Red Hat In The Black for Q3

wheeeee! writes "Red Hat has posted a profit for the third quarter. Well, a meager $300 grand of actual net, but still a profit nonetheless. Their total revenue of $24.3 million was higher than expected. The cash flow appears to have been spurred by an increase in sales of RH's Advanced Server, of which 12000 were sold, compared to 8000 the previous quarter. RH says they're now following the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles at some companies."

Comments

A notice to Bill Gates....

[johnraphone]

WATCH OUT!

Huh?

[gazbo]

Has RedHat acquired ID software or something? I don't recall them maintaining a Q3 port for linux either...

RHAT's business model

[Bitter Old Man]

1) Sell GPLed software 2) ??? 3) Post only a tiny profit and wonder why what everybody on Slashdot and Newsforge says will happen never does!

But I thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody would pay for something they could get for free?

HA!

Better poor than broke.

[Troy H Parker]

300K may not seem like much, but at a time when many companies arn't making a dime, it's not bad at all, especially for a company with an "alternative" business plan.

Re:Better poor than broke.

[tim_maroney]

This quarter's profit is so slim that it doesn't say much of anything. Even under GAAP there's enough wiggle room in the accounting for a money-losing company to juggle the books and come up with a small faux profit every few quarters. In this case we're talking about a profit that is only 1.25% of revenues, well within that wiggle room. It's too early to say whether this is a real profit or creative bookkeeping; the next few quarters should give a much better indication.

Re:Better poor than broke.

[Anonymous Coward]

Woohoo. All the Execs get that $30k Christmas bonus this year afterall. It's good to be the king at Red Hat baby. - The CEO.

Re:Better poor than broke.

[JVert]

Eh, I dunno, seems to me once a company turns a profit people look at it like they are gonna get a return next year. When RedHat first started everyone figured in 2 years they will be as big as microsoft. 4 years later... That sliver a black is a slap in the face to investors.

Shareholders suck.
Shareholders suck.
Shareholders suck.

Companys need to care about customers, not shareholders.

By the way, as icing on the pessemistic cake of doom, McDonalds drew a loss this quater, not the airplane people, the fast food people!

Re:Better poor than broke.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can anybody tell me where to download the RH Advanced Server for free? I looked at their web site but cannot find it.

Re:Better poor than broke.

[tim_maroney]

Can anybody tell me where to download the RH Advanced Server for free? I looked at their web site but cannot find it.

I don't believe you can. The last time this came up for me here, there was a great deal of confusion about whether the product could be considered open source or not, and whether or not it could be redistributed for free. There was a lot of speculation but very few facts. If this product makes Red Hat a profit, then that profit is not identifiably part of the open source or free software movements; it's much more like a proprietary software business model.

Retarted

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not the least bit surprised. You are all so, so very gay.

Re:Retarted

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you find yourself in good company, you ass-ramming turd burglar!

This is great-or is it?

[Martigan80]

Well it is great news that a company how's business is solely about linux_is_turning a profit, and especially since they have been not struggling, but watching what they do. It is also good to see that they are doing this with out memberships or asking for more donations. What also helps is that their Distro is what many American business use, and what certification are measured against (some not all). Now is this good? After the 8.0 release I didn't see so many people praising Red Hat as with the 7.3 release. I see Red Hat push for a standardization in the Linux community, but it is more of "their" standards, not what the community wants. This is a double edged sword, good for them and getting Linux more coverage, but possibly bad for the community with a muscle like Red Hat who as we can tell is starting to flex a bit. Please tell me what you think on this.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't say it was "their" standards, it was the standards for the general Linux community. You can't satisfy the needs for everyone, so its best to try and satisfy the needs of the masses.

Just like Microsoft, alot of people complain about their products, but one of the reasons they're successfull is that they are made and marketed for the general computer user.

Would you say that people who made Linux floppy distributions are implementing "their" standards more so than the communities? No, they're making a product for a specific market/need. The same with Red Hat standardising with their latest release.

I think what is really evident here with the news of Red Hat's Q3 report is that with the right business plan, you can give away, and contribute to the development of Open Source software, sell services to support those products and make money, and do it very well.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[nagora]

After the 8.0 release I didn't see so many people praising Red Hat as with the 7.3 release.

I've been on RH since 5.0 and I don't expect to ever "upgrade" to 8+. The push for a one-size-fits-all desktop based on KDE/GNOME means that it is getting incresingly hard to administer a system that does not use either of those. It is not helped that so many KDE and GNOME programs do not even bother including a man page.

So, I think all the systems I have RH on will in future be upgraded a package at a time; I currently compile the kernel from source anyway.

New systems will probably either be Gentoo or I might try SuSe; Debian is now so far behind that I wouldn't feel confident trying it on new hardware.

TWW

Re:This is great-or is it?

[IamTheRealMike]

After the 8.0 release I didn't see so many people praising Red Hat as with the 7.3 release. I see Red Hat push for a standardization in the Linux community, but it is more of "their" standards, not what the community wants. This is a double edged sword, good for them and getting Linux more coverage, but possibly bad for the community with a muscle like Red Hat who as we can tell is starting to flex a bit. Please tell me what you think on this.

I think you're exaggurating :)

Actually I think RedHat got lots of praise for 8.0, especially considering it was such a big leap. Desktop unification was a brilliant move, and for distros that ship both desktops you can expect to see more of this in future I am thinking.

Redhat have been sponsoring (through Havoc) the desktop standards effort for some time now. The standards are hardly "theirs", they are developed in conjunction with the community and the only ties to Redhat are the fact that Havoc is the organiser and the mailing lists are hosted on a Redhat box. Redhat have never been about forcing control on people, far from it.

I personally think 8 is great, it looks extremely slick and professional and the admin tools are nicely integrated into gnome2. The fact that they're now in the black tells me it's going to be alright - the hype has passed, but Linux is still here and going strong.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[lunenburg]

Now is this good? After the 8.0 release I didn't see so many people praising Red Hat as with the 7.3 release. I see Red Hat push for a standardization in the Linux community, but it is more of "their" standards, not what the community wants. This is a double edged sword, good for them and getting Linux more coverage, but possibly bad for the community with a muscle like Red Hat who as we can tell is starting to flex a bit.

That would probably come from listening to drooling Slashdot fanboys whose only reaction to hearing the words "Red Hat" is "d00d!!11 r3d h@t si evil!!!! my Distro is more 31137 than j00!" or some other nonsense. Remember - you can't be cool" if you look like you're supporting the most popular thing. It happens with everything - the hip little bar downtown suddenly becomes "a sellout" and uncool once everyone discovers it. Same with bands, TV shows, etc. It's just very disappointing to see the Linux community turn on one of their own just to earn 31337-points. Shit-talking Red Hat just to show how cool you are doesn't help the Linux community gain credibility - it makes people think that the community is filled with a bunch of immature back-biters.

Nobody has ever come up with anything more than half-baked conspiracy theories to show that Red Hat is out to become "the Microsoft of Linux." The 8.0 release was a big jump in terms of functionality and overall direction. Some people liked it, some people didn't. There are lots of things I like, and several things I wish they'd have done differently. But business and technical decisions by a company whose product is open-source is not evil. I find it hard to believe that when you can take Red Hat 8.0, strip out a couple of minor packages, do s/Red Hat/MyUberDistro/ in the source code, and resell it, that Red Hat is the evil behemoth that people claim.

And do you know how Red Hat flexes its muscle? By GPL'ing nearly everything it produces, supporing the LSB, and employing people to work full-time on Linux, thus contributing their work back to the community for everyone from you to SuSE to Debian to use. Ooooh, how deliciously evil.

