Eclipse projects such as its IDE and Rich Client Platform have proven successful already; the jury is still out on endeavors such as its Web tools and ALM initiatives, Nackman said.

Eclipse now has 60 open source projects in the works, said Ian Skerrett, Eclipse director of marketing. But the organization has 130 member companies to spread around the work, he noted. "It's the companies and organizations that are really taking and doing the expansion and providing the resources to work on these projects," Skerrett said.

In fact, Skerrett said, some see Eclipse as the chief rival to Microsoft's .Net initiative.

The expansion of Eclipse is reasonable, Forrester's Schwaber said. "The Eclipse platform is more versatile; it's good for more than just the IDE."