Commercial open-source applications
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2010) |
Open source software is widely used for private and non-commercial applications. In addition, many independent software vendors (ISVs), value-added resellers (VARs), and hardware vendors (OEMs or ODMs) use open source frameworks, modules, and libraries inside their proprietary, for-profit products and services. From the customer's perspective, the ability to use open source technology under standard commercial terms and support is valuable. Customers are willing to pay for the legal protection (e.g., indemnification from intellectual property infringement) and "high-touch" support/training/consulting that are typical of commercial software with the innovation and independence that comes with open source.
Since GNU and some other open source licenses stipulate that derived works must distribute their intellectual property under an open source (copyleft) license, ISVs and VARs have developed legal and technical mechanisms to foster their commercial goals:
- A dual-license model, where a code base is published under a traditional open source license and a commercial license simultaneously. Vendors typically charge a perpetual license fee for additional closed-source features, supplementary documentation, testing, and quality, as well as intellectual property indemnification to protect the purchaser from legal liability.
- Functional encapsulation, where an open source framework or library is installed on a user's computer separately from the commercial product, and the commercial product uses the open source functionality in an "arm's length" way (under the argument that the commercial product was shipped without the open source library, even though it uses it). Vendors typically charge a perpetual license fee for the functionality that they provide under closed source, as they usually don't provide services or other direct value for the open source elements.
- A software as a service model, under the argument that the vendor is charging for the services, not the software itself (because the software is never shipped to customers or installed on their computers). Vendors typically charge a monthly subscription fee for use of their hosted applications.
- Not charging for the software, but only for the support, training, and consulting services that assist users of the open source software. Vendors typically charge an annual fee for support, per-student fees for training, and per-project fees for consulting engagements.
- Charging for the software as part of an information appliance or other hardware device. In this model, the software (e.g., development libraries, administrative tools, or example applications) is delivered as part of a proprietary chip, subsystem, or hardware solution with the binaries pre-installed (sometimes burned into firmware) while the source tree is posted on Sourceforge or other public open-source repository.
- Freemium Model, making a basic version of the software available for free and charging for premium features, or applications
The underlying objective of these business models is to harness the size and international scope of the open source community (typically more than an order of magnitude larger than what would be achieved with closed-source models) for a sustainable commercial venture. The vast majority of commercial open source companies experience a conversion ratio (as measured by the percentage of downloaders who buy something) well below 1%, so low-cost and highly-scalable marketing and sales functions are key to these firms' profitability.
There is considerable debate about whether vendors can make a sustainable business from an open source strategy. In terms of a traditional software company, this is probably the wrong question to ask. Looking at the landscape of open source applications, many of the larger ones are sponsored (and largely written) by system companies such as IBM who may not have an objective of software license revenues. Other software companies, such as Oracle and Google, have sponsored or delivered significant open source code bases. These firms' motivation tends to be more strategic, in the sense that they are trying to change the rules of a marketplace and reduce the influence of vendors such as Microsoft. In the case of smaller vendors doing open source work, their objectives may be less "immediate revenue growth" and more "developing a large and loyal community," which may be the basis of a corporate valuation at merger time.
Except for Red Hat and VA Software, no other pure open source company has gone public on the major stock markets. However, two firms on the list below may go public by 2012. The remainder are likely to be acquired, as is the norm for all pre-public software companies.
List of commercial open source applications and services
The purpose of this table is to provide reference information about the provenance and history of commercial open source applications. It is not to be used or interpreted as an advertisement for the vendors.
