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Open source company Red Hat's decision to gut its CentOS distribution should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the company for some years and seen how it has gone from having some ethics and principles to just another American software firm: one that places the profit motive above everything.

Open source company Red Hat crossed the US$2 billion mark in annual revenue some time ago and indications are that the 24-year-old firm will soon cross the next revenue milestone – US$3 billion. There is, thus, no reason for the company to continue to do deals with the NSA, given that the philosophy it advocates in public stands in marked contrast to what the NSA does.

Last week, Red Hat became the first open source company to cross the US$2 billion mark in annual revenue.

A little over two years ago, the first disclosures about the massive surveillance operation being carried out by the NSA were made in the Guardian, thanks to an intrepid contractor named Edward Snowden.