I've been a freelance .NET developer for coming up on two years. For most of this time I've made a good living from developing websites which use the Umbraco CMS - I've even been to Copenhagen to get certified as an Umbraco developer. In case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, Umbraco is an open source .NET CMS. It is software created by a community. And hundreds of Umbraco developers are making a living using it.

Many of these developers assist in the development of the Umbraco project in a number of ways. Some contribute bug-fixes and patches which eventually make their way into the core product, and some create whole new database layers or slick new packages to be used with Umbraco.Others contribute in lesser ways through helping out on the forum, submitting good bug reports and voting up bugs in codeplex. Still others don't really contribute in any meaningful way to the community - they just use the product to get the job done. And that's just fine.

Personally, I've never felt that I've had the time to contribute much more than forum activity and bug reports to the Umbraco project. I always felt that after doing my 40 hours a week of paid work that my time and energy was better spent doing other stuff. Not sitting in front of a screen kind of stuff. Work-life balance kind of stuff. However, my recent experience with the SocialFront open source project that I've been working on (sporadically it has to be said) with Jon Carlos has changed all of that.

Here's the thing: my work on open source programming in my spare time actually makes me more energetic rather than less. It has re-invigorated my love of what I do, which is the architecture and development of web-based systems. The elegant solutions to difficult problems. My open source programming has fed into my day job, making me more productive, and more enthusiastic about my work. It has helped to keep my mindset positive - and this is definitely a good thing. The buzz I get from fixing bugs and developing new features for no other reason than because I want to, well, it's a positive force for good :) I suggest you try it.