Linux is not so 'Free'
eWeek | at | by Mike
Red Hat it is the dominant Linux provider and has increasingly become the main Linux vendor for which third-party enterprise application vendors certify their products (often exclusively).
The main issue is that Red Hat and other Linux vendors need to make money somehow. And the main way they can do it is through support, patches and updates (Pay for product updates!!!, Can you image if MS would start changing for product updates!!). This has led Red Hat to charge its customers a yearly fee to receive support and, most important, regular patches and updates for each of their Red Hat Linux-based enterprise systems.
And for some Red Hat Linux customers, this has become too much to swallow. You can find customers on many Linux newsgroups and user boards complaining about the six-figure fees they owe Red Hat and vowing to move to another Linux distribution. The story by Anne Chen, "Linux for the Long Haul," part of our big Linux package this week, profiles just such a dissatisfied customer: the city of Steamboat Springs, Colo., which is considering a move from Red Hat Linux.