“Red Hat/Linux: Bill Gates worries his Microsoft empire could be
toppled by the next ‘big idea’ hatched in a garage. Or, perhaps, in
a college dorm.
Meet Linus Torvalds. As a 21-year-old student in Finland, he
dreamed up Linux, an alternative operating system for personal
computers. And unlike Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating
system, you can get it free of charge from a company called Red
Hat.
So how do they make money from a free product? And why does the
number of Linux users keep doubling every year?”