TheVARGuy.com announced a list of the 50 top open source companies in the “channel.” Alongside well-known picks like Red Hat, Sun, and Novell (ranked one through three), several smaller, embedded-related firms made the top-25, including Digium, Openmoko, and Opengear.

Compiled by Nine Lives Media and IT channel site TheVARGuy.com, the Open Source 50 is based on factors including overall partner ecosystem, percent of revenue derived from channel partners, and annual partner network growth. The group ranked the top 25 organizations individually and then grouped the last 25 in a “25 Companies to Watch list.” The latter list includes Canonical, GoodOS, Mandriva, and Xandros, the only other well-known Linux distribution providers on the Open Source 50, aside from Red Hat and Novell.

Openmoko Neo FreeRunner (Click for details)

In addition to the big enterprise software firms, a few lesser-known winners hail from the embedded Linux device world. These range from Opengear, maker of open-source, Linux-ready console servers (pictured above), to mobile device firms like Openmoko and its Neo FreeRunner (pictured at right). Here's a rundown on some of the more “embedded” winners, and their rankings:

• Digium (#4) — The developers of the Asterisk IP PBX “software appliance” distribution
• Openbravo (#10) — Creators of the Openbravo POS point-of-sale/service (POS) software, from Pamplona, Spain
• Opengear (#18) — Developer of uClinux-based remote access equipment, console servers, and related software
• Openmoko (#25) — Taiwan-based manufacturer of the Linux-based Neo FreeRunner handset and sponsor of Openmoko mobile project
• Azingo (bottom 25) — Developers of the LiMo-compliant Azingo Mobile stack for mobile phones
• Funambol (bottom 25) — Home of the Linux-compatible Funambol mobile messaging software, which appears to be everywhere these days
• Plat'Home (bottom 25) — Japanese vendor of Linux-ready microservers, such as the OpenBlockS.

Stated Bob Waldie, Founder and CEO of Opengear, “We expect 2009 to be a banner year for open source adoption and recognize that our channel program is a major part of our mission to bring open source to the console server market.”

OpenGear recently launched a reseller program for VARs, systems integrators, and technology providers.

Availability

The Open Source 50 list from TheVARGuy.com should be available here.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.