You're neither. You're not a part of their business model at all.
Your relationship with Red Hat is very different from your relationship with Apple, Microsoft, Google, or AVG. That should go without saying, but apparently it doesn't.
> You're neither. You're not a part of their business model at all.
Sure you are. Platforms have network effects. They're better off if you use their software than if you use Windows, even if you don't buy a support contract.
So the exchange is that you get free software and they get network effects. It's not an adversarial relationship where you have conflicting interests regarding how much they'll be paid or how much privacy they'll take from you, because network effects don't hurt you (as long as the vendor is not a monopoly) -- if you're using the software then they help you.
Sometimes there is a free lunch.
> Your relationship with Red Hat is very different from your relationship with Apple, Microsoft, Google, or AVG. That should go without saying, but apparently it doesn't.
That's the point. "If you're not paying you're the product" is thereby disproved. You can have a relationship with a commercial entity in which neither is true.
Worse, the implied alternative is also wrong. You can be paying and be the product, as you are with Windows 10.
If you want something to take home, it's this: Stop patronizing companies that convert your privacy into their money.
Your relationship with Red Hat is very different from your relationship with Apple, Microsoft, Google, or AVG. That should go without saying, but apparently it doesn't.