If Linux is available free on the Internet, why does Red Hat's packaged CD-ROM distribution of Linux sell at all? The primary reason is convenience. There are a number of benefits to the Red Hat packaged distribution.
One benefit is that a packaged distribution means each component can be easily upgraded. Another is that the user doesn't need to make decisions about which components to download--a process that is time consuming and requires intimate knowledge of the hardware environment into which Linux is to be introduced.