Is linux free

Hi,

I thought Linux is free of cost. You can freely copy the installation cds, distribute with your friends, download from the net, etc. But since last one year (or maybe earlier, I might not have noticed), I am seeing that most major distros are now pay-ware. And it isnt really cheap to buy Linux.

How is Redhat , Suse and Mandrake different from Microsoft when they sell public code (GNU, kernel). Atleast the MS guys write some of their own code, some outsourced, and most of it comes from their previous version of the software. :-)

What the linux vendors are doing is just lifting the public open source code, compiling it and selling it. In fact I believe they are worse than MS. The so called free Fedora is riddled with bugs and it is an untested beta released for free testing by the public. Redhat then picks up the tested code from Fedora and sells it in their "enterprise edition".

I think they are shooting themselves in the foot by doing all this.

I was following linux for quite some time, and I had installed Redhat 7 Linux on my old P3 machine. I was happy to see linux growing. But this linux selling business has left be disillusioned.

Before you put me in the line of fire(I have seen anti Linux people shredded to bits in other forums :) ), I must say that I am not saying all this just for the sake of saying something, but isnt something very wrong here.