MySQL goes public: FreeRADIUS doesn't.
MySQL AB has announced that they are preparing for an IPO this year. The points I picked up on are:
- An install base of 10 million site,
- 10,000 paying customers.
With the recent survey indicating that the FreeRADIUS install base is close to 100,000 systems, we can immediately see why FreeRADIUS isn't going IPO any time soon. If MySQL can convert only 1/1000 of their install base to paying customers, we would expect FreeRADIUS to do about the same. That conversion rate would suggest that there are about 100 paying customers for FreeRADIUS, which fits in with what I've heard from companies doing support for FreeRADIUS.
With only 100 paying customers, it's nearly impossible to have a company, much less go IPO.
So I won't be getting rich off of FreeRADIUS, but I can at least take satisfaction in the knowledge that it's used by hundreds of millions of people every day to get on the net.