So I think that the only people who rail against the evils of Red Hat are paranoid conspiracy theorists who don't have the slightest idea of what they're talking about, and are only looking to score cool-points at Red Hat's expense. If Red Hat doesn't do the job for you, use their bugzilla or email lists and attempt to convince them to change things, or by all means use the distro that works best for you. But demonizing Red Hat simply because they happen to be the biggest and/or most
popular distro hurts all of us in the long run.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[ivan256]

Debian is now so far behind that I wouldn't feel confident trying it on new hardware.

You haven't even looked at Debian lately. Admit it. If you had you wouldn't make such an incorrect comment.

Just out of curiosity, what do you consider behind about Debian but not about redhat or suse? Redhat and suse both ship 9 month old hacked to deat kernels while debian has 2.4.19.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Martigan80]

And do you know how Red Hat flexes its muscle? By GPL'ing nearly everything it produces, supporing the LSB, and employing people to work full-time on Linux, thus contributing their work back to the community for everyone from you to SuSE to Debian to use. Ooooh, how deliciously evil.

Did Red Hat not support Software patents? You are correct they do pay the employees, I don't think they could have such great programmers if they didn't. What you say about GPL'ing everything is very true, not like SuSE what wont release YaST (Thank god).

I'm not trying to say they are evil, I think MS uses evil business tactics, but then again would other people who wanted to stay on top? I was really wondering since Red Hat can be technically called the biggest monetary power house in the Linux community, are they using this power to "enforce" their standards. Sure they don't need anyones permission and I can use what Distro I like, BUT since they have a great market share already and most non-techs tend to keep loyalties more than others, It will be easier to acquaint your customers, correct that PAYING customers to your standards. And for a business to survive you need to go where the money is, and right now Red Hat is establishing that arena.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've actually been a RedHat user since 5.2 and I've tried a few other distro's along the way, specifically Mandrake, Debian, and SuSe.

RedHat 8.0 is without question the best Linux distro I've used and has had less "minor issues" than any other distro. I like the Bluecurve look and even if I didn't I would shut it off and not use it, like any sane person would.

I think it's the loud minority who have been bashing 8.0 and I really don't pay much attention to the zealots. For real world usage RH 8.0 works better than anything I've used previously and that's all that matters to me.

Warmest regads.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

What???

I just bought a Debian disc from Cheapbytes a few months ago and it still had a 2.2 kernal with Gnome 1.2.

It was the Progeny version, to be fair, because I didn't want to suffer through the normal debian install. Anyways, it worked very well and was quite snappy on my old machine, but there was nothing current aboot it.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[frank_adrian314159]

The push for a one-size-fits-all desktop based on KDE/GNOME means that it is getting incresingly hard to administer a system that does not use either of those.

Real users use xterm for eveything :-).

I don't know about doing admin for desktop systems, but using the system as a server hsn't changed much. As far as systems go, I use a mix of RH 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0 and I have a couple of Debian unstable distros for fun. I have KDE on some of them, Gnome on others and to be honest, I don't usually notice much difference. My main issue with RH is the odd placement of some config files. So it goes... Life's too short to bitch about desktops.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Omnifarious]

You have discovered the secret to RedHat's ability to make money. Congratulations. I'ts no secret that building brand loyalty has been what they've been all about since their inception.

But, if RedHat were ever to turn evil, and start making descisions that didn't benefit their customers, it would be much easier to switch away from them to somebody else that it is to switch away from Microsoft. They have to keep on making their customer's happy and maintaining their brand image in order to survive.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Progeny is Debian as much as Mandrake is Redhat

Re:This is great-or is it?

[MSG]

but it is more of "their" standards, not what the community wants

I, on the other hand, see Red Hat giving users exactly what they want. They make timely releases. They issue timely errata for security problems. When users proclaimed that Linux would never succeed because the distinction between GNOME and KDE's look-and-feel confused new users, Red Hat did the grunt work for a new theme and menu system so that both environments had a more coherent look-and-feel.

Red Hat produces the best system available for general use, and some damn fine work in Advanced Server. Anyone is free to flex as they like; users will choose what they like best. You don't get to complain when the majority of people choose Red Hat Linux.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[forehead]

/me takes the bait...

The push for a one-size-fits-all desktop based on KDE/GNOME means that it is getting incresingly hard to administer a system that does not use either of those.

Sorry, but what have you been smoking? Are you operating under the assumtion that because they ship Gnome and/or KDE that they're going to rip tar/gzip/vi/emacs/etc out of your hands? For the most part, RedHat has been -adding- new GUI tools to make it easier to perform certain tasks. If you want to edit /etc/modules.conf or compile your own kernel, or whatever, you can (as a general rule) still use the same old tools, and edit the same old files.

It is not helped that so many KDE and GNOME programs do not even bother including a man page.

Sigh. No, they don't come with man pages. Both Gnome and KDE have well developed help subsystems. They are GUI environment with GUI programs. Using their GUI help system to read the documentation is not an unreasonable requirement. (If documentation in man format is that important to you, might I suggest OpenBSD [and probably any of the other *BSDs]? It [they] tend to be much more thorough about writing man pages for all config files and programs on the system.)

You don't provide a single piece of evidence in support of anything you said. I've been using RedHat on my desktop and in server roles since 6.1 (with a brief pitstop with an OpenBSD then a Solaris desktop). My opinion of RedHat 8.0 is very high.

Pretty much every app supports Unicode (utf-8 encoding). I'm learning Japanese and multi-language support worked out of the box. I have standard version of gcc (not that 2.96-RH b.s.). I have (relatively) current releases of KDE and Gnome. And you know what else? I don't use either KDE or Gnome. I've been using Fluxbox and/or WindowMaker. I still have vi. I still have tar and gzip and bash. The config files are (more or less) in the same places RedHat has been keeping them for years and years. RedHat 8.0 is nothing more than a further refinement of the same damned thing they've been working on for years.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[nagora]

For the most part, RedHat has been -adding- new GUI tools to make it easier to perform certain tasks.

But their documentation of the system revolves more and more around KDE/GNOME.

I'm not saying I'll stop using RH but that the development of RH is now totally geared towards their idea of the desktop and if you don't need that then there is little point in upgrading RH as a system. It is precisely because they still include vi, emacs etc and keep all their config files in the same place that I don't see any need to go to RH8 rather than just updating packages from rpmfind.net. I don't need more GUI bells and whistles that I never use, even on my desktops, so why bother with them?

TWW

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

So one is a poor copy of the other?

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Azog]

On the contrary, Red Hat 8 is what got me to switch from Mandrake. And I ditched my last Windows 2000 machine at the same time. Now all my computers run Red Hat 8.

The desktop integration thing wasn't a big deal to me, I prefer to mostly use gnome apps anyway. But it looks good, the font rendering and display control panel with resolution switching is sweet, it has all the latest n greatest development tools, and an up-to-date-enough Ximian Evolution that I didn't need to install Ximian RedCarpet - so I can update and manage the whole thing just with up2date instead of up2date + redcarpet.

I'm really pleased with it. There are just a few little things I need to fix from a default installation:

- add /sbin, usr/sbin, usr/local/sbin to every user's path, not just root,

- fix rc.sysinit to start the firewire drivers before attempting to mount /home (I keep my /home on an external firewire drive)

- Compile and install lame from source, and install the XMMS mp3 plugin for mp3 support...

- Install the real Java SDK and JRE from Sun.

