Shopping at the open source mall...with Optaros as your guide
Optaros has just launched the Enterprise Open Source Directory, and it's exceptional. In some ways, it's competitive with Red Hat Exchange (RHX), but only superficially. Both provide an easy way to find and evaluate (on paper) the leading enterprise-class open source projects. RHX, however, takes it a step further and offers easy installation and post-sale support.
But Optaros' EOSD goes farther than RHX in providing a hefty inventory of open source projects to evaluate, with both its ratings and user ratings. So, if you look up Enterprise Content Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Operating Systems, etc., you get Optaros' studied judgment as well as the EOSD community's judgment. The ratings and information are somewhat sparse now, but will grow and improve as the site gets used.
Here's a look:
The site includes nearly 300 enterprise-class open source products/projects, all easily searchable with the ability to compare products. Optaros went through each product to review it and establish ratings based on enterprise readiness, functionality, maturity, and community. Optaros also reassessed its ratings (it had previously rated most of these), and found that it needed to adjust (with improved ratings, in most cases) the ratings for more than 70% of the ratings of previously covered projects. (~25% were adjusted down.)
This is a great addition to the open source ecosystem. Where in the proprietary world do you get this sort of transparency? You don't. Open source is about source code, but it's also about creating greater efficiencies in the buying process. Optaros' Enterprise Open Source Directory is a great addition to this.
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. 
I feel that some Open Source aspects are familiar outside the FOSS community (mainly infrastructure components) while others (Enterprise Information Solutions for example) are making progress, but still need a lot more PR.
I think that their idea of adding Case Studies is great. Many corporations require them, so this surely will be a valuable resource.
I have been running the website http://www.eoslist.com, which has a similar concept to the mentioned EOS Directory of cataloging enterprise solutions, in hope of spreading the word...
Guy Snir
In the past I have directed people to these sites:
Linux App Finder
http://linuxappfinder.com/
Open Source Alternatives
http://www.osalt.com/
LOOP List - List of Open source Programs
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ListOfOpenSourcePrograms
Keep up the good work, I really enjoy reading your blog and learning about all the neat companies and projects that you mention.
- Limited list AND they include non open source
- by tristanbob July 10, 2007 4:06 PM PDT
- After spending some time on this site, I learned two things:
- Reply to this comment
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(3 Comments)1. They do not include enough apps (will get better with time)
2. They list non-open source software. This is unacceptable content on a site called "Enterprise Open Source Directory". I have emailed them my opinion. Let's hope they correct this mistake.
Tristan Rhodes