Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Wired has a good article about MySQL. The company is of course the very popular open source database maker. Along with a free non-commercial (some folks miss that, its not free for commercial usage) version MySQL also sells a commercial version and of course support and consulting. MySQL boasts some big name customers like Yahoo and Google (a total of 4000 or so paying according to the article). And its reported that 40% of developers use MySQL in some capacity (and I bet that number is low). Its a good example of using open source to make a great product AND getting paid, something that has proven elusive to many.

For more see the linked Wired article.   MySQL Profits From Open Source: Wired