Product or Service Name (business models used) |
Commercial Vendor | Description | Current Version | Open Source Project Name |
Ver 1.0 Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AdverTool (3,4) | AdverTool | Advertising campaign management | 1.1 | Advertisement tool | 2010 |
Abiquo (1,3,4) | Abiquo | Cloud management | 1.6 | Abiquo | 2008 |
Avactis (1,3,4) | Avactis | eCommerce software | 2.0 | Avactis Shopping Cart | 2001 |
Birt_Project (2) | Actuate | Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools | 2.1.3 | BIRT Exchange Eclipse |
2005 |
Alfresco (1,3,4) | Alfresco | Enterprise Content Management, Web Content Management | 2.2 | Alfresco | 2006 |
OpenQuote (4) | Applied Industrial Logic | Online Insurance Quotation solution | 1.3 | OpenQuote Community | 2011 |
AppStacks (3) | AppStacks | AppStacks Open Source application suites leveraging workflow, websites. | 2.0 | AppStacks | 2010 |
OpenClinica (1,3) | Akaza Research | Clinical Trials Software for Electronic Data Capture (EDC) and Clinical Data Management (CDM) | 3.0.4 | OpenClinica | 2005 |
Bacula (1,3,4) | Bacula | Data Backup / Recovery | 2.7 | Bacula | ? |
Bonita Open Solution (1,4) | BonitaSoft | Business Process Management Suite | 5,3 | Bonita Open Solution | 2001 |
Ubuntu (1) | Canonical Ltd | Server and client Linux distribution | 10.10 | Ubuntu | 2004 |
CSI TriSano (1,3) | Collaborative Software Initiative | Globalized Surveillance, Case Management and Outbreak Management for disease, bioterrorism and environmental hazards | 2.5 | TriSano | 2009 |
Compiere (1,3,4) | Compiere | ERP and CRM | 2.6.1 | Compiere | 2000? |
ProjeLead (1,4) | Pragmatis Consulting | Project Management / Project Collaboration | 2.0 | ProjeLead | 2009 |
Open Workbench (1,4) | Computer Associates | Project Management / Governance Tools | 1.1.4 | Open Workbench | 2004 |
db4o (1,4) | db4o | ODBMS | 6.0 | db4o | ? |
Entrance (1) | dbEntrance Software | SQL-based data exploration tool | 1.3.34 | Entrance Community | 2007 |
EyeOS (1,3,4) | EyeOS | Cloud computing operating system | 2.1beta | EyeOS | 2007 |
Asterisk (1,4) | Digium | PBX server / Telephony toolkit | 1.6.2.1 | Asterisk | 2004[1] |
Funambol Server (1,4) | Funambol | Mobile Email and PIM Synchronization | 6.0 | Funambol (née Sync4j) |
2001 |
GAIUS: Generic Automated Integrated Universal System | Imtech | Machine Automation and Machine Supervisor, advanced SCADA | 2.0 | on request |
2010 |
Poseidon for UML (1) | Gentleware | Software Modeling Tool | 6.0 | ArgoUML | 1998 |
Lotus Symphony (1,4) | IBM | Office Productivity Suite | Eclipse, OpenOffice |
2007 | |
Rational Application Developer (1,4) | IBM | Software Development Tools | Eclipse | 2002? | |
Websphere (1,4) | IBM | Web Server, Application Server, Middleware | Apache | 2002? | |
Hyperic HQ | SpringSource | Application & System Monitoring | 4.5 | Hyperic Application & System Monitoring | ? |
ITCOCKPIT (4) | GmbH | Proactive System- and Networkmonitoring Solution with SLA-, End-2-End- and Business Process Monitoring | 3.0 | ITCOCKPIT | 2005 |
Ingres Database (1) | Ingres | RDBMS | 9.3 | Ingres | ? |
Intalio BPMS (1,4) | Intalio | Business Process Management - Workflow | 5.2 | Eclipse, Intalio | ? |
Snare (1,4) | InterSect Alliance | Log collection and analysis | 4.0 | Snare | 2001 |
Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Suite (1) | JasperSoft | Reporting, Dashboards, Analysis, Data Integration; End to End BI solution | 3.7 | JasperForge | 1996 |