And that's about it. Everything else just works fine.

I even paid for a subscription to the Red Hat Network.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[soloport]

Here! Here!

I really don't know what the big deal is all about. Have been running RH 8.0 since it was ISO-available. Haven't experienced a single problem -- and I use it on the KDE side.

Have heard some bad stories from others, but they seemed to be hardware-related issues, every time.

When I go from home (RH 8.0) to work (RH 7.3) I often wish I had the time to upgrade my workstation at work! (Yes, it's that much better.)

Your milage may vary...

Oh! And if you do use KDE (or want to play MP3s on XMMS, etc.), this really helps.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Nothinman]

The 2.2 kernel was chosen because 2.4 was considered too unstable for them.

But if you had read the docs you'd know that the 2.4 kernel is included as an option.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

real admins use ssh for everything ;)

Re:This is great-or is it?

[kasperd]

Redhat and suse both ship 9 month old hacked to deat kernels while debian has 2.4.19.

What is the difference? Surely RedHat has included a lot of the same patches that has went into 2.4.19. And IIRC RedHat 7.3 was released before 2.4.19, so they couldn't possibly have used anything newer than the 2.4.18 they picked from the stable series.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[ivan256]

Progeny is not the latest debian.

Also, the last two releases of debian have included both the 2.2 kernel and the 2.4 kernel. One of the two is the default and the other reqires some typing in to syslinux. The default is determined by which images you download.

Of course there's nothing current about an old release.

Re:This is great-or is it?

[ivan256]

What is the difference?

You managed to find the point. Debian is just as up-to-date as redhat and suse.

Quite impressive

[Lebannen]

I'm always impressed when relatively 'public' offerings such as Red Hat can turn a profit, really showing how important the business sector is. They may want free software, but they're more interested in low-cost software with some guarantee of support and an upgrade path. What I also found interesting was that those sale on advanced Server aren't actually sales - they're actually a subscription charge. 800-900 dollars for a year, product launched in May, and 1200 buyers (subscriptors?) by the third quarter - so that comes to just over $10,000,000 *if* they all pay a year's charges in advance. Not bad, and a revenue stream which will keep going year-over-year. Not bad at all. And I thought it was mainly online games charging subscriptions...

Re:Quite impressive

[KecCu]

Wheee, that's what billg must have thought too ...

IN SOVIET RUSSIA...

[corebreech]

they wear Red Hats, so I imagine all this talk about red hats turning black will cause great consternation.

Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA...

[Anonymous Coward]

you've somehow managed to mess up a SOVIET RUSSIA joke. now, my technicians tell me that even adolescent chimps can complete a SOVIET RUSSIA joke, so we're not sure what is wrong with you.

Missing zeroes

[KecCu]

According to the article, that should be $305,000 profit.

More important though, they will lower they prices:
"The average selling price of an Advanced Server subscription in the second and third quarters was $800 to $900 over a year, but it will decrease to $600 to $800 in the future, Red Hat said"

What I particularly like:
"overall gross margins were 66 percent"

Now there's a healthy company!

Re:Missing zeroes

[Anonymous Coward]

> According to the article, that should be $305,000 profit.

$300 grand == $300 000

Good news

[dipfan]

At last, someone gets to the 3. Profit!!! stage.

There's a better Reuters coverage of the subject here.

Re:Good news

[ajs]

So now we know what step 2 is!

"2. Fork gcc development for a major release"

:-)

Re:Good news

[dipfan]

If I could mod this up +1 Funny, I would.

Overvalued

[nuggz]

Redhat has 170 million shares outstanding.
A Market capitalization of 1 billion dollars.
$300k isn't going to cut it. (annually, quarterly, monthly or even weekly.)

Daily earnings of $300k would be decent.

1% profit on their sales is a little slim.

They've still got a way to go to justify their price

Re:Overvalued

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, an over-valued tech company? That must be due to Open Source, it never happens with more traditional firms considered profitable.

Re:Overvalued

[Anonymous Coward]

Fool. This is *profit*, not *revenue*. Jesus, the fact that idiots like you are "investors" (insert god-like reverence for the armies of capitalism here) is just sickening given the supposed powers over the economy you people are supposedly given.

Re:Overvalued

[sheldon]

Correct me if I'm not calculating this properly...

Ok, so let's say they can continue this out... $300 per quarter for 4 quarters. That's $1.2 Million in profits.

There are 170 Million shares outstanding. So that'd make their EPS about $.007... so less than 1 cent per share.

So then their Price to Earnings ratio would be about $6 divided by $.007 or 857.

Yeah, I'd say they are overvalued. :)

I suppose the appropriate response would be...

[TrollBridge]

"It's official, Red Hat is NOT dying".

Can the same be said for FreeBSD?

Re:I suppose the appropriate response would be...

[(startx)]

well, since FreeBSD isn't a publicly traded company I can't really speak for their profits, or lack thereof, but this shows that the second rc of FreeBSD 5.0 is due out today....

Good for them!

[Vengeance]

It's good to see a Linux and open source-based business model succeed.

Re:Good for them!

[ivan256]

Now we know that people are willing to pay $800 not to have to compile things (bad news for gentoo).

Turns out we had the whole business model idea wrong. Don't charge for support, charge for compilation!

OK, now that they are out of the red...

[tsvk]

...will they change their name to Black Hat?

Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[johnraphone]

Anyone notice the Redhat 7.3 prices vs 8.0 pricing?

Red Hat Linux 7.3 Personal - $59.95
Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal - $39.95 ($20 cheaper)

Red Hat Linux 7.3 Professional - $199.95
Red Hat Linux 8.0 Professional - $149.95 ($50 cheaper)

Redhat 8.0 is actually cheaper than 7.3. Its pretty interesting if they will end up making more money doing this.

Re:Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[gl4ss]

well, what you want as a company, that the users buy the older version(and by buying it buy support for it) and then call your support staff until they die and then magically drop the support and make people angry?

noo i'm not saying that one cough*ms* was doing anything like this but..(oem 98's are still sold at some places here!!cheap too..)

Re:Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[bbqBrain]

Alas, I was unable to find Red Hat 8.0 Personal locally. Granted, I didn't check more than a couple stores because I didn't have the time, but all I saw was Pro. I'm building a system for a friend of mine with Win XP and RH 8.0 and really wanted to send some money Red Hat's way for a fine product. Unfortunately, $150 was just too steep. :-( Instead, I picked up a $50 book that included the installation CDs. I hope some portion of that goes to Red Hat, but I doubt it.

Regarding the price decrease, I think it's definitely a good idea. A Win 2k -> Win XP Pro upgrade can be had for $200; it's important for RH8 Pro to beat that. The Win XP Home upgrade is $100, so $60 wasn't too bad, but hopefully the $20 drop will attract more people due to a more favorable perception of value.

As an aside, I always find it amusing to see the "included software" list on the retail Linux distro boxes. It's not bad stuff or anything, and I'm sure a large number of people like to have it all there right away, but the first thing I do with a new Linux installation is to download the latest Mozilla, OpenOffice, NetBeans, jEdit, etc. The boxed versions have to be tested with everything else in the distro, so they're often a minor revision or two behind the latest stable release for most packages. Of course, I typically install these in /opt on a separate partition, so reinstallation of the OS doesn't require anything but a PATH change (I like to use /opt/bin for symlinks to apps on that mountpoint). Beat that, Microsoft. :-)

Re:Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a smart move. I used to buy RedHat in retail stores when it was in the $29 dollar range, just because I wanted to support them plus I like getting the packaging.

