ABOUT_APACHE revision ae7bb2d0ddd3b41ced6100e77f6d1ed306774bd5
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankg The Apache HTTP Server Project
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankg February 2002
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgThe Apache Project is a collaborative software development effort aimed
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgat creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgsource code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgjointly managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgthe Internet and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgits related documentation. These volunteers are known as the Apache Group.
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgIn addition, hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code, and
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgdocumentation to the project. This file is intended to briefly describe
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgthe history of the Apache Group, recognize the many contributors, and
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgexplain how you can join the fun too.
7190e58eec40192c9719d2f2593471eda14e7e7cfuankgIn February of 1995, the most popular server software on the Web was the
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgpublic domain HTTP daemon developed by Rob McCool at the National Center
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgfor Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgHowever, development of that httpd had stalled after Rob left NCSA in
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgmid-1994, and many webmasters had developed their own extensions and bug
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgfixes that were in need of a common distribution. A small group of these
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgwebmasters, contacted via private e-mail, gathered together for the purpose
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgof coordinating their changes (in the form of "patches"). Brian Behlendorf
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgand Cliff Skolnick put together a mailing list, shared information space,
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgand logins for the core developers on a machine in the California Bay Area,
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgwith bandwidth and diskspace donated by HotWired and Organic Online.
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgBy the end of February, eight core contributors formed the foundation
95ca7cc2aa11b41497ffab3a1003bc09d24b6bc1fuankgof the original Apache Group:
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Brian Behlendorf Roy T. Fielding Rob Hartill
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes David Robinson Cliff Skolnick Randy Terbush
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Robert S. Thau Andrew Wilson
70953fb44a7140fe206c3a5f011e24209c8c5c6abnicholeswith additional contributions from
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Eric Hagberg Frank Peters Nicolas Pioch
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgUsing NCSA httpd 1.3 as a base, we added all of the published bug fixes
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesand worthwhile enhancements we could find, tested the result on our own
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesservers, and made the first official public release (0.6.2) of the Apache
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesserver in April 1995. By coincidence, NCSA restarted their own development
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesduring the same period, and Brandon Long and Beth Frank of the NCSA Server
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesDevelopment Team joined the list in March as honorary members so that the
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholestwo projects could share ideas and fixes.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThe early Apache server was a big hit, but we all knew that the codebase
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesneeded a general overhaul and redesign. During May-June 1995, while
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesRob Hartill and the rest of the group focused on implementing new features
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesfor 0.7.x (like pre-forked child processes) and supporting the rapidly growing
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesApache user community, Robert Thau designed a new server architecture
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes(code-named Shambhala) which included a modular structure and API for better
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesextensibility, pool-based memory allocation, and an adaptive pre-forking
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesprocess model. The group switched to this new server base in July and added
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesthe features from 0.7.x, resulting in Apache 0.8.8 (and its brethren)
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesAfter extensive beta testing, many ports to obscure platforms, a new set
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesof documentation (by David Robinson), and the addition of many features
70953fb44a7140fe206c3a5f011e24209c8c5c6abnicholesin the form of our standard modules, Apache 1.0 was released on
70953fb44a7140fe206c3a5f011e24209c8c5c6abnicholesDecember 1, 1995.
b387b9d37fc71c534f4718777454a8f5a1169017fuankgLess than a year after the group was formed, the Apache server passed
b387b9d37fc71c534f4718777454a8f5a1169017fuankgNCSA's httpd as the #1 server on the Internet.
