[samarudge]

RedHat loves CentOS. To quote their CEO

> CentOS is one of the reasons that the RHEL ecosystem is the default. It helps to give us an ubiquity that RHEL might otherwise not have if we forced everyone to pay to use Linux. So, in a micro sense we lose some revenue, but in a broader sense, CentOS plays a very valuable role in helping to make Red Hat the de facto Linux.[0]

[0]http://readwrite.com/2013/08/13/red-hat-ceo-centos-open-sour...

[toomuchtodo]

Somewhat why Adobe didn't care if you pirated Photoshop. If you weren't making money with it, they'd rather you know it than something else (maybe gimp?). Having mindshare (uggh, I hate that word) definitely helps when it comes time to get the credit card out for tools you'll need for a paying project.