For Sale: Free Operating System (NYT 1998)

URHAM, N.C. — In an experiment that is half business model and half populist movement, a small company called Red Hat Software is charging $50 for an operating system called Linux that anyone can get free on the Internet, and it is paying programmers decent wages to write code that it will give away. Such support, particularly from Intel, whose close ties to Microsoft have recently shown signs of fraying, would lend considerable credibility both to Linux and to Red Hat’s plans to build a business by providing customer service and technical support for the free operating system. That is why the emergence of companies like Red Hat and Caldera Systems Inc. — a Linux distributor with a business plan based on corporate training, services and support — is considered crucial to the success of the free operating system.

Source: archive.nytimes.com