For almost 20 years I've had this problem with "give away open source, sell the support," because I thought if it works well people don't need support.
I've learned a lot in those 20 years that made me realize that it's not that simple, but stories like yours make me keep coming back to it.
On the other hand, how hard have you tried to market support contracts?
We at Akvo couldn't do what we do if we just lived of support. We run the software as a service and charge money for it. We have some advantages that makes it possible to do this. But only support wouldn't work for us.
I've learned a lot in those 20 years that made me realize that it's not that simple, but stories like yours make me keep coming back to it.
On the other hand, how hard have you tried to market support contracts?