How to consider some software Companies?

[opensof]

Hey!!

I'm sorry but the question is not only related to Linux , but I hope you'll answer it anyway. I'm just a starter and I'm working on a project about FLOSS (academically). I've about 40 software Co's, and i'd like to know how would you classify them regarding their floss activity (3 cat. High - Med. - Low). What's your criteria? Thanks for your help.

The list of co's. is herewith:

Microsoft
IBM
Applix
Oracle
SAP
Wind River
CA Inc.
Haansoft
Hewlett Packard
Turbolinux
Symantec
Trolltech ASA
Adobe
Thiz Group
Autodesk
Sun Microsystems
BMC Software
Sourcefire
SunGard
Mandriva
Intuit
Bluepoint Linux
Cadence
Novell
Synopsys
Red Hat
Dassault Systemes
BEA Systems
Trend Micro
McAfee
Openwave
Unisys
Convergys
SPSS Inc
QAD Inc
Informatica Corporation
Borland
i2 Technologies
Open Text Corp
Microstrategy

[techieMoe]

I'm only going to answer for the companies I know anything at all about. There are quite a few on your list of whom I have never heard.

Microsoft - Low, but some, involvement (see Silverlight)

IBM - High involvement. Some of their major commercial products are either built on or compatible with open-source software and operating systems. (See Eclipse and Rational Software Architect)

Oracle - Medium. Last I checked Oracle Database worked on many different Linux distributions and has since around 1998.

Turbolinux - High. They're a company that sells Linux. Can't get much more involved than that.

Trolltech ASA - High. Main product I know about is the Qt windowing system which is the basis for the very popular KDE desktop environment.

Adobe - Low. They release occasional updates to their Adobe PDF reader for Linux but refuse to consider the idea of porting any of their other software to Linux or releasing it under a free license.

Sun Microsystems - High. Not only with Linux but Solaris as well. Sun created the Java language, which they recently began releasing piece by piece under the GNU GPL license.

BMC Software - Not sure on this one, but an ex-BMC employee I work with says they have at least toyed with the idea of making their clients work in Linux.

Mandriva - See my comment on Turbolinux

Novell - Ditto on Mandriva and Turbolinux. Novell also helped Linux by winning their recent lawsuit against SCO, which asserted that Novell, not SCO, owns the UNIX copyrights and by extension can squash the outstanding lawsuits SCO has levied against IBM and other Linux vendors.

Red Hat - High. One of the "Big 3" of commercial Linux vendors in the world alongside Novell and Mandriva.