how do the distributor get profit
 

hi,

i still do not clearly understand about linux and open source.
as what i know, everyone who had changed or rebuilt the opensource, then it must distribute that new package freely to public, but why some distributor who selling the product such as the redhat 8 (professional version). how could they do that? is there could be any profit for the distributor ather than that?

Support. They sell the support.

oooo... ic . that's meants if there is no one who want to buy the product which came with the support, then they will having financial problme. is that correct?

one more thing taht you (gauge73) did not tell me, how could they did not distribut some product, but they only sell it. isn't that againt the GNU rules?

No, it's not against the rules.

For everything you modify, you must make those modifications available. That can simply be as a directory full of .patch files, you're not obliged to release easy-to-install binaries or anything. Some Linux vendors extend Linux with their own, proprietary software. For instance, Xandros and SuSE do this. Redhat release all their own software under the GPL, but they don't actually have to.

So, for example you have to pay for Xandros. If you download it for free, you're warezing it and will be spat upon by all ;) This is allowed, because any modifications Xandros made to KDE, the kernel, whatever are available for public download as patches or have been contributed back to the authors, but what Xandros actually sell is the "integrated whole" - they're not obliged to give the easy-to-use ISOs away for free, even though the individual components are available as such.

Redhat and some other distros (ie debian, gentoo etc) are freely distributable by anybody. Redhat make money by selling support and services. "Support" in this context is not tech support for you and me, it's corporate level 24/7 support and services. They make a lot of money doing this as well - the software is free, but that's not good enough for corps, they need support also.

So, there are many ways to make money out of free software.

Mhearn is very correct, that's what I wanted to say, but in a way that I couldn't say. Props to him.

Thanks mhearn,

you had make it verry clear to me. thanks gos there is so many generous people in this world. i love those open source software. one thing that impressed me is how could some of those people spent so much time and effort to so a world a favor. they dont got material return such as money for their effort.

it is lucky to have those people, because not all of us could affort to have those expensive software like windows.