The reason we are confident that the comparative decline in the use of the GNU GPL family of licenses and the increasing significance of complementary vendors in relation to funding for open source software-related vendors will continue is due to the analysis of our database of more than 400 open source software-related vendors, past and [...]

One of the favourite blog topics on CAOS Theory blog over the years has been our quarterly and annual updates on venture capital funding for open source-related businesses, based on our database of over 600 funding deals since January 1997 involving nearly 250 companies, and over $4.8bn. There are still a few days left for [...]

Our most popular CAOS blog post of the year, by some margin, was this one, from early June, looking at the trend towards persmissive licensing, and the decline in the usage of the GNU GPL family of licenses. Prompted by this post by Bruce Byfield, I thought it might be interesting to bring that post [...]

Oracle last week quietely announced the addition of new extended capabilities in MySQL Enterprise Edition, confirming the adoption of the open core licensing strategy, as we reported last November. The news was both welcomed and derided. Rather than re-hashing previous arguments about open core licensing, what interests me more about the move is how it [...]

Last week we published a post looking at some statistics suggesting a decline in the usage of the GNU GPL. The post sparked some interesting debate, not least about the validity of Black Duck Software’s numbers, which we had used to compare usage of the various FLOSS licenses over recent years. While we have no [...]

Ian Skerrett last week suggested that there is a growing trend in favour of permissive non-copyleft licenses at the expense of reciprocal copyleft licenses. Ian asked “name one popular community open source project created in the last 5 years that uses the AGPL or GPL?” The responses didn’t exactly come thick and fast. I certainly [...]

One of the ironies of open source over the years has been that the organisation formed to “educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source”, the Open Source Initiative, was itself *perceived to be* something of a closed shop [see the comments for clarification on this point]. That is set to change as [...]

As previously mentioned, The 451 Group was very pleased to be able to participate in this year’s Future of Open Source Survey. We believe that the results provide critical insight into the wants and needs of end users that will help shape the evolution of vendor business strategies designed to meet the long-term needs of [...]

Andrew C Oliver recently wrote “I think most know by now that a license is insufficient to make something actually open source.” What makes this fascinating is that it involves a director of the Open Source Initiative – the stewards of the Open Source Definition – stating that the Open Source Definition is not enough [...]

As we noted last week, necessity is one of the six key factors that are driving the adoption of alternative data management technologies identified in our latest long format report, NoSQL, NewSQL and Beyond. Necessity is particularly relevant when looking at the history of the NoSQL databases. While it is easy for the incumbent database [...]

“the trends appear to be moving away from control and back toward community and collaborative development, which is why The 451 Group has advised that established vendors that rely on controlling open source development projects need to evaluate how they might be able to transition to more collaborative development practices and permissive licensing” The 451 [...]

One of the primary proof-points of the success of open source has been its adoption by previously proprietary software vendors. In February 2007 The 451 Group’s CAOS practice released its third report, Going Open, which examined the increasing adoption of open source licensing by traditionally-licensed software companies and captured the industry best-practices to ensure a [...]

UK Govt goes big on open source. DotNetNuke acquires Active Modules. And more.

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be a way to search Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace app store by license, but out of interest, here’s a chart showing the applications on Microsoft’s CodePlex code hosting site, by license. Make of it what you will.

We have had a couple of queries this week regarding the open source business strategy framework we have used for the last two years or so in our analysis of open source-related business strategies. The framework has evolved over time based on changing strategies, our research, and feedback from clients (and non-clients), but the last [...]

Gather the pitchforks and light the torches. Hordes of marketing men are gathering, intent on invading the free and open source software village armed with copyright assignment policies and turning everyone into mindless corporate contributors. As Michael Meeks (via LWN.net) has warned there is “‘a sustained marketing drive coming’ to push the copyright-assignment agenda” As [...]

Or, why free software advocates love to hate open core I’ve been trying to figure out why it is that free software advocates are so fixated on the open core licensing strategy and recently came to the conclusion that there is only one explanation: open core is free software’s evil twin. To clarify I do [...]

Given the ongoing and recently increased interest in the open core licensing strategy there have been numerous statements made about its relative popularity, the reasons for its adoption, and the impact it has on collaborative development. As part of our recently released report on the evolution of open source-related business strategies we evaluated the strategies [...]

Bradley M Kuhn published an interest blog post at the weekend explaining why he believes Canonical is about to go down the open core licensing route and heavily criticising the company for doing so. My take on the post is that it is the worst kind of Daily Mail-esque fear mongering and innuendo. Not only [...]

Simon Phipps has published an interesting post today examining the issue of contributor agreements and copyright assignment. This is an issue that has been thrown into focus by the recent debate about the open core licensing strategy, and the disagreement between NASA and Eucalyptus Systems, and is likely to remain significant thanks to Project Harmony. [...]