ABOUT_APACHE revision acf47691e4f2e788ea89e30f27015402f4bf9075
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan The Apache HTTP Server Project
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe Apache Project is a collaborative software development effort aimed
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanat creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathansource code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanjointly managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanthe Internet and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanits related documentation. These volunteers are known as the Apache Group.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanIn addition, hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code, and
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathandocumentation to the project. This file is intended to briefly describe
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanthe history of the Apache Group, recognize the many contributors, and
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanexplain how you can join the fun too.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanIn February of 1995, the most popular server software on the Web was the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanpublic domain HTTP daemon developed by Rob McCool at the National Center
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfor Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanHowever, development of that httpd had stalled after Rob left NCSA in
12d61dab3304980e691068219eaaab6398744a2eSukumar Swaminathanmid-1994, and many webmasters had developed their own extensions and bug
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfixes that were in need of a common distribution. A small group of these
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanwebmasters, contacted via private e-mail, gathered together for the purpose
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanof coordinating their changes (in the form of "patches"). Brian Behlendorf
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanand Cliff Skolnick put together a mailing list, shared information space,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanand logins for the core developers on a machine in the California Bay Area,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanwith bandwidth and diskspace donated by HotWired and Organic Online.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanBy the end of February, eight core contributors formed the foundation
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanof the original Apache Group:
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Brian Behlendorf Roy T. Fielding Rob Hartill
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan David Robinson Cliff Skolnick Randy Terbush
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Robert S. Thau Andrew Wilson
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanwith additional contributions from
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Eric Hagberg Frank Peters Nicolas Pioch
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanUsing NCSA httpd 1.3 as a base, we added all of the published bug fixes
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanand worthwhile enhancements we could find, tested the result on our own
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanservers, and made the first official public release (0.6.2) of the Apache
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanserver in April 1995. By coincidence, NCSA restarted their own development
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanduring the same period, and Brandon Long and Beth Frank of the NCSA Server
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanDevelopment Team joined the list in March as honorary members so that the
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathantwo projects could share ideas and fixes.
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanThe early Apache server was a big hit, but we all knew that the codebase
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanneeded a general overhaul and redesign. During May-June 1995, while
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanRob Hartill and the rest of the group focused on implementing new features
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanfor 0.7.x (like pre-forked child processes) and supporting the rapidly growing
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanApache user community, Robert Thau designed a new server architecture
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan(code-named Shambhala) which included a modular structure and API for better
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanextensibility, pool-based memory allocation, and an adaptive pre-forking
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanprocess model. The group switched to this new server base in July and added
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanthe features from 0.7.x, resulting in Apache 0.8.8 (and its brethren)
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanAfter extensive beta testing, many ports to obscure platforms, a new set
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanof documentation (by David Robinson), and the addition of many features
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanin the form of our standard modules, Apache 1.0 was released on
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanDecember 1, 1995.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanLess than a year after the group was formed, the Apache server passed
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanNCSA's httpd as the #1 server on the Internet.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe survey by Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) shows that Apache
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanis today more widely used than all other web servers combined.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan ============================================================================
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanCurrent Apache Group in alphabetical order as of 23 August 2001:
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Brian Behlendorf Collab.Net, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Ryan Bloom Covalent Technologies, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Ken Coar IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Mark J. Cox Red Hat, England
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Lars Eilebrecht CyberSolutions, Munich, Germany
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Ralf S. Engelschall Munich, Germany.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Justin Erenkrantz eBuilt, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Roy T. Fielding eBuilt, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Tony Finch Covalent Technologies, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Dean Gaudet Transmeta Corporation, California
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Dirk-Willem van Gulik Covalent Technologies, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Brian Havard Australia
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Ben Hyde Gensym, Massachusetts
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Jim Jagielski jaguNET Access Services, Maryland
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Manoj Kasichainula Collab.Net, California
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Alexei Kosut Stanford University, California
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Martin Kraemer Munich, Germany
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Ben Laurie Freelance Consultant, UK
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Rasmus Lerdorf Linuxcare, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Daniel Lopez Ridruejo Covalent Technologies, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Doug MacEachern Covalent Technologies, California
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan Aram W. Mirzadeh CableVision, New York
