10 most successful open source projects of 2012

1.- Apache Hadoop

 The Apache Hadoop software library is a framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using simple programming models. It is designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines, each offering local computation and storage. Rather than rely on hardware to deliver high-avaiability, the library itself is designed to detect and handle failures at the application layer, so delivering a highly-availabile service on top of a cluster of computers, each of which may be prone to failures.

Developer(s):      Apache Software Foundation
Business model: R&D cost sharing, Platform Providers
Licenses:      Apache License 2.0
Created date: 27 December, 2011: release 1.0.0 available
Used by: Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Amazon.com, Ebay, Dell, Apple, HP, NetApp, IBM, ...

References:
[0] http://hadoop.apache.org/
[1] http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/Documents~hadoop-business-cases.pdf.aspx


2.- MongoDB

MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance, open source NoSQL database. Written in C++, MongoDB features: Document-Oriented Storage, full Index Support, replication & High Availability, auto-Sharding, querying, fast In-Place Updates, map/Reduce, gridFS and commercial Support.

Developer(s): 10gen
Business model: Dual licensing,
Licenses: GNU AGPL v3.0 (drivers: Apache license)
Created date: 2009
Used by: ETSY, Disney, Graigslist, Foursquare, The New York Times

References:
[0] http://www.mongodb.org/
[1] http://www.10gen.com/products/mongodb-subscriptions

3.- OpenStack

OpenStack is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing project that is free open source software released under the terms of the Apache License. The project is managed by the OpenStack Foundation, a non-profit corporate entity established in September 2012 to promote, protect and empower OpenStack software and its community.

Developer(s): Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, OpenStack has grown to be a global software community of developers
Business model: Platform Providers, R&D cost sharing
License(s):  Apache 2.0 license
Created date: In July 2010, Rackspace Hosting and NASA jointly launched a new open source cloud initiative known as OpenStack.   
Used by: NASA, HP, AT&T, Deustche Telekom, Ubuntu, IBM, Nebula, Rackspace, Red Hat, SUSE [1]

References:
[0] http://www.openstack.org/
[1] http://www.openstack.org/foundation/companies/

4.- Pentaho

Pentaho built a big business in business intelligence, integrating with Hadoop partners as well as NoSQL companies. It also had a big year in raising capital and winning customers. While those in the know recognize Pentaho for the powerhouse it is, if you are not in its market, it may be new to you.

Developer(s): Pentaho Corporation
Business model: Dual licensing
License(s):  Pentaho Community Edition (CE): Apache version 2.0; Pentaho Enterprise Edition (EE): Commercial License
Created date: 2004
Used by: HP, Red Hat, Cloudera, MySQL, Accenture

References:
[0] http://www.pentaho.com/

5.- PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness.

While there has been a lot of noise around NoSQL databases, the traditional relational database space has not exactly dried up, either. While many view Oracle's ownership of MySQL as the worst thing that could happen to open source databases, it has opened a window for another open source SQL database to gain traction. PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB, the company selling commercial support and services for PostgreSQL, have been on a great roll lately.


Developer(s): PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Business model: R&D cost sharing, Dual license(EnterpriseDB)
Licenses: PostgreSQL licence
Created date: 1989
Used by: Skype, Reddit, State Farm, Sony Online, Instagram, EnterpriseDB

References:
[0] http://www.postgresql.org/
[1] http://www.enterprisedb.com/products-services-training/subscriptions

6.- Joomla

Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets and a model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework that can also be used independently. What has really helped Joomla is positioning itself as a platform that supports lots of different apps and extensions to give users more power and flexibility in building a Web presence.

Developer(s):  The Joomla Project Team
Business model: Platform Providers, Selection/consulting companies, Product specialists
Licenses: GNU General Public License v2
Created date: Joomla was the result of a fork of Mambo on August 17, 2005.
Used by: Over 35 million downloads

References:
[0] http://www.joomla.org/

7.- WordPress

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. While Joomla positions itself as a Web platform, WordPress has made its bones as the blog platform of choice. There are claims that WordPress is the most popular WCM platform, but it's hard to know for sure. What I do know is that I use WordPress for my personal blogs, and I love it. The plug-in catalog continues to grow. There is virtually nothing you can't do with a WordPress blog. While security concerns were an issue in years past, we don't hear as much about them anymore.

Developer(s): WordPress Foundation
Business model: Platform Providers,  Indirect revenues,  WordPress.com is run by Automattic which currently makes money from the aforementioned upgrades, blog services, Akismet anti-spam technology, and hosting partnerships.
Licenses:  GNU GPLv2 (or later)
Created date: May 27, 2003
Used by: CNN, Forbes, Reuters, Mashable, The New York Times

References:
[0] http://wordpress.com/


8.- DotNetNuke

DotNetNuke is a web content management system based on Microsoft .NET. The Community Edition is open source.
There are two commercial editions of the software with increased functionality compared to the community edition, and technical support.