Palo Business Intelligence Suite (1,3,4) | Jedox AG | Palo is a Open-Source BI solution for Corporate Performance Management and OLAP-based Planning, Analysis, Consolidation and Reporting. | 3.0 | Jedox AG | 2002 |
Jitterbit Integration Server (1,4) | Jitterbit | Application Integration | 1.3 | Jitterbit | 2006? |
Jumper 2.0 (4) | Jumper Networks | Universal search tool powered by enterprise social bookmarking | 2.0.1.4 | Project Jumper | 2008 |
Kaltura (1,3) | Video Platform | Video and rich media management platform and applications | 4.0 | Kaltura | 2006 |
KnowledgeTree (1,3,4) | KnowledgeTree | Document and Records Management System | 3.4 | KnowledgeTree | 2004 |
Liferay Portal (4) | Liferay | Enterprise web portal | 5.0.1 | Liferay Portal | 2000? |
LogicalDOC (1,3,4) | Logical Objects Srl | Document Management System | 6.1 | LogicalDOC Document Management - DMS | 2004 |
LucidWorks (4) | Lucid Imagination | Open Source Search Platform | Apache Lucene / Solr | 2010 | |
LogLogic 1 | LogLogic Lasso | collect Windows event logs | 4.0.0 | Project Lasso | 2006 |
Magento Enterprise (?) | Magento | eCommerce | 1.7 | Magento | 2008 |
ManyDesigns Portofino (1) | ManyDesigns | Web framework | 3.1.10 | Portofino | 2009 |
Mule (1,4) | MuleSoft | Enterprise Service Bus and Integration Platform | 1.4 | Mule | 2003 |
Mono (1) | Novell | Open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET application framework | 2.4 | Mono | ? |
MobileReflex (?) | MobileReflex | Enterprise Mobile Applications | ? | MobileReflex | ? |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (4) | Novell | Enterprise server and client Linux distribution | 11.1 | OpenSUSE | ? |
Openbravo (4) | Openbravo | ERP | 2.33 | Openbravo ERP | 2001 |
OrangeHRM | OrangeHRM | HR Management | 2.6.6 | Orange HRM | 2006 |
Open CASCADE Technology (1,4) | Open Cascade SAS | Software library for 3D CAD / CAM / CAE applications | 6.4 | Open CASCADE Technology | 1999 |
Berkeley DB (?) | Oracle | DBMS engines | 4.6, 3.2, 2.3 | Berkeley DB, Java edition, XML edition (née Sleepycat) |
2003? |
Pentaho Business Intelligence Suite (4) | Pentaho | Business Intelligence, Data Mining, Data Integration, Analytics, Reporting, and Dashboards | 3.5.2 | Pentaho Open BI Suite | 2004 |
Posterita (1) | Posterita | Retail POS | 1.6 | Posterita POS | 2007 |
FUSE ESB (4) | Progress Software | Enterprise service bus | v3 | Apache ServiceMix | 2006 |
FUSE Services Framework (4) | Progress Software | JAX-WS 2.0 service-enablement framework | v2 | Apache CXF | 2006 |
FUSE Mediation Router (4) | Progress Software | Routing and process mediation engine | v1 | Apache Camel | 2006 |
Fuse Message Broker (4) | Progress Software | JMS platform | v5 | Apache ActiveMQ | 2006 |
Project.net (3,4) | Project.net | Project and Portfolio Management | 8.2.1 | projectnet | 2000 |
Project-Open (3,4) | Project-Open | Project and Portfolio Management | 3.4 | Project-Open | 2003 |
Projectivity (1,4) | Projectivity | Best-practices management of Projects, Documents, Resources and Frameworks | 3.0 | Projectivity Open Source | 2006 |
JBoss Enterprise Middleware (1,3,4) | Red Hat | Enterprise Middleware based on Java Platform, Enterprise Edition | 5.1.1 | jboss.org | 2001 |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (3,4) | Red Hat | Enterprise server and client Linux distribution | 5 | Fedora Project | ? |
Red Hat Enterprise IPA(3,4) | Red Hat | Identity management for Linux and Unix systems | 1 | freeIPA | 2008 |
Red Hat Network Satellite(3,4) | Red Hat | Systems management platform for Linux infrastructure | ? | Spacewalk | ? |
389 Directory Server (3,4) | Red Hat | LDAP-compliand directory server | ? | Fedora Directory Server | ? |
