Open Source Statistics
Which Open Source License is Most Used in the Enterprise?
Studies show that the General Public License (GPL) is by far the most common license for open source software. In fact, many people estimate that at least 75% of open source projects are licensed under the GPL or the LGPL. But although sites like Sourceforge.net feature over 100,000 open source packages, the reality is that enterprises typically use a much smaller subset of the safest, most reliable, and most popular packages. Stormy Peters, Director of Community and Partner Programs at OpenLogic, decided to investigate which open source licenses are most commonly used in the enterprise by examining the most popular packages in OpenLogic Certified Library.
Survey Summary
Date: September 2007
Audience: Enterprise customers of OpenLogic
Number of Responses: Data based on enterprise customer usage of the OpenLogic Certified Library of over 300 open source packages. Packages are added to the Certified Library based on customer requests.
Source: Stormy examined the primary license of every open source package in the OpenLogic Certified Library. Then, she took the 20 open source packages most commonly used by OpenLogic customers and grouped them by license.
Conclusion: Interestingly, the Apache License is most common in enterprise open source deployments, and the GPL and LPGL were tied for a very distant second place with the CPL, Eclipse, Perl, and BSD licenses. Assuming that the original studies are not underscoring GPL usage, the fact that enterprises use more Apache-licensed software than GPL is probably due to two reasons, one legal and one technical:
- Enterprises are often worried about the "copyleft" provisions of the GPL, and as a result many enterprises do not allow GPL-licensed packages to be deployed
- Enterprises tend to use Java solutions, which are primarily Apache licensed
Licenses of All 300+ Packages in the OpenLogic Certified Library
|
GPL or LGPL
|
29% |
|
Apache License
|
35% |
|
Other Licenses
|
36% |
Licenses of the Top 20 Packages in the OpenLogic Certified Library *
|
GPL or LGPL
|
20% |
|
Apache License
|
75% |
|
CPL, Perl, Eclipse, and BSD Licenses
|
20% |
* Note that these percentages add up to more than 100% because several packages have multiple licenses.
