Open-source companies log impressive growth

Even as the global economy tanks, open-source companies continue to soar. A range of open-source companies reported sales and community growth this past week, including:

• Funambol: As announced on its Web site, Funambol’s mobile open-source community has grown 2,000 percent, downloads are up 34 percent, and the number of active Funambol servers is up 42 percent in the past three months alone.
• Actuate: While business intelligence vendor Actuate’s overall license revenues grew 15 percent last quarter, its BIRT (i.e., open source) revenue grew 32 percent.
• Linux Desktop: While there’s no one company behind Linux for personal computers, it’s significant that Linux just broke through to 1.02 percent market share for personal computers, the first time it has ever risen that high, according to data compiled by Net Applications. (Meanwhile, even in beta, Windows 7 continues its march, now hitting .25 percent market share.)

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