Revolution R (1,4) | Revolution Analytics | Statistical analysis environment | 4.3 | R Project | 2008 |
Ext JS (1) | Sencha | Cross-browser JavaScript Framework | 3.2.1 | Ext JS | 2007 |
Ext GWT (1) | Sencha | Java Framework for Google Web Toolkit | 2.1.1 | Ext GWT | 2007 |
Sencha Touch (1) | Sencha | HTML5 Mobile App Framework | 1.0 | Sencha Touch | 2010 |
SilverStripe (1,4) | SilverStripe | Enterprise CMS and development framework | 2.2 | SilverStripe | 2008 |
Skyway Builder (1) | Skyway Software | Code generation for Java applications running on the Spring Framework | 6.2 | Skyway Builder Community Edition | 2002 |
Softabar Command Line Email Client | Softabar | Command line email client. | 3.0.1 | SCLEC | 2005 |
Spring Framework (1) | SpringSource | Software Development Framework | 2.5 | Spring | ? |
Squiz (1,3,4) | Squiz.net | Enterprise Content Management System | v3.16.10 (PHP4), v3.18.3 (PHP5) | MySource Matrix | 1998 |
SugarCRM (1,3) | SugarCRM | Sales Force Automation | 6.2 | SugarCRM | 2004 |
NetBeans (1,4) | Sun Microsystems | Software Development Tools (Java, Ruby, Perl, PHP, etc.) |
6.9 | NetBeans | 2000 |
Java Enterprise System (1,4) | Sun Microsystems | Application Server, Middleware, LDAP, etc. | 5 | Java | 2003? |
MySQL Enterprise (1,4) | Sun Microsystems | RDBMS | 5.0 | MySQL Community | 1995 |
Solaris (1,4) | Sun Microsystems | Operating System | 10 | OpenSolaris | 2005? |
StarOffice (4) | Sun Microsystems | Office Productivity Suite | 8.0 | OpenOffice.org | 2000 |
Sun Studio (1,4) | Sun Microsystems | Software Development Tools for C, C++ | 8.1 | NetBeans | 2000 |
Talend Open Studio (4) | Talend | Data Integration | 3.2.3 | Talendforge | 2006 |
Talend Open Profiler (4) | Talend | Data Profiling, Data Quality | 3.2.3 | Talendforge | 2008 |
Tasktop (1,2) | Tasktop | Task-focused interface | 1.6 | Mylyn | 2008 |
Terracotta | Terracotta | JVM level clustering | 2.7 | Terracotta | ? |
Cruise Control Enterprise (4) | ThoughtWorks | Software Development Tools | 1.0 | CruiseControl | 2007 |
RubyWorks (1,4) | ThoughtWorks | Software Development Tools / Runtime Environment |
1.0 | Several | 2007 |
blee(p) (1) | Transverse | Telecom Billing Support System | 1.0 | blee(p) | 2009 |
Qt (1) | Trolltech | GUI development toolkit | 4.4 | Qt | ? |
Untangle (1) | Untangle | Network Gateway Platform | 8.0 | Untangle | 2007 |
Vyatta (1,4) | Vyatta | Router, firewall, VPN | VC3 | Vyatta Community | 2006 |
XAware (1,4) | XAware | Data Integration, Composite Data Services | 5.4 | XAware Forge | 2000 |
Zarafa (1,3,4) | Zarafa | Email and calendaring solution | 6.40 | Zarafa opensource edition | 2005 |
Zend Core / Platform(1,4) | Zend | Commercialized version of PHP language, infrastructure | 3.6 | Vyatta Community | 2002? |
Zenoss (2) | Zenoss | Application, Network, and Systems Management | 2.3 | Zenoss Core | 2006 |
Zimbra (1,3,4) | Zimbra | Enterprise Email Messaging and Collaboration | 5.0.16 | Zimbra Open Source Edition | 2004 |
Zmanda | Zmanda | File / dbms backup and recovery | 2.6.1 | Zmanda Community Edition | ? |
Zope (3,4) | Zope | Content management system and web portal | 2.10.5 | zope.org | ? |
See also
- Business models for open source software
- Commercial open source software
- Open Source Development Labs
Notes
- ^ "Asterisk Version 1.0 released at Astricon". VentureVoIP. 24 September 2004. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
External links
- Open Solutions Alliance
- Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) is Commercial Software, David A. Wheeler