Ten open-source companies that actually are worth watching
Most lists of "companies to watch" are put together by the PR firms that shout loudest to the writer. "Ten open-source companies to watch" by John Fontana over at NetworkWorld, however, strikes me as pretty interesting, on balance.
It's also a great testament to how far we've come in open source, because many of the companies listed are doing interesting, cutting-edge work.
Take Marketcetera, which is building a next-generation platform for hedge fund managers. Or Kickfire, which has built a super-charged MySQL appliance. And so on.
No, he doesn't profile Zimbra, Red Hat, Alfresco, MySQL, SugarCRM, MuleSource, etc. He doesn't have to: the market is already gelling around these companies. Fontana is identifying rising stars. While I would quibble with a few of his choices, overall it's a great list.
Open source is growing up without growing old. Fontana does a good job of capturing some great examples of this. Have a look.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
