I've benefited tremendously from open source software and have used an open source library in virtually every project I've done. Totally grateful to the community for enabling me to build faster.

However, I've always been curious - what motivates people to continue to maintain open source software?

Why put up with rude people and improve a package for them, for free? Is the issue because monetizing it is too difficult? Or is there some other reward for doing this that I'm not seeing?