ITWorld: Is there a need for OpenLDAP?
Jul 03, 2001, 23:00 (50 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Dave Kearns)
[ Thanks to Cesar for
this link. ]
The author, who admits he's not a fan of Open Source software,
questions whether OpenLDAP is needed in the rapidly evolving
directory space, where there are freely available solutions that do
the same thing.
"Readers of my Wired Windows column in Network World
know that I'm not a big fan of the open source movement -- at least
as far as commercial-grade software is concerned. For that reason,
I haven't paid much attention to Open Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol, the open source directory service...."
" OpenLDAP did fill a need for an easily obtainable,
LDAP-enabled directory service with a low entry price (it's free -
but you had to compile the source code). Shoestring funded
start-ups in the directory-enabled applications business could use
it for building and testing their software, and even recommend it
to clients who didn't have an installed directory service (or
didn't know they had one). Now that Novell is giving away
eDirectory to independent software vendors and Active Directory is
included with Windows 2000 servers, those reasons go away."
"Since the initial reasons for the OpenLDAP project no longer
exist, I'd like to suggest a change. Let's forget about duplicating
commercial efforts to create data repositories and directory
services. Instead, let's focus on creating directory-enabled
applications that leverage the installed base of LDAP-enabled
directory services. Give users some concrete applications that make
use of the authentication, authorization and personalization
mechanisms the directory makes available. That would be a public
service."
Complete
Story
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