LookAtRedHat™

What happens when you corner a zealot into a corner with the usual argument that, and rather shaky argument, Open Source Software has yet to produce a business model that could be profitable? They point to RedHat.

Let’s take a step back for a second, and absorb the other companies you will be bombarded with:

Mozilla Corporation/Foundation

What else? They have a browser that claims a third of the market and is wildly successful, last claiming $75,130,722 in revenue in 2007. What very few LY know, or realize, is that most of this income comes straight from Google. With Mozilla’s contract with Google ending in 2011, this will be interesting to see if Google wants to extend their contract when Chrome is doing so well now. Firefox may return back to a community maintained application from the old Mozilla.

Google

Can’t forget Google, creator of Chrome, ChromeOS, and other tiny Open Source applications. .Net Jerkface says it best

FOSS advocates who celebrate Google as an open source company are deluding themselves. In reality Google is a proprietary company that funds open source projects on the side with pocket change. Their search engine algorithm which is the source of their profits is not available to the public. What is even more interesting is that they do not even release their internal build of Linux out of fear of helping the competition. Google is open source when it suits them and when they feel they have to throw a bone to the open source crowd. It reminds me of a mega food corp claiming to support organic food because they have an organic product in some select markets. Note that I do not equate open source hippies with organic food hippies, even though one could find many similarities between them. The latter at least provide a viable alternative for the vast majority.

Intel

Proof that Open Source + Commercial doesn’t always = Good. Example? Any video driver they’ve ever created for anything.

But what about the successful ones? They exist, right? Well, yeah.

Novell

The leader in “surround yourself with those more powerful”. They caught on quick to put Microsoft on their side, giving them many more positions to reach their audience. They are successful because they are intelligent and know who to talk to in order to stay ahead.

RedHat

Also wildly successful, RedHat has shown that they can open source everything and make a profit by selling support. They work diligently to improve, they don’t make mistakes, and they do their job well.

But what do these two companies successful? Place five dogs of varying breeds into a pen and give them scarce food. They will kill and consume each other until only a couple remain that can survive, or thrive, on the remaining resources. It’s a niche market that only caters to the few.

Orignal .Net Jerkface article