Redhat turns a profit once again

[lazygamer]

Redhat turns a profit once again

Ok this kinda amazed me. I'm somewhat of a naysayer when it comes to companies like Redhat making money, let alone surviving. See a part of me hopes that everything will just work out, and they(and others) will lead the way for a common and succesful alternative to regular buisness models(IE lease don't fail please don't fail please don't fail), but there is still that naysayer part.

How the hell can buisnesses like Redhat survive more than several years on their business model? And is it just a handful of businesses that can survive like this, or is there all sorts of potential free software based buisnesses?

I know how it works, it's all about hand holding, tech support, and subscriptions, I just wonder if it's not a dot com boom type thing that blows up in everyones face eventually.

[preacher]

You are missing the big picture here. Red Hat makes its money because they are selling Enterprise level software out there that competes directly with Microsoft Windows Server. I guarantee they are not making any money from us geeks who use linux because we dont like windows. Red Hat knew that the enterprise was the only way to make money with linux, not on the desktop.