Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 22nd Jan 2007 19:53 UTC, submitted by WillM
"Oracle's Linux initiative has so far failed to make a serious dent in Red Hat's business or even in its stock price. Red Hat is actually worth slightly more today than it was when Larry Ellison launched his apparently not-so-scary RHEL clone the week before Halloween. But it is a little early to conclude that we are living in the best of all possible worlds for Red Hat. True, the company's financial results for the November quarter reassured easily-stampeded Wall Street investors who panicked in the first days after Oracle's announcement. But the fact remains that Red Hat's stock is worth 25% less today than it was a year ago. This decline reflects fundamental concerns not about the immediate threat from Oracle but about the long term value of Red Hat's business model."
Permalink for comment 204958
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2006-04-05
The article states that Redhat suffers because only 10% of its users pay for the software. As a result, the author states that Redhat will never catch up to Microsoft's revenue because Redhat is hurt by free software.
What is missing from this analysis is that Redhat also benefits from having free software. It puts them in a position to have more rapid and lower cost development, and it allows them to price the product (or services) lower than Microsoft. It seems that Redhat can be competitive and has much more upside potential.