Red Hat rakes in big bucks

I'm not sure you guys should

I'm not sure you guys should just look at the numbers here. Numbers can always be manipulated to show what you want. Almost every company will be taking a hit at some point. While I do agree Red Hat probably will at some point take a hit to their subscriptions (although it could just be being offset by new subscriptions of people moving from more costly proprietary solutions), you have to look at the bigger picture. When a customer who doesn't renew their support subscription because of economic trouble Red Hat doesn't lose that customer to another platform like a proprietary vendor would. They simply keep chugging along sans support until they have the money to renew their subscription. When someone like MS doesn't have licenses renewed, that customer has to migrate to another solution...while both will have the same affect on the bottom line, Red Hat has a much greater chance of getting those customers back when the economy is well again.

Red Hat downgraded

Red hat was downgraded by Merrill and BofA. Billings growth is decelerating, offset by higher receivables collection. Since the service model typically has 1 to 3 year contracts, the recent market woes will hit this year instead of last.

Check this morning's news.

Don't believe the financial hype no matter who's spewing. Look it up for yourself.

I'm always just a little startled

.. when I realize just how small a company Red Hat really is. They are lean and mean however, and wield influence in the marketplace far out of proportion to their size. That's because the revenue their proprietary competitors lose when Red Hat makes a sale is generally a lot larger than what Red Hat ends up with. Customers tend to like that arithmetic, Microsoft FUD notwithstanding.

They also have influence due to their championing and successful execution of a business model based on Free Software. But the appeal to customers begins with the economic leverage they enable.

This is not to say that Linux is the answer to every computing problem on the planet. Linux opponents frequently react to good news about Linux in the server space, where the OS does really well, with sneers about desktop Linux. This is misdirection, since the two environments are so different as to be incomparable in many respects, and Linux is far better suited to one than the other, particularly in the context of corporate computing. (Red Hat occasionally sneers at desktop Linux themselves, by the way.)

Whether or not these financials are good news or not is a more substantive issue. I have no opinion about that, being too lazy at the moment to go look at the actual numbers. But I can observe two things. First, American companies always, always, always try to put a positive spin on quarterly results. (I imagine this is true wherever such reports are required.) Second, having any sort of revenue increase year over year in this economy is nothing short of miraculous. Microsoft lost money in the same period, a first for them, and their margins are far, far higher than Red Hat's.

So the boys and girls in Raleigh must be doing something right.

Red Hat is going into the Cloud...

... and therefore if you invest into Red Hat you are investing into something that makes money now, but will make money much differently tomorrow than anything you have seen. And because Red Hat is an open company it's also open for partners to invest. Linux is a collaborative thing that gets stronger with every partner joining in and yes, we have seen Cisco, Intel, Nokia, Oracle, Google, etc. joining the Linux investment. They will all benefit as well as mankind.

Stupid Linux Rah-Rah BS

Checks Redhat's stock performance...

Golly! Who is right? The resident Linux kook or the entire investing world who seems to have missed this Linux alleged goldmine?

Perhaps its time to put the rah-rah BS to rest and start acting like a grown up and writing about the million reasons desktop Linux and applications continues to be the laughingstock of the computing world.

It's been over a decade now and the Linux kooks still think that sitting around in forums and news sites playing circle jerk with each other is ever going to accomplish anything.

Hey SJV how a '10 Reasons Why Linux Is Better Than Windows' post?

How about some BSOD jokes?

Or how about babbling about 'Teh Power of Choice'?

Or how about 'Why Gimp Is Really Better Than Photoshop'?

This blog == a sad joke.

Pass the lube dude.