Developer(s):      DotNetNuke Corporation
Business model: Open Core, Dual license
Licenses:  MIT
Created date: 2006
Used by: Microsoft

References:
[0] http://www.dotnetnuke.com/
[1] http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Products/Compare-Editions.aspx

9.-SugarCRM

SugarCRM is a software company based in Cupertino, California. It produces the web application Sugar, also known as SugarCRM, which is a customer relationship management (CRM) system that is available in both open source and Commercial open source applications. With the following products: Sugar Community Edition, Sugar Professional, Sugar Corporate, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Ultimate

Developer(s): SugarCRM
Business model: Open Core, Dual license
Licenses:  SugarCRM Public License (based on the Mozilla Public License and the Attribution Assurance License)
Created date: 2004
Used by: Sharepoint, Lotus Notes, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Gmail

References:
[0] http://www.sugarcrm.com/
[1] http://www.sugarforge.org/

10.- Audacity

Audacity is a free digital audio editor and recording application. While not a big commercial success like the rest of the open source projects on this list. If you have to work with audio files, Audacity sets the bar for ease of use and powerful tools. It has been downloaded something like 70 million times.


Developer(s):      The Audacity Team
Business model: Not yet, they are looking for sponsors (corporations, foundations, individuals, ...) who love Audacity and would like to pay them to develop it at a faster pace then they're developing now.
Licenses:  GNU General Public License v2
Created date: 2002
Used by:  General public (5.200 downloads per week)

References
[0] http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

General references:
[0]NetworkWorld - 10-most-successful-open-source-projects-of-2012

Carlo Daffara taxonomy (FLOSSMETRICS) of business model and examples

1.     Dual licensing, e.g. MySQL, Mozilla software, Sleepycatdb, Pentaho
2.     Open Core, e.g. Zimbra, SugarCRM, Eucalyptus, SendMail
3.     Product specialists, e.g. Alfresco
4.     Platform Providers, e.g. RedHat, OpenStack
5.     Selection/consulting companies, e.g. Navica, Open WebApps
6.     Aggregate support providers, e.g. OpenLogic
7.     Legal certification and insurance, e.g. Palamida
8.     Training and documentation, e.g. Gbdirect
9.     R&D cost sharing, e.g. Eclipse, Webkit, OpenStack, Maemo (Nokia)
10.     Indirect revenues, e.g. Firefox, Android, Perl (O'Reilly)

Dual licensing

• Economic advantage for the vendor
• Dissemination for the product with reduced costs
• Creation of external ecosystem of add-ons (outside the source)
• Visibility
• Self-segmentation of the market

• Economic advantage for the adopter
• The adopter may opt for the open source edition if it is deemed sufficient; for the proprietary part, reduction in cost may give better price/quality ratio
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Low external participation (limited code contributions)

Open Core

• Economic advantage for the vendor
• Reduction of R&D
• Reduced maintenance costs
• Visibility
• Increased dissemination
• External ecosystem of add-ons
• Self-segmentation of the market for the proprietary add-ons    
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• The adopter may opt for the open source edition if it is deemed sufficient; for the proprietary part, reduction in cost may give better price/quality ratio
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Difficult to estimate the right balance between open and closed parts
• External groups may create substitutes for the proprietary parts    

Product specialists

• Economic advantage for the vendor
• Reduction of R&D
• Reduced maintenance costs
• Visibility
• Increased dissemination
• External ecosystem of add-ons    
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Reduction in cost may give better price/quality ratio for the adopted software
• Stability
• Integrated support reduces external costs
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Low barrier of entry for third-parties

Platform Providers

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• Reduction of R&D
• Reduced maintenance costs
• Visibility, increased dissemination
• External ecosystem of software and additions
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Reduction in cost may give better price/quality ratio for the adopted software
• Stability
• Integrated support reduces external costs
• Legal protection is included
• Easy to find trained personnel
• Availability of long-term options    
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Platform engineering requires large R&D efforts even with shared resources

Selection/consulting companies

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• Cost of software certification and selection can be partially shared across customers, as most adopters have a large share of common needs    
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Reduced selection costs
• Reduced risk of wrong choice
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Limited market
• Difficulty in following rapid evolution of the products covered (evaluation costs)
  

Aggregate support providers

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• Cost of support can be partially shared across customers
• Economies of scale
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• A single point of control and cost for a large number of project
• Reduced negotiation efforts for large number of individual vendors
• Simplified management and governance
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Limited market
• May be perceived as in partial competition with existing specialists

Legal certification and insurance

• Economic advantage for the vendor
• Cost of legal certification and secondary-level insurance can be shared across the most used OSS projects
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Equivalent to insurance
• Provides a materialized and stable costs against uncertain, difficult to quantify negative events
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Limited market
• Difficult to estimate risk probabilities
• Need to cover separate legal frameworks across the world with different rules

Training and documentation

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• A significant portion of training development costs can be shared across customers
• Economies of scale
• Reuse of community-developed material
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Lower cost for training compared to self-managed training (from source code, publicly available documentation)    
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• May be perceived as in partial competition with existing specialists
• Human intensive
• Most of it cannot be replicated at low cost
   

R&D cost sharing

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• Reduction of R&D
• Reduced maintenance costs
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Same as vendor- in this case, vendor and adopter coincide
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Estabilishing the management and contribution structures may be complex and costly, requires constant effort

Indirect revenues

• Economic advantage for the vendor 
• Source availability reduces engineering costs
• Increase visibility on multiple platforms
  
• Economic advantage for the adopter
• Adopters obtains a quality product at no cost
• Potential large ecosystem for extensions    
• Potential disadvantages of the model
• Requires a large external market for incentives
• May be dependent on a single (or small number) of actors increasing risk

[1] http://docencia.etsit.urjc.es/moodle/pluginfile.php/13408/mod_resource/content/1/03-business-models.pdf
[2] OSS Business models table