(Includes an informative interview with Apache Group
co-founder Brian Behlendorf.)
“The Apache Software Foundation is leading the way in managing
the fragile relationship between the open-source community and
commercial interests, and it hopes soon to “open up” some of the
best tools in Web development.”
“At the end of last month, the Apache Group announced it has
incorporated to become the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), a
nonprofit entity established to “formally shepherd” the group’s
high-profile software projects, including the Apache HTTP Web
Server, the world’s most popular Web server. The move provides the
foundation with the legal status required to accept financial
donations and contributions of intellectual property, and is
designed to help further broaden the Apache Group’s expanding role
in Web development software.
“ASF’s goal is not only to administer its own projects, but
also to offer financial and legal assistance to other open-source
ventures. The ASF requires that all its projects remain open
to new contributions via Internet collaboration, and it will limit
use of the ASF name to only those entities for whom it has approved
a license.”
“ASF was assisted in forming partly by IBM…”
“IBM will be providing code and a dedicated team of programmers
to the Apache Software Foundation, including the Jakarta Project,
and will use the resulting code in its commercial products, similar
to its use of the Apache Web server today…”
“The participation of companies such as IBM and Sun has allowed
the ASF to extend its influence beyond the Apache Web server to
other projects, including the Java-Apache Project and Jakarta.”
Related Stories (Apache Software Foundation):
CNET News.com:
Open-source Apache project solidifies status (Jul 02, 1999)
PC Week: Apache
incorporates, creates new structure (Jul 01, 1999)
Introducing
sourceXchange (May 14, 1999)
Related Stories (Jakarta):
JavaWorld: Sun
and Apache team up to deliver servlet and JSP code (Jun 21,
1999)
Sun and Apache
announce Jakarta Project (Jun 19, 1999)
Wired: Sun Aligns
with Palm and Apache (Jun 15, 1999)