Is it time to give Red Hat some respect?

It don't get no respect. We talk here a lot about Microsoft and Novell, about Sun and IBM. Red Hat just keeps plugging away.

Red Hat reported a 64% rise in profits yesterday. Revenues were up 28%. Business Week called it a "surge." I think they meant that as a compliment.

But the stock can't seem to get out of its own way. JMP Securities rates it a "market perform." RBC Capital Markets calls it a "sector perform." If you put $100 into both Red Hat and Microsoft at the start of the year, your Microsoft is doing better. Your Red Hat is worth $85.

While open source is considered a very sexy business, Red Hat does not do sexy. They sell Linux subscriptions to businesses. Their efforts to diversify have been only minimally successful. Slow growth at JBOSS has S&P rating Red Hat as only a "hold." Can it do better with Metamatrix?

This may be the most inconvenient truth. Maybe enterprise open source is no sexier than enterprise anything else. Selling stuff to big businesses will get your kids through school, but it won't get you on the Most Beautiful People list.

But if we wanted to do that we would have gone into the drama club, or majored in TV at journalism school.

So is it time to give Red Hat some respect?[poll id=53]