To each his own, I suppose. But I'd say that there are quite a few companies making money off of Linux. Redhat and Novell come to mind. I think the distinction you need to make here is the difference between the server and the desktop.
On the server market there is a great market for Linux, with several commercial applications that run on it.
It is true however, that desktop Linux is lacking, and may never catch up without a company pushing it. I thought for a while that Canonical was that company, but the latest releases of Ubuntu are just not there yet.
Interesting article.
About Linux and Why Nobody Seems to Care