When they bumped the price up to $59 is when I stopped buying from them and went through CheapBytes for about $6. When I saw they lowered it down to $39 for 8.0 I went to Comp USA and picked one up again. That's about as high as I'll for for "free" software and suspect that many other people probably have the same price point.

Smart move on their part. I'm real happy with 8.0 and thus far have gotten much more than my $39 out of it too!!

Warmest regards

Re:Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect you can thank Suse for this (ain't competition grand?)

Re:Red Hat Linux pricing: 7.3 vs. 8.0

[Anonymous Coward]

If you look at the financials, neither Personal
nor Pro make up significant portions of RedHat's
revenue: the bulk of it comes from corporate
sales of Advanced Server.

Bill

The only map ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... i was able to get a negative score in Q3 was Q3DM17.

Anonymous Coward was in the wrong place.

woo-fookin-hoo

[Anonymous Coward]

"We r makin teh bling$$$ 300K y0!!!1"

So, the Linux "market leader" brings home a profit of 300K. How big a company is RH? My co only has a few thousand employees and we bring home a few billion every year.

Why should we get excited about this? It's more like bad news than good.

Re:woo-fookin-hoo

[Anonymous Coward]

you are a big FAT liar. your company does not bring in a few billion a year in PROFIT. If it was it would be all over the news as "the only massively profitable company on the planet!" "invest in this one... run to invest in XYZ corp they are in the black with a few billion in profits this year! Gm is reporting losses, and so are every other company on the planet except for XYZ corp! with their few billion in profits this year!!!!

idiot.

so what about unitedlinux

[heymjo]

If Redhat is pushing (or wants to push) the linux community towards more standardisation, why don't they join the unitedlinux effort then ?
If suse, caldera, conectiva and openlinux can put aside their own goals for the sake of profitability errhm standardisation then Redhat should be willing to make this step as well.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[Anonymous Coward]

Because UL is a business partnership designed to compete with redhat.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[Tolleman]

I bet the unitedlinux thingie is just a way for the smaller dists to compete with redhat.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[noselasd]

Because they are not interrested ? They want people/companies to standarize on Redhat.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[teg]

If Redhat is pushing (or wants to push) the linux community towards more standardisation, why don't they join the unitedlinux effort then ?


The standardization effort is LSB. "UnitedLinux" is more of a marketing tactic from Suse than a standardization effort...


If suse, caldera, conectiva and openlinux can put aside their own goals

Two of these, caldera (openlinux is a product of them) and TurboLinux, are dead companies (as far as Linux development goes... their developers are gone). This isn't four companies pooling their efforts, this is SuSE desperately trying to counter Red Hat and signing up dead/severely hurting companies and give the impression of something more.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[Erik_]

And they are slowly succeeding. Red on Blue with IBM supporting the OS, Oracle databases on Red Hat. VMware's use of Red Hat as the Console OS for the VMware ESX Product. and ISS RealSecure network/server sensors on Red Hat.
If you are a great fan of Linux and want to applicate it to a business environment, Red Hat is the most 'corporate' oriented choise you can make.

Re:so what about unitedlinux

[HuguesT]

Yeah, who would have thought? How perceptive of you.

Red Hat's income, pertinent?

[Anonymous Coward]

looks like those prones have built a nice distro, makin some good money with their excellent software.

looks like their the last software co. to lock up the barb streisand collection.

boy, at least they have some girls working for them in the kernel dev. department. they have hot sexy little feet.

I guess...

[leomekenkamp]

I guess in the light of recent financial changes it might be more appropriate if they company would rename itself Black Hat?

Re:I guess...

[Anonymous Coward]

I love it how you added emphasis to the word black. As if to imply that you think that i'm so #$%^ing stupid, that I wouldn't have noticed it.

Fucking dickhead american.

GAAP has a long history

[tobywan]

The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) were not developed recently, and achieving compliance with the GAAP could not be considered any kind of special accomplishment for a new company, any more than would adherence to the laws of arithmetic.

Re:GAAP has a long history

[jaavaaguru]

Intel don't use GAAP then?

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

[Grizzlysmit]

It's the first time Red Hat has reported a profit using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), according to the company.

What you mean not telling lies like enron & others.

Re:Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a number of ways to measure profit. Many investors look at operating profit because it means that a company makes more money than it consumes, sunk costs aside. Under GAAP, profit is measured after depreciation of past expendatures and good will.

Profit margin misses the Point, Re:Overvalued

[seschmi]

Of course you are right about the overvaluation - the current market cap is in no ways appropiate.
But I disagree about the low profit margin - to judge about this, you need to know, which amount of revenues comes from products and which from services.
Products in the software industry tend to have fixed (development) costs, while production costs are marginal. That means, if you sell more, your profit may rocket as costs stay at the same level.
Services tend to have mostly variable costs (workforce), so higher revenues from services produce higher costs, too. So the profit margin may not rise if revenues from services grow.

Re:Profit margin misses the Point, Re:Overvalued

[nuggz]

They need to VASTY increase their sales to justify their market cap
But even if any sales generate 100% profit, they need to double their sales to justify their market cap.

Re:Profit margin misses the Point, Re:Overvalued

[msevior]

There is every reason to think a factor of two increase in sales is absolutely possible.

They have less than 1% of the desktop market but a reasonable chance of that rising by over a factor of 10 (to 10%) in a few years.

Linux use continues to grow expontially and they have the biggest concentration of linux talent anywhere.

Plus quarter on quarter growth of advanced server is around 50%! If that continues over a year or so so a factor two in revenue will be a piece of cake.

This is pretty damn good!

[wiredog]

$300k profit isn't tremendous but, considering that the third largest bankruptcy in US history has just been announced, it's not bad. Not bad at all.

Re:This is pretty damn good!

[Gooba42]

Has nobody in corporate America heard the phrase "You don't shit where you eat"? They will screw their own company, co-workers, employees and such, risk going to jail and paying fines in the millions because they want to feel extra special important and make some fraction of their insane income *more* in self-awarded bonuses?

cygwin

[gngulrajani]

I feel cygwin is
one of the best products in the RH stable.

the purchase of cygnus was a great move.

-greg

Jebus Fscking Chirstmas, time for a killing spree

[bogie]

You know how many times I heard these "Redhat is getting too big" comments since the 90's? Linux is free, GPL, and can't be "owned" by any vendor including Microsoft or Redhat. I'll tell you what I think on this...*?#!$@*!! up about it,and stop bringing it up!

Wooo

[Orne]

Oh boy!, $300,000... throw a parade. err, yay.

That's going to go real far against the $63,846,000 in losses that they've raked in in the last 4 financial quarters...

Re:Wooo

[socratic method]

$64mil in losses does NOT mean that they have $64mil in outstanding loans

That $64mil in losses is not so significant when you consider Red Hat's balance sheet. The company has far more than that in current assets (i.e., cash, cash equivalents, and short term investments). Going into the last quarter, Red Hat had $375mil in total assets and only $47mil in total liabilities.

SM

Re:Wooo

[Orne]

$113,383,000 of this was liquid assets, compared to $47 mil puts them at about 41% debt load. Not a good place to be, when normal industry worries when they're at 10-15% debt ratios.

Re:Wooo

[socratic method]

Worried about 10-15%? Get real. Look at MSFT:

Total liquid assets: $50bil
Total liabilities: $16.7bil

So, is MSFT "worried" about their whopping 33% "debt-load?" I think not.

Again, RHAT has a 41% liquid assets/liabilities ratio. MSFT is at 33%. Not a real big difference there.

