Help Make Open Source Secure (The Mozilla Blog)

The truth is that if Linus Torvalds had asked for a grand for creating Linux, he would have been denied it, because, as the over-cited Steves Jobs said, consumers want THINGS THAT THEY CAN UNDERSTAND, MORE AND CHEAPER. The same with grants. If You offer anything truly novel, people will not understand its value before it is at least somewhat complete. That eliminates the ability to get grants for the truly good stuff, but the only reason anybody would need grant at all is to cover the costs of the development work.

The moral of the story: anybody, who wants to do something technically really good and awesome in this world needs to finance all of the work from his own pocket or from the pockets of people, who just believe in You, in Ventur Capitalist terms, the 3F, the Friends-Family-and-Fools.

In that respect the "spray-and-pray" investment strategy has the highest probability of hitting a sweet spot. For both, Venture Capitalists, and for philanthropists.