Redhat is a bad example, they are focusing on a small niche market, that unfortunately for them, is comprised of technically inclined individuals who can and do choose the fork they want. If you are looking for potential candidates to reach the big B, Mozilla (Yes non-profit, but 76 million in revenue in 08 to me is a success of open source.) or Canonical will most likely be the first Billion dollar open source company. They unlike Redhat, are aiming at main street and are succeeding with 10 million plus users. If they can capture even a portion of the savings the open source os gave to the users, think apps, music, video downloads, advertising, etc.. they could easily surpass the Billion mark, it will just take time, and a bit of innovation. The success of open source is in the quality of the product. If you run a server that makes money by the second, you run LINUX or you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
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Redhat is a bad example, they are focusing on a small niche market, that unfortunately for them, is comprised of technically inclined individuals who can and do choose the fork they want. If you are looking for potential candidates to reach the big B, Mozilla (Yes non-profit, but 76 million in revenue in 08 to me is a success of open source.) or Canonical will most likely be the first Billion dollar open source company. They unlike Redhat, are aiming at main street and are succeeding with 10 million plus users. If they can capture even a portion of the savings the open source os gave to the users, think apps, music, video downloads, advertising, etc.. they could easily surpass the Billion mark, it will just take time, and a bit of innovation. The success of open source is in the quality of the product. If you run a server that makes money by the second, you run LINUX or you are leaving a lot of money on the table.