Learn a little about corporate finances before making misleading doomsday postings about Red Hat's crushing debt.

SM

Recent Generally Accepted Accounting Principles?

[jesus_watkins]

... the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles at some companies.

Correctly if I'm wrong but the GAAP were developed weren't developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles, but the bulk of them were developed during the 60's and 70's. I can certainly remember being taught them 10 years ago when I did my degree.

This site seems to agree.

Unless these are some new US ones. Anyway it is nice to see a tech company doing well.

Naughty Taco XXX

[Anonymous Coward]

Cmdr. Taco gathered me as though I was a child and placed me on his lap. "Shhh," Cmdr. Taco whispered in my ear. His warm breath caused my skin to gooseflesh while Cmdr. Taco slowly rocked me. When my tears were finished, Cmdr. Taco asked, "All better, little one?" I nodded feeling emotionally spent. His lips nuzzled the hollow where his breath had teased. Lightly nipping and licking Cmdr. Taco whispered, "Shall we continue?" Without waiting for me to answer, Cmdr. Taco stood me up holding my forearms when I stumbled shakily. "Take off all of your clothes," Cmdr. Taco slowly inspected me from my swollen lips to torn blouse to thigh highs peeking from under my skirt. "You may leave the stockings on. They remind me of the whore that hid inside you before I made you my own--my sweet, little whore, all mine. So alone out here, with no one to worry about you being gone." Cmdr. Taco nodded his approval when I had the last of my clothes off. I blushed as his eyes touched over every curve and valley of my exposed body. I moved to cover myself, but Cmdr. Taco stopped me. "No! It is mine to look at, mine to use." His fingers ran lightly over my skin. Brushing the underside of my breasts first, then Cmdr. Taco cupped both in his hands. The pads of his thumbs circled my nipples until they hardened even more. A smile curved his lips, finally his right hand lowered and cupped my sex. His middle finger slid easily within my silken folds. "I think someone is enjoying our little game." His finger probed deeper. "Tell me how much you like it."

My tongue felt thick and useless. I could barely breath--thinking was beyond question. I rocked my hips up and back straddling his hand wantonly. I felt my juices seeping running down between his fingers and onto my quivering legs. I opened my mouth and tried to speak but no sound would come forth. My jaw moved woodenly. I nodded my head from side to side trying to explain.

"You dare to disobey me?" Cmdr. Taco asked in disbelief. Cmdr. Taco piled my clothes in my hands.

I was afraid that Cmdr. Taco would send me away for disappointing him. I pleaded with him with my eyes. I finally worked until, "Please" came out.

"Please, what whore?" Cmdr. Taco asked.

"Please, don't make me go." I whispered looking down unable to meet his eyes.

He looked startled for a moment and then laughed. "Let you go? Letting you leave here was the last thing on my mind. I wonder if you would beg to stay knowing what I plan on doing with you--to you?" His voice turned harsh. "Throw your clothes in the fire." I started to question then did as Cmdr. Taco asked. I watched as my clothes kindled and disappeared into ashes. "Do you realize what you have done?" Cmdr. Taco asked. I shook my head no. "The only way you can leave now is as you are." Cmdr. Taco looked up and down my naked body. "I think the town would be shocked to see you walk through town in the buff. Don't you agree? Our perfect little girl naked and wandering the streets, maybe I'll make you do that later. What would they think? Would they see you then as I do? A needy whore begging to be taken--to be possessed fully and completely. Reach down and tell me what you feel." Cmdr. Taco commanded.

I reached down quickly to obey. I needed to fill the need throbbing between my thighs. My palm slid through my sticky tight curls as my fingers brushed my clit than slid into my wetness. Riding the sensations, I watched his face. This man I didn't know, yet the man who knew everything about me.

"What do you feel?" Cmdr. Taco prompted me as though I was a child.

My hips moved of their own volition as I crammed my fingers in and out of my wetness. "I feel wet." I answered.

"What feels wet, my sweet?" Cmdr. Taco questioned.

"My pussy." I answered.

"All of it," Cmdr. Taco said watching my fingers disappear then reappear.

"My pussy feels so wet." I moaned.

"Why is your pussy so wet?" Cmdr. Taco asked pulling me towards him and pulling my fingers from my cunt.

I struggled for an answer. "I'm wet, because I like this."

He brought my fingers to his mouth and slowly sucked them one by one into his mouth thoroughly cleaning each one. His mouth opened and sucked the puddle of wetness in my palm. Cmdr. Taco reached up and pulled me towards him by my nipples. "Here now I taste like you. Taste yourself." My tongue met his, and Cmdr. Taco moved my fingers between our mouths. Our tongues traced my fingers and met in their seams licking each other. The changing textures, the smell of my pussy between us caused me to gush more. Cmdr. Taco moved my feet apart with his foot. Somehow seeing his shoes still on and taking in his fully clothed body made me feel even more naked. Cmdr. Taco ran his hands along the inside of my thighs, and I shivered my pleasure at his touch. I wanted him inside. I wanted him to touch my core. I needed to explode to release the pleasure Cmdr. Taco was building within me. His hands quickly became coated with my stickiness. Cmdr. Taco moved his hands over me, but never where I craved it most. "What makes you this wet?" Cmdr. Taco asked again.

"You do." I answered.

"Do you think flattery will get me to touch your clit, little one?" Cmdr. Taco chuckled.

"Please," I begged.

"Mmmmm, I do have a soft spot for begging, and you begged so prettily earlier." Cmdr. Taco pondered as if considering my request. My hips pressed forward seeking his touch. I had never been this wet before. I was steadily dripping now. My nipples ached; my pussy literally throbbed with need. "You, young lady are making a mess on my carpet."

"I'm sorry," I stammered.

"I think you shall have to be punished for making such a mess with that slutty little pussy of yours. What do you think?" Cmdr. Taco questioned.

"I'm sorry." I repeated. "I can't help it. I need it so much."

"Why do you think it is that you need it so much?" Cmdr. Taco pressed on.

"Because, I like it... because, I'm a dirty slut. I like the way you make me feel. Please touch me there." I begged.

"You are a bad girl. First making a mess on my good carpet, and then begging for me to touch you in such naughty places. You must be taught a lesson I'm afraid. Bend over my lap." Cmdr. Taco commanded.

I quickly hurried hoping Cmdr. Taco would make the throbbing need end. My breasts lay in front of his knee and my legs hung suspended in the air not quite touching the ground. His knees spread, and I felt helpless. His hand reached between my thighs and cupped my sex. I moaned my intense pleasure. "What do you want?" Cmdr. Taco asked.

"Please, please touch me." I implored.

"Touch you where? Cmdr. Taco asked.

"Touch my pussy, please." I begged biting my lip to keep from steadily begging and pleading for the touch I needed so badly.

"Good girl, you are learning. Tell me exactly what you want."

"I want your fingers inside me. I want you to rub my clit."

His hand rubbed over my dripping pussy then moved back to my ass smearing my juices over me. His hand dipped back down and coated once more. Cmdr. Taco rubbed my juices back and forth until my wetness covered me thoroughly. His finger finally sought my clit, and I all but screamed my joy. Cmdr. Taco laughed aloud at my eagerness. Cmdr. Taco circled my now distended clit then rubbed it roughly. His other hand rubbed soft circles on my backside, and then without warning smacked down sharply. I jerked crying out at the unexpected pain. His fingers circled my clit once more. His fingers plucked and twisted my clit as though it was a nipple. Then his wet hand came down once more. Cmdr. Taco slapped my bottom relentlessly. My flesh stung and burned. The wetness made the slaps ring out in the room. I whimpered torn between the peaking pleasure between my legs and the sting of my backside. I felt the walls of my pussy begin to tighten. "That's it my little slut," Cmdr. Taco urged on. "I know you would come like this." His fingers plunged in and out of my pussy as his other hand rained down on reddened behind. "Does it hurt, little one?"

