Linux distributor Red Hat reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2011. Sales grew by 23 percent since the third quarter of 2010 to $290 million, and subscriptions, which accounted for $246.5 million, are up 24 percent from last year.  This only barely met analysts’ expectations and led to an 8 percent drop in Red Hat’s stock, WSJ reported. Nevertheless, Q3 can easily pass as a good quarter.

Red Hat reported its GAAP net profit was $38.2 million or 19 cents a share compared to $26 million or 13 cents a share – a 47 percent jump for the open source software maker.

“We continued to deliver consistent performance across our business which resulted in strong growth in our key financial metrics. At the same time, we continued to invest in strategic growth initiatives.” stated Charlie Peters, executive vice president and CFO of Red Hat. “When compared to the first three quarters of last fiscal year, our year-to-date revenue, non-GAAP operating income and operating cash flow are up 26%, 35% and 35%, respectively.”

Red Hat may have failed to reach its investors’ expectations for its revenue, but surprisingly, the company’s partners are expecting steady growth to persist throughout 2012. An Evercore survey that polled members of Red Hat’s ecosystem found that 67 percent of partners are seeing Red Hat Enterprise Linux sales increase down the road, while 31 percent believe customers switching over from Unix will be chipping in as well.

Q3 has been momentous for Red Hat because the company made a big push towards the cloud with the acquisition of Gluster for $136 million. The company’s assets included GlusterFS, its open and widely used file system Red Hat has already managed to integrate into its portfolio.