I would first create a list of firms that have strategic interests in your product area (DB and BI Vendors, DM service companies, Lisp consulting firms/vendors, etc.) You might find a company that is willing to buy the technology and/or offer another profitable arrangement. A joint venture, perhaps.
Option 2 might be your only real option, but even then I would think you might be able to use your work as a springboard into something more lucrative...?
If I do option #2, that is open-source the system under BSD, then I suppose that would give me the option to fork the whole system later under a commercial license if the system started to gain traction. Of course the risk is that others would build up from the earlier version and essentially lock me out. However I would be pleased to have made such an impact...
As long as you get copyright assignments from anyone sending you patches, you retain the rights to change the license whenever you want, so even if you use the GPL, you could release new versions under a proprietary license.
That said, if you really just 'give up' any commercial hopes, a BSD style license is friendlier to companies who may want to do something with your code, and, if they're smart, maybe even contribute something back.
Open sourcing is a mixed bag. The sad fact is that open sourcing will generally limit the number of companies that will consider buying you by some substantial amount. Could probably get the poster a cushy job at google, though...
The idea was some sort of middle road between abandoning any hope of commercial success, and doing it 100% as a classic proprietary software business. I have no idea if it's feasible for his product though.
Option 2 might be your only real option, but even then I would think you might be able to use your work as a springboard into something more lucrative...?