Although open source and capitalism may seem fundamentally opposed, Acquia -- which has now brought in a total of $23.5 million of funding over three rounds -- continues to highlight the commercial potential of open source projects. Other commercial open source business models include Automattic's WordPress.com, the hosted version of WordPress.org and Dotnetnuke's enterprise solutions.
Dries Buytaert, who created Drupal in 2000 and co-founded Acquia in 2007, commented on the commercialization of open source in a recent blog post.
"The commercialization of a volunteer-driven Open Source project is part of a project's natural life-cycle," he tells us. "While it can be a significant change, it is a great opportunity. We can reap the benefits of growth, prevent volunteer burn-out and distribute the effort."