There's another option -- those seeking to SaaSify F/OSS can support/partner the software they use. Sustainable hosting isn't something that larger corporations are into, but the right companies can do it, and as companies that have this mindset/condition built in (best if in writing, of course) grow, F/OSS becomes more sustainable by default. All it takes is a reasonable % of revenue contribution to the F/OSS powering your stack. I think the range should be 20% to 50%[0], but even if it was 10%, imagine if open source projects that power even small to mid size tech companies in the world received 10% (or even 3%) of the revenue being collected?
The problem of getting the money down to F/OSS that powers inner machinery (libraries, frameworks, etc) is a bit tougher, but I think that could work out easily by doing a general % of revenue and deciding allocation. For example even if you do a 1% allocation to libraries in particular, as libraries are reused much more easily, at scale library authors will do quite well.
Maybe a license that asks for a % of revenue is an easier static goal but I'm optimistic enough to think that the partnership approach could work.
It becomes far too tempting for them to break the abstraction barrier though. Just look at the AWS offerings divergence from the originals. Some companies are big enough to fund multiple competitors at the same time, which is about the best thing I can think to do here.
The problem of getting the money down to F/OSS that powers inner machinery (libraries, frameworks, etc) is a bit tougher, but I think that could work out easily by doing a general % of revenue and deciding allocation. For example even if you do a 1% allocation to libraries in particular, as libraries are reused much more easily, at scale library authors will do quite well.
Maybe a license that asks for a % of revenue is an easier static goal but I'm optimistic enough to think that the partnership approach could work.
[0]: https://nimbusws.com/#sustainability