“The Apache Web server is a true success of the Open Source
Technology (OST) movement. It’s one of the most popular OST
packages (in terms of usage and notoriety) along with Linux.
According to the latest Netcraft reports, Apache and its
derivatives run over 60 percent of all Web sites on the Internet.
But Apache can boast another true success, that of the Apache
development process.”
“I use the term “development process” to describe the general
rules and methods used to “control” the way a product is developed.
Apache is no different. The Apache Web-Server Project (also known
as the Apache Group, although this term more accurately describes
the entire Apache Software Foundation, or ASF) uses a clearly
defined process to give the contributors the freedom and
flexibility to program the way they like, without resulting in
total confusion or anarchy. This is no easy task for a project as
large as, or a program with as many lines of code as Apache. The
very fact that this process works as well as it does is another
validation of the Open Source movement, which historically has to
handle large numbers of developers from all across the globe.”
“Beyond the actual Apache Web server, has the Apache Group also
developed a process that other Open Source projects can use? Or are
the process and the project simply too closely entwined for the
process to work on its own? Let’s see.”