So got some thoughts here:
First I was browsing my student account at the University in which I attend (UAHuntsville if anyone is wondering) and I found out that they offer a frigging Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription for students and I got really, really excited. Yeah, yeah, I know, "why don't you use Fedora or CentOS." It's not the same though. It's like the difference between Debian and Ubuntu.
Well anyway, that got me to thinking about something that someone asked me in a conversation as I was evangelizing LInux/ FLOSS to them. (We all try to convert people, don't we. It kind of reminds me how I am supposed to convert people to Christ as a Christian... Damn I evangalize for Linux more🙁 But in my defense, everyone in Alabama is already a frigging "Christian". Some of them be so fake tho.)
Him: Companies cannot license Open-sourced software and make money off of it.
Me: Yeah they can and they do - Red Hat Enterprise Linux.... (here I go on to explain what RHEL is)
Him: Oh I didn't know they existed. How do they make money off of it if someone can just copy their code?
Me: I am not sure, but I think that it is more of a subscription for support with the system. Also, they have a (moderately stable) testing platform release of RH called Fedora and that is free. I am sure that that helps a person decide if they want Red Hat for their business before they commit to it.
So did I give him the right answer because I am actually curious as to how RHEL can remain successful when people can just copy their code and modify it (like CentOS) did. Like, what keeps every company out there from copying the code into their own personal little RHEL?