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Chuck Murcko The Topsail Group, Pennsylvania
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Sameer Parekh California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan William A. Rowe, Jr. Covalent, Illinois
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Wilfredo Sanchez Apple Computer, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Cliff Skolnick California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Marc Slemko Canada
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Joshua Slive Canada
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Greg Stein California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Bill Stoddard IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Paul Sutton Seattle
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Randy Terbush Covalent Technologies, California
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Jeff Trawick IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Cliff Woolley University of Virginia
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanApache Emeritus (old group members now off doing other things)
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Rob Hartill Internet Movie DB, UK
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan David Robinson Cambridge University, UK
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Robert S. Thau MIT, Massachusetts
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Andrew Wilson Freelance Consultant, UK
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanOther major contributors
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Howard Fear (mod_include), Florent Guillaume (language negotiation),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Koen Holtman (rewrite of mod_negotiation),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Kevin Hughes (creator of all those nifty icons),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Brandon Long and Beth Frank (NCSA Server Development Team, post-1.3),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Ambarish Malpani (Beginning of the NT port),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Rob McCool (original author of the NCSA httpd 1.3),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Paul Richards (convinced the group to use remote CVS after 1.0),
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Garey Smiley (OS/2 port), Henry Spencer (author of the regex library).
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanMany 3rd-party modules, frequently used and recommended, are also
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfreely-available and linked from the related projects page:
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan<http://modules.apache.org/>, and their authors frequently
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancontribute ideas, patches, and testing.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanHundreds of people have made individual contributions to the Apache
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanproject. Patch contributors are listed in the src/CHANGES file.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanFrequent contributors have included Petr Lampa, Tom Tromey, James H.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanCloos Jr., Ed Korthof, Nathan Neulinger, Jason S. Clary, Jason A. Dour,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanMichael Douglass, Tony Sanders, Brian Tao, Michael Smith, Adam Sussman,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanNathan Schrenk, Matthew Gray, and John Heidemann.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan ============================================================================
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanHow to become involved in the Apache project
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThere are several levels of contributing. If you just want to send
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanin an occasional suggestion/fix, then you can just use the bug reporting
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanform at <http://www.apache.org/bug_report.html>. You can also subscribe
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanto the announcements mailing list (apache-announce@apache.org) which we
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanuse to broadcast information about new releases, bugfixes, and upcoming
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanevents. There's a lot of information about the development process (much
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanof it in serious need of updating) to be found at <http://dev.apache.org/>.
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanIf you'd like to become an active contributor to the Apache project (the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathangroup of volunteers who vote on changes to the distributed server), then
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanyou need to start by subscribing to the dev@httpd.apache.org mailing list.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanOne warning though: traffic is high, 1000 to 1500 messages/month.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanTo subscribe to the list, send an email to dev-subscribe@httpd.apache.org.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanWe recommend reading the list for a while before trying to jump in to
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan NOTE: The developer mailing list (dev@httpd.apache.org) is not
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan a user support forum; it is for people actively working on development
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan of the server code and documentation, and for planning future
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan directions. If you have user/configuration questions, send them
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan to the USENET newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix", or for
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan Windows users, "comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows".
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanThere is a core group of contributors (informally called the "core")
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanwhich was formed from the project founders and is augmented from time
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanto time when core members nominate outstanding contributors and the
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanrest of the core members agree. The core group focus is more on
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan"business" issues and limited-circulation things like security problems
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanthan on mainstream code development. The term "The Apache Group"
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathantechnically refers to this core of project contributors.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe Apache project is a meritocracy -- the more work you have done, the more
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanyou are allowed to do. The group founders set the original rules, but
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanthey can be changed by vote of the active members. There is a group
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanof people who have logins on our server (apache.org) and access to the
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanCVS repository. Everyone has access to the CVS snapshots. Changes to
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanthe code are proposed on the mailing list and usually voted on by active
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanmembers -- three +1 (yes votes) and no -1 (no votes, or vetoes) are needed
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanto commit a code change during a release cycle; docs are usually committed
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfirst and then changed as needed, with conflicts resolved by majority vote.
