Red Hat profits from open source

Open source software provider Red Hat has seen a sharp rise in year-on-year second-quarter profits. This is due to increased revenue from its Linux operating system subscriptions, reports VNUNet.com.

Its total revenue for the quarter was $127.3 million, up 28% on last year and 7% on the previous quarter. Income also rose by $2 million to $18.2 million.

Red Hat customers pay for support and additional functions rather than for the basic operating system software itself.

Pramar, an open source RFID software company, has released Rifidi Designer, says Earthtimes.

Built in collaboration with the University of Arkansas and other RFID organisations, Rifidi Designer marks the first product providing an end-to-end solution for building and simulating RFID business processes.

Rifidi Designer is a design and modelling product that enables the creation of a simulated RFID infrastructure. It allows users to design a real-world view of their business process and 'virtualise' the critical RFID components.

IT security professionals have an almost equal preference for deploying open source or commercial software, according to research by security firm Barracuda Networks, reports VNUNet.

A survey revealed that 53% of security managers would deploy open source software, compared to 47% who would deploy commercial software in their organisations for similar functionality.

Some 80% of respondents cited pricing as the top reason for adopting open source software over commercial software.