A week after Novell ousted its chief executive, Red Hat reported earning that exceeded analyst expectations.

The Linux vendor reported sales of $84m and net income of $13.8. Revenues from subscriptions (read: support contracts) increased by 45 per cent year-over-year.

29 Jun 2006

The summary: Red Hat is firing on all cylinders. It's business model is working and customers are saying that the services are worth paying for – even if anyone can download the software free of charge. (Disclaimer: you'd have to manually compile the official Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but Fedora is available for free).

Novell meanwhile is faced with declining earnings as its legacy Netware software is becoming ever more legacy. It's Linux business meanwhile is failing to attract the same level of attention and developer excitement that Red Hat is getting.

Netware might be bringing in the cash, but its increasingly looking like a distraction. Why not sell it to Computer Associates – company that is known for milking outdated software products - and use the money to become a truly open source company?

Photo: adam stevens

Tags: novell, red hat, linux, netware