A recent New York Times MarketWatch article highlights the recent revenue gains of open-source software company Red Hat, Inc (NYSE: RHT). While many companies sell licenses to use their software, Red Hat has a slightly different approach. So what does Red Hat sell you ask? They sell service and subscriptions. They haven't overlooked the most important resource in a service-oriented economy (their own employees).

According to the same article, "Total revenue for the quarter was $141.5 million, an increase of 27% from the year ago quarter and 5% from the prior quarter...For the full year, total revenue was $523.0 million, an increase of 31% over fiscal 2007 revenue..." For last year (2007), Red Hat was listed as having a net income of $59.9M.

When defining a business model, placing emphasis on the service of an open-source software product should not be overlooked.