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Money from selling Windows goes only to Microsoft, whereas Linux is widely used without paying a penny to Red Hat. Not to mention distros like CentOS which you RedHat without needing to buy it.

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And Redhat sells lots of software they don't pay a penny for either.

Really? Developers are not exactly the cheapest resource on the planet, and while they don't code every piece of software they package... they still package it, they still give it at least some form of testing (e.g. will it install if it's on this image)... it's not expensive in some cases but it's not free either.

Yes, really. They contribute a lot back, and are good (model!) open source citizens, but they still distribute a great deal of code they haven't written.

> but they still distribute a great deal of code they haven't written.

Don't we all? If you include my stack as part of my software, then really I only write like 1% ... I didn't write the OS, the SQL server, the http daemon, and the billion other things I'm dependent on. That's just how software works.

Redhat sells support services, among other things. They hire key people in key projects so that if something goes wrong for their clients, they can get it fixed expediently. When your production is on the line, you'll gladly pay for the piece of mind and the very real reduction in business risk.

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