The reason Apple could do this is that they acutally have revenue, and
can therefore support great developers to work on their products
full-time. *That's* what Linux lacks right now -- a self-sustaining
business model.
Finally, I'll point out that Red Hat finally became profitable last
year, when the instituted the new pricing policy. Prior to that, they
basically ran in the red for 8 or 9 years, living on VC cash and the
blind hope of folks who bought the stock at the IPO. Sure, we all
like to get things for free, but if Linux is going to develop at the
same pace as the rest of the computer industry, it needs to find a way
to support itself.