📚 Linux - income

I have read that paid Linux-focused development is mainly via companies paying their employees to contribute to Linux-based projects they depend on, or something like Redhat, focusing its efforts on Linux itself as a commercial product. And then there are the various appliances and fancy gadgets running Linux, which also involve a physical component (making them a paid product by default).

But what about an individual or small independent team pouring their souls into a private software project and then trying to use it to earn an income? Is there any room in the Linux ecosystem for that 'business' model?

I've donated to some of my favorite developers - including a handful of one-man bands - but something tells me a donation now and then isn't how they pay the bills.

Somewhere along the way I developed this fantasy of really investing myself in my software projects and turning them into an income, but it just doesn't seem feasible, at least with Linux. The prospect of hiring onto a company completely ruins the whole idea of programming as a vocation for me.

Any successful small teams or individuals out there? If so, how do you make it work?