I've used opendSCAD and also freecad for years (linux). Now I just ordered a new PC for running windows and Fusion360. Am I happy with that solution? ... not really. I would be happy to support an open source CAD project with 3-5€ a month if I got a decent and stable SW in return. I do likewise with octoprint. Why I'm in the process of changing? My time is limited and I feel that certain things should be faster toolwise. Additionally it happened more then once, that I had to scrap work of several hours because I hit a point with a reproducible crash. (yes - I did file a bug report ... it was answered more then a year later asking me for the buggy design ... which I could not provide anymore)

I understand that a stable SW and continuous improvement (especially in a complex SW package like CAD) needs a small team of full time developers. If somebody started a related croud funding campaign with a follow up patreon financing program ... I would be in!

can you comment more on your experience with FreeCAD? I've just started looking into learning that myself since I run Linux for a desktop, with no current plans to buy a windows machine just for Fusion360.

I've also been thinking recently that I'd be happy to contribute monthly to further the development of these projects, as it is understandable that such a complex development tool should require resources to be built well.

Well - I started with freecad using some good tutorials which can be found on youtube. Most times it works but in certain everyday functions I feel there could be more smoothness (like for example if you want in a sketch a complete parallel path in x distance) My understanding is that Fusion 360 has such functions. Another thing which could be done better is fillet functions (to get round corners) I think this a good example for something you use often (rectangular corners just don't look professional) but often don't work out as expected. Lately I use openscad for my stuff but getting fillets with this is a major pain...

To sum up: FreeCAD is not bad - there are some good tutorials and so on and it certainly can teach you how to construct something 3D... but save often and save early (and best some different versions as well) On the other side I expect a more professional handling from Fusion360 ... and of course there are additional features like finite element simulation....