Community
For the long-term success of an open source project, it's important that there's an active and well-supported community behind the project. In commercial open source products, this community is often the (only) software development unit of the company behind the product. The input and contributions of external people is less important and influential. This can be seen as a risk, especially when a company is small or has limited funds available.

Excellent - Vibrant, very active, and large community, substantial number of active members.
Good - Large visible community and high activity level in most contribution areas (strategy/requirements, development, testing, bug reporting, etc.).
Okay - Some activity both in development and bug reporting and fixing.
Low - Small community or limited level of activity.
Poor -Community inactive or nonexistent.

Maturity
To put a software product in production, it has to run in a stable, error-free manner. Maturity therefore measures the quality and robustness of a software product.

Very mature - Strong, high-quality solution, stable, and meets advanced performance expectations.
Good - Some minor stability gaps or performance issues might exist, but probably can be overcome by most users.
Okay - Doesn't fully match all enterprise expectations especially for high-volume loads and massive use.
Low - Doesn't matching typical enterprise expectations, could be good enough in some instances.
Poor - Only usable for testing and demonstration purposes.

Trend
Open source projects and products develop quickly and dynamically. It's important to understand whether a product is becoming feature-rich and robust, whether there's no improvement, or whether the quality and richness is declining compared to the competition. The "Trend" category indicates the expected progress of the software.

↑    Solution/component is progressing along most of the criteria and growing in importance overall.
→  Solution/component is stable or progressing normally.
↓     Solution/component is decreasing along given criteria and against competitive approaches.

Optaros Rating
The Optaros Rating indicates how capable an open source product is to cope with the needs and requirements of mid-size and large enterprises and organizations. The rating is based on the indicators above, additional Optaros experiences as well as further relevant characteristics for the enterprise market (e.g., the availability of professional support, translation into relevant languages, and documentation for administrators and users).

Note: The directory doesn't list products that don't at least meet a * rating.

**** Product/project matches or is superior to the best commercially available and widely used products. It has proven to be a standard in a specific category that is unsurpassed.
*** Product/project is mature, fulfills the important requirements, is well supported, and conforms to typical needs in enterprise production environments.
** The right tool for the many situations, more investigation is needed, not top-league yet. Weaknesses may be driven by technology or lack of functionality or support. A proof-of-concept is recommended.
*  Not recommended (yet) for use in a broad enterprise-wide context, other than early proofs-of-concept or controlled deployment.
    Not recommended for enterprise use, probably not worth further investigation.

While many open source products and projects don't measure up to EOS directory standards that doesn't mean they can't be used in certain situations. And of course there are many good, enterprise-ready products and platforms in the open source ecosystem other than the ones listed in the directory. This is a subjective selection aimed at helping IT organizations navigate the space and make a decision. Enterprise decision makers and users are also welcome to add their own view in the "User Rating" on the detail page of each project.

Keeping a History: Open Source Trends
Besides software listings, the Enterprise Open Source Directory captures statistics that provide a glimpse of the evolving open source software landscape. For example, between January and July 2007:

• 2% of the projects changed their name
• 17% changed their license model
• 82% changed their release number, a clear sign of progress
• 83% have a changed Optaros rating:
  - 66% have a higher rating
  - 17% have a lower rating
  
• 17% haven't changed their rating

Better Choices, More Informed Buyers: An Enterprise Resource for Open Source
The Enterprise Open Source Directory is the first environment dedicated to helping enterprise decision makers identify open source software that meets their requirements best. The directory isn't intended to replace detailed evaluation or proof-of-concepts, but it does provide substantial assistance in making an initial selection.

At the end of the day, evaluation and selection are always somewhat subjective, even when the analysis is as objective as possible. Optaros welcomes feedback about its assessments and how to improve the directory for corporate users and developers alike. Based on the response to the earlier catalog, companies considering open source alternatives to existing software or planning a new project are likely to find the online directory a valuable resource.