"Yes," I whimpered.

"Do you want me to stop, little one?"

"No." I shook my head.

"Do you know what that means?" Cmdr. Taco asked never slowing his two hands--one sliding in and out, the other slapping up and down faster and faster.

Tears built in my eyes. "I like to be hurt." The blows became harder still my body moved up and back, my breasts swaying and slapping against his leg as Cmdr. Taco rammed roughly in and out of my body.

"Who's slut are you?" Cmdr. Taco asked.

"I'm your slut." I answered.

"What kind of slut are you?" Cmdr. Taco pushed on continuing his twin assault.

"I'm your little pain slut," I cried out as I came gushing even more.

"That's it baby, come hard for me," Cmdr. Taco coaxed running his fingers slowly now in and out coaxing me to come even more. As I lay quivering over his legs, Cmdr. Taco rubbed my bottom praising me. My pussy clenched and released convulsively. "You are so beautiful. You respond so fully." Cmdr. Taco lifted and turned me on his lap facing him. Cmdr. Taco slid his cock into me and held it there filling me. I felt so complete. I tightened around him stroking him without moving. Cmdr. Taco cupped my bottom in his hands and rocked me up and back running his cock in and out of me. Cmdr. Taco would completely fill me, and then withdraw leaving me feeling empty then filling me once more. We rocked slowly together. His mouth covered my neck then my jaw biting lightly. We kissed slowly the contrast from the earlier pell mell rush making it seem even more languid. Minutes stretched by, contended I laid my head on his chest as Cmdr. Taco unhurriedly fucked me. I felt myself building once more, and Cmdr. Taco felt it too. Cmdr. Taco pulled me tighter bouncing me up and down on his cock. Cmdr. Taco turned me and pushed my shoulders to the floor following me to the rug. His hand road the small of my back as my elbows rested on the carpet, and my ass turned up into the air. Cmdr. Taco hesitated a moment looking at my upturned ass before plunging into my pussy. "I'll save your ass for later." Cmdr. Taco promised. The thought of having his cock, any cock in my virgin ass sent me over the edge, and I came. Cmdr. Taco never slowed his pace, but continued to pound relentlessly into my gaping pussy. As I struggled to breath, Cmdr. Taco fucked me without restraint. His cock slammed into me; his balls slapped out a rhythm. Cmdr. Taco no longer spoke, but moaned and groaned his enjoyment. My elbows slipped beneath me, and my face lay pressed onto the rug. My nipples drug up and back on the carpet. The teasing pleasure quickly became pain as my sensitive nipples rubbed faster back and forth. My nipples burnt and stung. My elbows were rug burnt halfway to my forearm. When Cmdr. Taco came, I felt the hot wet splash of his come inside me, and it set off another wave of pleasure. Cmdr. Taco drew out and rubbed the sticky remains of his come on my asshole. "Later." Cmdr. Taco promised watching the gobs of come run along the crack of my ass. I lay gasping on the rug feeling thoroughly used. Cmdr. Taco ran his finger along the crack of my ass. "You are just so tempting, little one. Your mouth was so eager; your pussy was so wet, so hot, and now that sweet little ass of your is calling to me. Do you want to be my three hole girl?"

He sat on the floor and leaned back on the sofa. "Come here, little one." Cmdr. Taco beckoned. I turned and crawled towards him. "Take off my shoes." Cmdr. Taco ordered. I turned my ass towards him once more and untied his shoes and pulled them from his feet. His socks followed. I felt his hand on my ass and tensed as his finger slid down my crack and circled my asshole. I clenched without meaning to, and Cmdr. Taco sighed. Cmdr. Taco lifted and slid his pants and underwear down and off. Cmdr. Taco pulled me back towards his lap by the hair. I lay curled between his legs, my head resting on his thigh while Cmdr. Taco slowly stroked my hair. My face was inches from his cock, and I watched fascinated as his cock twitched and more come slowly trickled down the bulbous darkened head. My tongue involuntarily jutted across my lips as I thought of tasting his come. My action didn't go unmissed. "I'd hate to disappoint a lady." Cmdr. Taco said sneering on the word lady. Cmdr. Taco grabbed a handful of my hair. I watched as another glob dropped from his head and fell into the dark matted hair at the base of his penis. His rough jerk reminded me to pay attention to him, and I quickly moved where Cmdr. Taco directed. Cmdr. Taco violently towed my head upward. Staring directly into my eyes, Cmdr. Taco threatened, "Keep that cat tongue in your mouth, or I will teach you what real pain is about." I nodded my compliance. "Say it!" Cmdr. Taco ground out impatiently.

"I'll...I'll keep my little cat tongue in my mouth." I promised.

"Yes, you will." Cmdr. Taco nodded. Instead of the licking and lapping up of used come that I craved, Cmdr. Taco held my head firmly between his hands and rubbed my face in the gooey remains of our release. The quickly cooling come coated my entire face. Cmdr. Taco dragged first one cheek then the other through the puddle of sperm. Then face first, up and down his spent cock. I felt it begin to harden beneath me. The temptation to open my mouth--to taste was so great that I clenched me jaw against it. More than the threatened pain, I didn't want to displease Cmdr. Taco. I wanted to please him more than I wanted to gratify my longing for come. I felt his seed spread through my eyebrows and eyelashes and begin to stiffen as it dried. The smell of his arousal was overwhelming, and I felt the familiar tightening in my body begin. When Cmdr. Taco was finally finished, Cmdr. Taco lifted me up into his arms. Cmdr. Taco smiled his satisfaction. "You look pretty covered in my come. I'll always remember you this way."

cooked books at RH

[Anonymous Coward]

Those clowns at RH have been cooking their books for years. Ex-PWC jerkoffs (nothing against PWC, mind you) and Greylock sugar-coaters. It's all a house of cards inside.

products vs. services

[MadFarmAnimalz]

Red Hat said about 70 percent of its revenue comes from direct sales of products to its customers, but over time, it expects 65 percent to 70 percent of sales to come through indirect sales channels such as its partnerships with IBM, Oracle, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Hmm. So either way, 65 to 70% of the revenue is coming from shipping products; I find that interesting in light of the fact that RedHat appears to me to be uniquely positioned to be the biggest player in the support arena; this must surely be the cash cow par excellence?

How about an Ask Slashdot session with a RedHat exec?

Re:products vs. services

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, RH Advanced Server really is a support package in a shinkwrapped box, which is why it costs $800-$2500 for the same stuff that you can get for $0-$50

They're doing better than McDonald's...

[rmayes100]

McDonald's posts its first quarterly loss ever.

Re:They're doing better than McDonald's...

[Thatmushroom]

So does this mean that people are eating less and sitting at a computer more?

Just wait until people sue RedHat because they're making people obese.

Quarterly Earnings are Overvalued

[Cujo]

Quarterly earnings are at best a snapshot and are hugely overemphasized. This latest is really just breaking even and change. Still, Redhat is not bleeding cash like many other companies in similar markets. I think their long term prospects are respectable.

They're trading at around $6.55 this morning. The prospects for a quick killing at that price are poor, but haven't we all learned our lesson?

