Quality of code in Apache; Friedman quotes on Apache and IBM
nes...@wigner.berkeley.edu
http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/index.php?p=311
Here I cite from Thomas Friedman's recent book, The World is Flat,
concerning the Apache collaboration with IBM. Everything between the
lines is quoted (pp. 87 and following).
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By February 1999, they had completely rewritten the original NCSA
program and formalized thier cooperation under the name "Apache"...
But how does it [open source collaboration] actually work? ...
"Most software development involves a source code repository and is
managed by tools such as the Concurrent Versions System," he
[Behlendorf] explained. "So there is a CVS server out there, and I
have a CVS program on my computer. It allows me to connect to the
server and pull down a copy of the code, so I can start working with it
and making modifications... If I have the right privileges [which is
restricted to a tightly controlled oversight board], I can then take my
patch and commit it to a repository and it will become part of the
source code..."
So how does this community decide who are the trusted members?
"For Apache," said Behlendorf, "we started with eight people who really
trusted each other, and as new people showed up at the discussion forum
and offered patch files posted to the discussion forum, we would gain
trust in others, and that eight grew to over one thousand. We were the
first open source project to get attention from the business community
and get the backing of IBM."
...IBM was trying to sell its own proprietary Web server, called GO,
but it gained only a tiny sliver of the market. Apache proved to be
both a better technology and free. So IBM eventually decided that if
it could not beat Apache, it should join Apache.
IBM "initiated contact with me, as I had a somewhat public speaker role
for
Apache," said Behlendorf...
John Swainson was the senior IBM executive who led the team that
approached Apache (he's now chairman of Computer Associates). He
picked up the story: "There was a whole debate going on at the time
about open-source, but it was all over the place. We decided we could
deal with the Apache guys because they answered our questions. We
could hold a meaningful conversation with these guys, and we were able
to create the [nonprofit] Apache Software Foundation and work out all
the issues."
At IBM's expense, its lawyers worked with the Apache group to create a
legal framework around it so that there would be no copyright or
liability problems for companies, like IBM, that wanted to build
applications on top of Apache and charge money for them. IBM saw the
value of having a standard vanilla Web server architecture...that was
constantly being improved by an open-source community...
"Today anybody can download the Apache code [said Swainson]. The only
obligation is that they acknowledge that it came from the site, and if
they make any changes that they share them back." There is an Apache
development process that manages the traffic, and you earn your way
into that process, added Swainson. It is something like a pure
meritocracy. When IBM started using Apache, it became part of the
community and started making contributions.
Indeed, the one thing the Apache people demanded in return for their
collaboration with IBM was that IBM assign its best engineers to join
the apache open-source group and contribute, like everyone else, for
free. "The Apache people were not interested in payment of cash," said
Swainson. "They wanted *contribution* to the base. Our engineers came
to us and said, 'These guys who do Apache are good and they are
insisting that we contribute good people.' At first they rejected some
of what we contributed. They said it wasn't up to their standards!
The compensation that the community expected was our best
contribution."
Today Apache is one of the most successful open-source tools...At the
time, selling a product built on top of an open-source program was a
risky move on IBM's part. To its credit, IBM was confident in its
ability to keep producing differentiated software applications on top
of the Apache vanilla. This model has since been widely adopted, after
everyone saw how it propelled IBM's Web server business to commercial
leadership in that category of software, generating huge amounts of
revenue.
As I will repeat often in this book: There is no future in vanilla for
most companies in a flat world.
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Erik Funkenbusch
> See separate thread, "Why Windows is Less Secure than Linux," and
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/index.php?p=311
There's already been a long discussion on this in here. Why not add to
that thread rather than starting your own?
Geico Caveman
This stuff causing problems at work, FUDbush ?
Linonut
What a caviler.
--
Kreegah! Bundolo Microsoft bolgani!
Linonut
> Erik Funkenbusch wrote:
>
>> There's already been a long discussion on this in here. Why not add to
>> that thread rather than starting your own?
>
> This stuff causing problems at work, FUDbush ?
Linux is so easy, even a caveman can use it!