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The reason that a Linux distribution is "free" is that many of the pieces of software it includes are covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL for short). There are two different types of "free": freedom to see and modify the source code ("libre") free of charge ("gratis") The GPL is about the first "freedom", not the second. Provided Red Hat ...

Copyrighted means there is a copyright and license protecting that. The license in the case of the Linux kernel is GPL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html). In a nutshell, you are allowed to modify the code in any way you wish. However, if you republish your modified code, you have to license it GPL and keep the credit to the original authors. Also, if ...

A lot of what RedHat charges for is actually the support and services around the OS itself. They have their own specific config and build, but any Linux provider has that. The real reason RedHat can charge is that their support services are appropriate at enterprise level. Their market space includes corporates and large organisations whose need for ...

Is anyone allowed to share modified program using same name? It depends; the GPL doesn't really specify that, since names aren't copyrighted. They are, however, obligated to clearly state it's not the same: The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date. To control the name itself, you need a ...

To be a bit more specific, Red Hat does freely provide the source RPMs used to build the binary version of their distribution (the base ISO, updates, etc). You can grab all the SRPMs and build them, and you will essentially have RHEL. There are a number of projects that do just this (with some rebranding), notable CentOS, Scientific Linux, White Box, etc. ...