Not to nitpick

[pbur]

But the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (also known as GAAP) have been around for a LONG time. Not just since the recent accounting problems showed their face as the poster implies.

Congrats RedHat, continue ignoring naysayers

[Ars-Fartsica]

In a down economy, particularly in the gutted software market, RedHat's move to profitability is a great sign.

This company has combined great a great technical staff with the ability to market and profit from products that differentiate them. I have not had any experience with the Advanced Server product, but as a RH8.0 user, I can say that the product is showing great improvements.

The linux market will not support a "Microsoft of linux" if that is your fear, the market for distros is very liquid, in fact, almost infinitely liquid. RedHat will only survive by providing true value above and beyond the hundred or so other distros that happen to be marketed at any given time, most of which are solid products in their own right.

What's the difference...

[Fnkmaster]

between Red Hat's first profitable quarter and an evil hacker who's girlfriend is on the rag?

One is a Red Hat in the black, and the other is a black hat in the red.

Ba-doom-ching!

Re:What's the difference...

[Fnkmaster]

Okay, okay, ouch, ouch, you don't think I'm funny, but no need to mod-slam me for fuck's sake!

THANK YOU.

[Ars-Fartsica]

The anti-Red Hat rants on this site are utterly baseless and sophomoric. If Red Hat were to exit the market, a significant force for the advancement of linux would vanish. Thank you for your post.

Re:THANK YOU.

[Anonymous Coward]

I concur wholeheartedly. I've always found their distributions to be professional and complete. Their admin tools are also functional and easy to use. I was much less happy with Mandrake when I tried that, especially with the package manager.

Go RedHat!

Profit?

[NetJunkie]

Is this real profit or like when they "broke even" a while back and it was a lot of funny accounting?

True, but potential market is enormous

[Ars-Fartsica]

I agree with you 100% about valuations, and if you read my journal, you will see at least twenty long rants about market valuations being out of whack.

That said, RH is potentially addressing a gigantic market. Even if 20% of Solaris and Win2k installs migrate to RedHat, thats in incredible jump in the number of installed cusomters with credible purchasing power.

I would confidently place RH in the same league as some biotechs in terms of market potential.

Generally-accepted accting principles not recent

[jlusk4]

I don't think the generally-accepted accounting principles are a recent development. Just because *you* only heard about it recently doesn't make it recent.

Companies advertising their adherence to the GAA might be recent. I would have hoped RedHat had always been adhering to the GAA, but I do remember their IPO and the fact that their stock price peaked at an outrageous value before dropping back to ~$10.

I also remember some major underwriting house (First Boston Credit Suisse or some such?) admitting to high-tech IPO hanky-panky some months ago.

GAAP

[covertlaw]

That's funny, I seem to remember learning the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles when I took Accounting I five years ago. And I remember my professor said that she learned them fifteen years before that. So what is this recently developed crap all about?

Maybe recently embraced by those who weren't following them, but not recently developed.

Of course, anyone who can get people to invest in them when they've never posted a profit and never will, like the dot-bombs and Sprint PCS, is a pure genius.

Re:GAAP

[Anonymous Coward]

> anyone who can get people to invest in them when
> they've never posted a profit and never will,
> like the dot-bombs and Sprint PCS, is a pure
> genius

It does not take a genius to take money away from stupid people.

The "market" usually follows "trends" and back then technology was the most popular. Redhat wasn't a fly-by-night operation that was created and then IPO'ed to take advantage of the silly forecasts by the analysts and the willingness of the investors to buy into those predictions.

Re:GAAP

[Anonymous Coward]

While many have noted that GAAP has been around for some time companies have also begun to write options *against* income as an expense, no longer as a footnote that you have to really dig to get at. The point is that options are now a subtraction from income, since they do go directly against company earnings.

Insiders are all selling...

[cheewahwah]

http://us.biz.yahoo.com/t/r/rhat.html

not a good sign...

PREPUBESCENT CHIMP [n/t]

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Insiders are all selling... microsoft too

[Anonymous Coward]

and so is microsoft

Re:Insiders... Especially Bill Gates

[Anonymous Coward]

see here

Advance Server

[Anonymous Coward]

Can one download the RH Advance Server for free?
How?

Big frickin' deal

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as Red Hat is dependent on trying to sell open/free software for a significant part of their income, they'll never be decently profitable.

I'm glad to see them in the black, and I hope they're around for a long time (if only to piss off the nut jobs in the OSS community who think all profitable companies are evil), but I'm convinced RH is very close to the glass ceiling of growth and profitability, at least with their current product mix.

Re:Big frickin' deal

[Future Shock]

Red Hat and the other distros don't really sell software - they should almost be considered service companies. Red Hat sales are actually "subscriptions" to their support services (which includes bug fixes, thus blurring the line between being a software company and a service company). Having worked in the Big 6 for 7 years, I can assure you that there is tremendous upside for software services businesses - it all depends upon how much RH decides to diversify someday from being just a distro provider...they could easily branch into systems implementations around Linux systems, et al.

Time warp?

[Platinum Dragon]

RH says they're now following the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles at some companies.

GAAP?

I learned about GAAP in grade 11 accounting. That was over seven years ago.

Nice to see major corporations are finally catching up to public school classes.

Re:Time warp?

[Anonymous Coward]

GAAP has changed since then. Accountants in school today are taught different standards than their predecesors, and tomorrow's accountants will follow yet different principles.

You must have missed that in 11th grade.

WTF???

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you moderators on crack, if there were ever an offtopic post, it's a blank one.
Please mod down parent post, as it is content free.

What happens if

[filmcritic]

IBM quits giving money to them? Or any other large company that hands cash to them because they want the tax writeoff? I'd bet there wouldn't be a profit, but rather a huge deficit. Good God, everyone knows you can't give something away and expect to make a profit. Be honest, how many boxes of RH REALLY have been sold? Not enough to cover Alan Cox's salary (I'm quite sure it is massive). Why? Because the software is given away and also sold for $5 a disc. Can't make profit like that. Now Microsoft knows how to make money, RH should look at their model to see how a successful company is run. Be honest, you know it's true.

Re:What happens if

[Anonymous Coward]

Be honest, Your a moron. You don't have a clue.
you know it's true.

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

[securitas]

"RH says they're now following the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles at some companies."

When I last checked GAAP-based accounting has been around since the 1930s although they were not known by that name. In the USA, FASB is reponsible for establishing US GAAP. If Red Hat previously chose not to follow these standards and cook their books instead, we should hardly applaud them for finally doing what they should have done all along... especially now that deceptive accounting practices are no longer in fashion in the corporate world.

From the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants:
Between 1938 and 1959, the AICPA's Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) issued fifty-one authoritative pronouncements known as Accounting Research Bulletins that formed the basis of what became known as generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. In 1959, the CAP was replaced by another part-time body, the Accounting Principles Board (APB), which during the next fourteen years issued thirty-one new standards.

From the Financial Accounting Standards Board:
Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports.

Re:GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

[WhyDoubt]

I know several people have mentioned GAAP already. I know it has been around for ages because I have family that has worked with it for many years.

But the posts I have read do not mention that GAAP is just one method of accounting. The article mentions that this is the first year Red Hat has reported a profit using GAAP.

Although I believe what they are saying is that they have previously reported a loss using GAAP, they may also be saying that they have previously reported a profit using other methods.

I do not know where the original poster got the idea that GAAP is something new.

Didnt' know GAAP was so new.

