Dowbrigade

Shares
of Red
Hat Inc. , the world’s biggest distributor of the free Linux computer-operating
system, rose nearly 18 percent yesterday after
the company forecast that sales this quarter would exceed forecasts.

"Red Hat is the only direct way for investors to take advantage
of the significant promise of Linux," according to Katherine Egbert,
an analyst with C.E. Unterberg Towbin. The quarter’s results "prove,
for the first time, that a profitable, cash-generating business can be
built around open-source software."

Red Hat’s stock rose $1.48, or 17.62 percent, to $9.88 a share.

from
the New York Times