Red Hat has ceased supporting retail customers in order to focus on enterprise customers. For enterprise Linux, Red Hat charges $179 per system. How does Red Hat explain this price?
From Red Hat's FAQ (with thanks to my colleague Bruce Wolk for the pointer):
Q: You mentioned licensing what does this mean? I thought Linux was free.
A: Except for a few components provided by third parties (for example, Java) all the code in Red Hat products is open source and licensed under the GPL (or a similar license, such as the LGPL). So you always have free access to the source code. In fact you can download the source code from our FTP servers at any time. However, Red Hat does not provide free access to the binaries of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and these, combined with an annual subscription to Red Hat Network, access to upgrades, and a selected support service, are the components that comprise Enterprise Linux subscription. Since every Enteprise Linux product includes support for the system on which it is installed, Red Hat supplies the products with a per-system usage/support agreement. This simple model ensures that systems which use Red Hat Enterprise Linux are able to access the maintenance, services and product upgrades to which they are entitled. Of course, as mentioned before, this has no impact on your access to the RHEL source code.
Any thoughts? Can Red Hat charge for binaries consistent with the GPL?