🚀 go-pugleaf

Ok this has been a rather interesting discussion.

Lets say I decide to form a company to develop software products.

Now I work for many months building my product and place it under GPL.

So how do I eke out a meager living doing this?

Do I charge for it(I assume I can only charge for the media), while 
distributing the sources? 

Do I charge for documentation? From a usability standpoint shouldn`t a
product be usable without docs? Shouldn't on-line docs be bundled with the 
product?

=== Support? ====
Do I charge for "support"? And shouldn't I be building a product that does
not require much support?

What happens if some other company say  "Swan" decides it wants to compete
with me on "supporting" my own product? 

They are bigger than I am (I'm just a one man army)and better known? 

Do they want to squash me like the small bug that I am?

How do I survive? Other than some nice organization
giving me an unsolicted grant(can I count on this happening?).

I get the feeling that software engineering/programming/hacking would then
just become a "gentleman's" hobby, something you do outside of the scope of
your real income generating career(or perhaps you just do it in an
institution of higher learning).
 
Show me the magic! 

David "Programming, its not REALLY a job, its a charity!"
"Where do the homeless plug in their computers?"