How Does Linux Get Money?

Linux companies like RedHat and Canonical, the company behind the incredibly popular Ubuntu Linux distro, also make much of their money from professional support services as well. If you think about it, software used to be a one-time sale (with some upgrades), but professional services are an ongoing annuity.

Who pays for Linux?

During the period of this most recent 2016 report, the top contributing companies to the Linux kernel were Intel (12.9 percent), Red Hat (8 percent), Linaro (4 percent), Samsung (3.9 percent), SUSE (3.2 percent), and IBM (2.7 percent).

Is Linux paid?

There’s also a big cost difference between deploying Linux and Windows: Linux itself is free, so it’s the distributor’s support that you’ll pay for. And, yes, you will want to do that. The price for proper enterprise-ready support still makes Linux desktop a much less expensive option.