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar SwaminathanOur primary method of communication is our mailing list. Approximately 40
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanmessages a day flow over the list, and are typically very conversational in
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathantone. We discuss new features to add, bug fixes, user problems, developments
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanin the web server community, release dates, etc. The actual code development
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathantakes place on the developers' local machines, with proposed changes
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancommunicated using a patch (output of a unified "diff -u oldfile newfile"
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancommand), and committed to the source repository by one of the core
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathandevelopers using remote CVS. Anyone on the mailing list can vote on a
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanparticular issue, but we only count those made by active members or people
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanwho are known to be experts on that part of the server. Vetoes must be
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanaccompanied by a convincing explanation.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanNew members of the Apache Group are added when a frequent contributor is
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathannominated by one member and unanimously approved by the voting members.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanIn most cases, this "new" member has been actively contributing to the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathangroup's work for over six months, so it's usually an easy decision.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe above describes our past and current (as of July 2000) guidelines,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanwhich will probably change over time as the membership of the group
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanchanges and our development/coordination tools improve.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan ============================================================================
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org)
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThe Apache Software Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanand financial support for the Apache open-source software projects.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanFounded in June 1999 by the Apache Group, the Foundation has been
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanincorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation in order
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanto ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanof individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanand funds on a sound basis, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanexposure while participating in open-source software projects.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanYou are invited to participate in The Apache Software Foundation. We welcome
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancontributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanwho have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative open-source software
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathandevelopment through sustained participation and contributions within the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanFoundation's projects. Many people and companies have contributed towards
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathanthe success of the Apache projects.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathan ============================================================================
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanWhy Apache Is Free
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanApache exists to provide a robust and commercial-grade reference
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanimplementation of the HTTP protocol. It must remain a platform upon which
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanindividuals and institutions can build reliable systems, both for
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanexperimental purposes and for mission-critical purposes. We believe the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathantools of online publishing should be in the hands of everyone, and
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathansoftware companies should make their money providing value-added services
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathansuch as specialized modules and support, amongst other things. We realize
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanthat it is often seen as an economic advantage for one company to "own" a
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanmarket - in the software industry that means to control tightly a
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanparticular conduit such that all others must pay. This is typically done
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanby "owning" the protocols through which companies conduct business, at the
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanexpense of all those other companies. To the extent that the protocols of
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanthe World Wide Web remain "unowned" by a single company, the Web will
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanremain a level playing field for companies large and small. Thus,
8d738d7d1f42180d941afa8b9a7310a2a437d17cSukumar Swaminathan"ownership" of the protocol must be prevented, and the existence of a
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanrobust reference implementation of the protocol, available absolutely for
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfree to all companies, is a tremendously good thing.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanFurthermore, Apache is an organic entity; those who benefit from it
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanby using it often contribute back to it by providing feature enhancements,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanbug fixes, and support for others in public newsgroups. The amount of
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathaneffort expended by any particular individual is usually fairly light, but
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanthe resulting product is made very strong. This kind of community can
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanonly happen with freeware -- when someone pays for software, they usually
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanaren't willing to fix its bugs. One can argue, then, that Apache's
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanstrength comes from the fact that it's free, and if it were made "not
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanfree" it would suffer tremendously, even if that money were spent on a
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanreal development team.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanWe want to see Apache used very widely -- by large companies, small
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancompanies, research institutions, schools, individuals, in the intranet
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanenvironment, everywhere -- even though this may mean that companies who
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancould afford commercial software, and would pay for it without blinking,
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanmight get a "free ride" by using Apache. We would even be happy if some
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathancommercial software companies completely dropped their own HTTP server
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathandevelopment plans and used Apache as a base, with the proper attributions
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar Swaminathanas described in the LICENSE file.
4d0e50075058332ce0cd62bc2669a8a4dea45da0Sukumar SwaminathanThanks for using Apache!