Software distribution processes

I'm reading how Cusomano in 2002 was somewhat skeptical of Red Hat's chances in the software market, so I decided to go onto their website to assess how they have done since the early part of the decade when they were incurring incredible losses.

The picture is an interesting one. Red Hat are quite a profitable company now with good cash resources, and are slowly working to a position of net earnings since their foundation. It's a good example of a subscription model working, particularly in a business where the 'product' itself is freely available open source software.

The 2005 financial report is here.