are establishing the value and compensation context of your question/statement. But software is not just created as an outcome of the fruits of a profession. Software is art. Some writers have to write, some painters have to paint. Coders need to code. We all acknowledge that it would be nice to be paid for doing what we are. Some are better at it than others is all.
我在 FOSS 项目上所做的大部分工作都是无偿的，要么构建了一个工具，要么构建了一些我当时需要的功能——正如 ESR 所说，“只为自己解决问题”。这并不意味着它不能让我赚钱。作为一名自由职业者，我今天构建/改进的工具可以帮助我明天完成一个项目，或者帮助我更快地完成现有项目，这两者都对我的银行账户有利。
当我作为别人的员工工作时，有时我会不停地开发代码，这对我的工作或其他员工的工作有帮助，但我的雇主无论如何都不从事销售软件的业务，所以他们他们愿意让我根据自由和开源软件许可证发布它。
今天，我为客户提供的工作折扣将在 FOSS 许可证下发布，在这种情况下，我将直接因 FOSS 代码的工作而获得报酬。实际上还没有人接受我的邀请，但当前的客户询问他们项目的某些部分是否适合开源，因此他们显然对这种安排持开放态度，并正在寻找获得折扣的机会。
编辑添加：自从我最初发布此答案以来的六个月里，自由职业对我来说并不友善（很难找到适合我选择的语言的付费客户），所以我接受了全职在当地大学图书馆工作，我将帮助清理他们的内部馆藏管理应用程序，以便明年某个时候可以在自由和开源软件许可证下发布它。
所以，是的，有些工作的主要职责是编写自由开源软件。我怀疑他们大多在公共部门或教育机构，但也有一些私营公司（例如红帽）可以找到此类工作。
Most of what I've done on FOSS projects has been unpaid, either building a tool or some functionality that I need at the time - "scratching my own itch", as ESR puts it. This doesn't mean that it doesn't make me money. As a freelancer, the tool I build/improve today could help me land a project tomorrow or help me get an existing project done more quickly, either of which is good for my bank account.
Back when I was working as someone else's employee, there were also times when I developed code on the clock that would help with my job, or other employees' jobs, but my employer wasn't in the business of selling software anyhow, so they were willing to let me release it under a FOSS license.
Today, I offer clients a discount on work done for them which will be released under a FOSS license, in which case I would be getting paid directly for work on FOSS code. Nobody's actually taken me up on it yet, but a current client has asked whether certain parts of their project would be suitable for open sourcing, so they're clearly open to such arrangements and looking for an opportunity to get that discount.
Edited to add: Freelancing has not been kind to me in the six months since I originally posted this answer (too hard to find paying clients for my language of choice), so I have accepted a full-time job with the local university's library, where I will be helping to clean up their in-house collection management application so that it can be released under a FOSS license sometime next year.
So, yes, there are jobs out there where writing FOSS is the primary job responsibility. I suspect that they're mostly in the public sector or at educational institutions, but there are also some private corporations (like, say, Red Hat) where such jobs can be found.
Eric S. Raymond 就此撰写了《大教堂和集市》以及其他文章，并且这些可能是最好的起点。还有一篇 Joel 关于软件的文章，其中有一些不错的观点。
有些人编写免费/开源软件是因为这是他们个人想要的东西。有些人将其作为声誉游戏的一部分，类似于学术界。有些人因此获得报酬。
公司为此付费是因为他们能以某种方式从中赚钱。 O'Reilly Books 通过销售有关使用免费软件的书籍来赚钱。红帽通过提供企业级质量的支持来赚钱。苹果公司通过使其适应自己的需求并销售使用它的计算机来赚钱。我认为 IBM 正在开发 Linux，因此他们可以慢慢摆脱 AIX。一些公司发现与其他公司联合开发自由软件更经济，因此每个人都可以使用它，而没有人需要支付太多费用。
像微软这样通过销售软件赚钱的公司通常会避免使用免费软件。通过与软件相关的产品赚钱的公司会希望软件尽可能便宜，最好是免费的。在某些情况下，这意味着客户使用的软件，而在某些情况下，这意味着供内部使用的软件。
Eric S. Raymond wrote The Cathedral and the Bazaar and other essays about this, and these are probably the best place to start. There's also a Joel on Software essay somewhere with some good points.
Some people write free/open source software because it's something they personally want. Some do it as part of a reputation game, similar to academia. Some people get paid for it.
Companies pay for it because they make money off it somehow. O'Reilly Books makes money by selling books on using free software. Red Hat makes money by providing enterprise-quality support. Apple makes money by adapting it to their needs and selling computers using it. I think IBM is working on Linux so they can slowly move away from AIX. Some companies find it more economical to develop free software in conjunction with other companies, so everybody can use it and nobody has to pay too much.
Companies that make their money selling software, like Microsoft, will generally avoid free software. Companies that make their money on something related to software will want the software as cheap as possible, preferably free. In some cases, this means software the customers use, and in some cases this means software for internal use.
在 Stack Overflow 上，我们得到了很多高质量的答案（和问题）。
但需要有人写下答案。他们的报酬如何？当然，没有哪个专业人士会花时间在这里闲逛，无偿回答问题。
……
当然，事情并不是这样的：人们从为某事做出贡献、测试和扩展他们的知识、成为社区的一部分中获得乐趣。因此，他们在业余时间为SO写作，并且享受这样做。
自由软件也不例外。
On Stack Overflow, we get a lot of good quality answers (and questions).
But somebody needs to write the answers. How are they paid? Surely no professional would spend time hanging out here and answering questions for nothing.
...
This, of course, is not how it works: people get pleasure from contributing to something, from testing and extending their knowledge, from being part of a community. Thus they write for SO in their spare time, and enjoy doing so.
Free software is no different.