Open Source Software is brilliant. As an independent software developer, it keeps my costs down, which in turn gives me enough time (and savings) to develop stuff on the side and contribute back.
Of course you can still charge an arm and a leg but you'll find that a competitor will be able to undercut you because of the low/zero cost of the development tools.
I think with OSS, everyone wins. It's about give and take.
If you're in the business of independently creating commercial software for a living though, it's almost always going to be a struggle. The market is saturated with software and you have to really do something extremely unique to stand out. Even then, within a couple of months there will be people who have copied your idea and you're back to square one.
It also comes down to how much you think your time is worth and what sort of standard of living you think you're entitled to. Me, I live like a hippie in a shared rental eating the occasional beans on toast. However, I get to do what I love; write software that people (seem to) appreciate.
I don't understand developers that use draconian DRM measures. The last thing you should do is p**s off your users. If you do that then your heart clearly isn't in it and it's clearly more about the money than it is about the thrill of coming up with the next improvement/feature/algorithm and delighting your users. But maybe I'm just a bit of a naive ueber nerd...