[althalus]

"Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, developed in the wake of recent accounting troubles at some companies"

Gee, so are those different than the GAAP rules that I learned in college? or different than the rules, going by the same name, that have existed in the US for many years. (International accounting has different rules, as well as each country)

this proves..

[trybywrench]

that you can make money with Linux and with open source.

I'm at work and on a Redhat 7.3 box and I got Redhat 8.0 workstations directly behind me and all my servers run Redhat. I have 10 remote locations connected by Redhat gateways running FreeSwan. Everything is very stable ( I can tell how long I've worked here by the uptime on the file servers ) Thanks Redhat your success is well earned and for real.

Re:Insiders are all selling... microsoft too

[tchristney]

Holy Crap!

Bill Gates sold (by my rough count) 114,000,000 shares. That is some serious conversion of stocks to cash! Depending on share price that is worth a minimum of $4.5 billion and a maximum of $8 billion.

Red Hat

[Anonymous Coward]

Soon as I saw the story on the front page I knew what awaited inside. Hundreds of posts from zitty geeks trying to be punker-than-thou by coming up with ever-more-obscure namedropping to make up for their lack of real style (or to pretend that they are actually old enough to have been involved). Drop the pretension kiddos. We all know that your Blink 182 CD is older than your copy of Bollocks.

I love how a whole new level of conformity has been created by the average bozo's efforts at individuality. It might almost work if your personal definition of individuality didn't depend so heavily on how you present yourself to others. I mean, what's the sense of being into bullshit like [insert pseudo-non-mainstream hobby here] if you can't talk about it to make yourself superior to your peers?

Kinda sounds like the Linux crowd, huh? "I'm so ALTERNATIVE by patching my kernel every day while you brainwashed Windows sheep meander in unenlightened tedium." Funny to think that if you had back all the time you spent tweaking and patching (for no good reason other than to say you have the latest version), you wouldn't know what to do with the workstation on your desk.

*sigh*

excuse the rant. caffiene has yet to be digested.

Re:This is great-or is it? Yes, Bluecurve is nice!

[bruceg]

I agree. For the first time, many system configuration files are in one spot, which is a big plus for new users (If you don't like it, you can always use vi, like I still do). Each RH release keeps getting better. I also really enjoy Bluecureve - it melts the gnome2 and kde3 worlds together, in a concise way. Now if we could get the old gtk 1.x apps to look like bluecurve, the user wouldn't notice any difference.

To all those naysayers about RH and Bluecurve: This is still Linux under the hood - dig in, and customize to your hearts content! Isn't that why you are using linux in the first place?

I don't think it is such a sure thing

[nuggz]

Quarter on quarter growth of 50%, for 2 quarters after a new product.
I don't think that will continue for a year or so, you're suggesting 500% in the next year (1.5^4)

Linux use is growing, but that isn't all Redhat, and that isn't all Advance server either.

I think there will be growth, lots in subscriptions and valuable service, but I don't see Redhat growing profit by 100x in the next few years.

I do think that they are doing better, and will probaly be somewhat successful, just not what hteir market cap suggests.

Were you paying attention...

[theblacksun]

...to the dude's story? Red Hat is making its money selling to big buisiness. Same way Oracle does. Same way a lot of companies do. The desktop market the not only one out there.

only 12000 copies?

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, that's pretty damned low unit sales considering that linux supposedly runs what, 45% of the web servers on the market. My pitiful little company sold more than 12,000 copies of our product and you don't see a slashdot story about it.

Of course, the reward for the sales this year was having the entire staff laid off so management can take the IP and form a new company, so who am I to judge.

Cash vs. revinue?!

[autopr0n]

The company predicted net income of $1.3 million to $2.5 million for the current quarter, which runs through February. Revenue should be between $26.5 million and $27.5 million. Cash generated from operations should increase to between $2 million and $3 million.

So... where does the other 25 million come from?

Re:Cash vs. revinue?!

[Arrgh]

Cash is money in the bank, the "wettest" of all liquid assets. They spend the rest of their revenue on operations.

Excellent!

[spoons67]

No matter how slim a profit may be, there are tons of large, reputable companies out there that are
losing money. Breaking even is good, a profit is merely icing on the cake, and hopfully a sign
of things to come.

On a related note, RedHat's stock is down today. As a shareholder, I'm interested to know why it would
drop on good news. Any ideas?

Negligible

[Brett Glass]

$300K is noise to any company with as many employees as Red Hat. It's a negligible profit that would be easy to create ex nilhilo, merely by making perfectly permissible accounting decisions (which companies are allowed to make under GAAP).

Alas, Red Hat still attempts to sell copies of GPLed, rather than commercial, software, and so will never be able to gain a true market edge over competitors. Not a horse to bet on if you're a betting man, IMHO.

"...suse, caldera, conectiva and openlinux..."

[Alethes]

None of these companies have the best track record for contributing to the community -- unlike Redhat. No, I'm not a Redhat fan, but they're much better than the those slimeballs.

Possible GPL violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is important.... if we can't download it then it is against the GPL.

Re:Possible GPL violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can they run away with this? Who do we turn to?

Re:Anyone notice..

[Karn]

Out of curiosity, what's so bad about not making billions of dollars off of people? Non profit organizations do this all the time.

So people won't become rich from buying Redhat's stock, that doesn't mean the company can't create good GPL software, create some new jobs, and make a few extra dollars at the end..

Re:Anyone notice..

[Anonymous Coward]

Out of curiosity, what's so bad about not making billions of dollars off of people? Non profit organizations do this all the time.

So people won't become rich from buying Redhat's stock, that doesn't mean the company can't create good GPL software, create some new jobs, and make a few extra dollars at the end..

You can control without ownership

[melonman]

Yes, all that is true, but, in practice, to the extent that Redhat becomes the de facto standard for professional use, they have a certain amount of control. If 3rd party binaries have more chance of working (ever tried installing random rpms with Suse?), Linux staff have RH-flavoured skills and the bookstores sell RH-flavoured guides, you are close to 'no-one ever got fired for running Redhat'. Sure, you can fork, or install Debian, or something, but most commercial users want some sort of road map.

Personally, I'm rooting for Redhat all the way. A bit less variety in the Linux world would make for a less exciting but more productive life.

Market Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

And to think that this dog of a company was once valued at around $25 billion. At least now that it's earning a profit (for this quarter anyway), it will have a non-infinite P/E ratio.

Anyone remember a certain airline ticket company in the dot com era which had a higher market cap than the top 3 airlines combined?

Which reminds me... I think it's a good time to put in a phone call to that VC I've been meaning to get back to.

GUAP

[Anonymous Coward]

Unspinning the marketing web, what they really mean to say is that they are no longer using Generally Unacceptable Accounting Procedures.

McDonald's - Offtopic, don't shoot me!

[ogre2112]

I really don't see how McDonald's can make money. Their food is horrible!

Personally, if there is a Burger King within 100 miles of a McDonald's, I'll be eating flame broiled that night . .

Re:McDonald's - Offtopic, don't shoot me!

[Troy H Parker]

Tell me about it, if you can buy a GOOD BURGER at BK, why on EARTH would you go to McDonalds?!

I just dont understand why Burger King didn't become the "Taco Bell" like in Terminator2.

Re:McDonald's - Offtopic, don't shoot me!

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia,

Stand in line for toilet paper,

GET FREE CHEESEBURGER

Re:McDonald's - Offtopic, don't shoot me!

[JVert]

Yea, this is a score 2 for sure, maybe it will make it to 5. But me? nah i'm a troll.

Moderators suck.
Moderators suck.
Moderators suck.

Last Post!

[alpg]

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