b387b9d37fc71c534f4718777454a8f5a1169017fuankgThe survey by Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) shows that Apache
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesis today more widely used than all other web servers combined.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes ============================================================================
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesCurrent Apache Group in alphabetical order as of 2 April 2002:
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Greg Ames IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
8492a2583e10c69f40de92f9d5da884b64d9f379fuankg Aaron Bannert California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Brian Behlendorf Collab.Net, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ken Coar IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Mark J. Cox Red Hat, UK
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Lars Eilebrecht Freelance Consultant, Munich, Germany
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ralf S. Engelschall Cable & Wireless Deutschland, Munich, Germany
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Justin Erenkrantz University of California, Irvine
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Roy T. Fielding Day Software, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Tony Finch Covalent Technologies, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Dean Gaudet Transmeta Corporation, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Dirk-Willem van Gulik Covalent Technologies, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Brian Havard Australia
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ian Holsman CNET, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ben Hyde Gensym, Massachusetts
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Jim Jagielski jaguNET Access Services, Maryland
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Manoj Kasichainula Collab.Net, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Alexei Kosut Stanford University, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Martin Kraemer Munich, Germany
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ben Laurie Freelance Consultant, UK
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Rasmus Lerdorf Yahoo!, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Daniel Lopez Ridruejo Covalent Technologies, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Doug MacEachern Covalent Technologies, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Aram W. Mirzadeh CableVision, New York
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Chuck Murcko The Topsail Group, Pennsylvania
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Brian Pane CNET Networks, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Sameer Parekh California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes David Reid UK
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes William A. Rowe, Jr. Covalent, Illinois
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Wilfredo Sanchez Apple Computer, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Cliff Skolnick California
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankg Marc Slemko Canada
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Joshua Slive Canada
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Greg Stein California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Bill Stoddard IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Sander Striker The Netherlands
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Paul Sutton Seattle
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Randy Terbush Covalent Technologies, California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Jeff Trawick IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Cliff Woolley University of Virginia
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesApache Emeritus (old group members now off doing other things)
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ryan Bloom California
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Rob Hartill Internet Movie DB, UK
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankg David Robinson Cambridge University, UK
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Robert S. Thau MIT, Massachusetts
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Andrew Wilson Freelance Consultant, UK
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesOther major contributors
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Howard Fear (mod_include), Florent Guillaume (language negotiation),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Koen Holtman (rewrite of mod_negotiation),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Kevin Hughes (creator of all those nifty icons),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Brandon Long and Beth Frank (NCSA Server Development Team, post-1.3),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Ambarish Malpani (Beginning of the NT port),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Rob McCool (original author of the NCSA httpd 1.3),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Paul Richards (convinced the group to use remote CVS after 1.0),
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes Garey Smiley (OS/2 port), Henry Spencer (author of the regex library).
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesMany 3rd-party modules, frequently used and recommended, are also
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesfreely-available and linked from the related projects page:
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes<http://modules.apache.org/>, and their authors frequently
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholescontribute ideas, patches, and testing.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesHundreds of people have made individual contributions to the Apache
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesproject. Patch contributors are listed in the CHANGES file.
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgFrequent contributors have included Petr Lampa, Tom Tromey, James H.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesCloos Jr., Ed Korthof, Nathan Neulinger, Jason S. Clary, Jason A. Dour,
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesMichael Douglass, Tony Sanders, Brian Tao, Michael Smith, Adam Sussman,
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgNathan Schrenk, Matthew Gray, and John Heidemann.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes ============================================================================
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesHow to become involved in the Apache project
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThere are several levels of contributing. If you just want to send
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesin an occasional suggestion/fix, then you can just use the bug reporting
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesform at <http://httpd.apache.org/bug_report.html>. You can also subscribe
b387b9d37fc71c534f4718777454a8f5a1169017fuankgto the announcements mailing list (announce-subscribe@httpd.apache.org) which
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholeswe use to broadcast information about new releases, bugfixes, and upcoming
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholesevents. There's a lot of information about the development process (much of
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholesit in serious need of updating) to be found at <http://httpd.apache.org/dev/>.
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholesIf you'd like to become an active contributor to the Apache project (the
036436f4f4cdcd76186c0058891216545967043bbnicholesgroup of volunteers who vote on changes to the distributed server), then
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholesyou need to start by subscribing to the dev@httpd.apache.org mailing list.
41022996c916eb4ab2ec3204eb491b64779eb100bnicholesOne warning though: traffic is high, 1000 to 1500 messages/month.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesTo subscribe to the list, send an email to dev-subscribe@httpd.apache.org.
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgWe recommend reading the list for a while before trying to jump in to
0662ed52e814f8f08ef0e09956413a792584eddffuankgdevelopment.
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankg NOTE: The developer mailing list (dev@httpd.apache.org) is not
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes a user support forum; it is for people actively working on development
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes of the server code and documentation, and for planning future
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes directions. If you have user/configuration questions, send them
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes to users list <http://httpd.apache.org/userslist> or to the USENET
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix".or for windows users,
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankg the newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows".
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThere is a core group of contributors (informally called the "core")
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholeswhich was formed from the project founders and is augmented from time
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesto time when core members nominate outstanding contributors and the
0662ed52e814f8f08ef0e09956413a792584eddffuankgrest of the core members agree. The core group focus is more on
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes"business" issues and limited-circulation things like security problems
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesthan on mainstream code development. The term "The Apache Group"
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholestechnically refers to this core of project contributors.
0662ed52e814f8f08ef0e09956413a792584eddffuankgThe Apache project is a meritocracy -- the more work you have done, the more
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesyou are allowed to do. The group founders set the original rules, but
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesthey can be changed by vote of the active members. There is a group
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesof people who have logins on our server (apache.org) and access to the
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholessvn repository. Everyone has access to the svn snapshots. Changes to
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesthe code are proposed on the mailing list and usually voted on by active
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesmembers -- three +1 (yes votes) and no -1 (no votes, or vetoes) are needed
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesto commit a code change during a release cycle; docs are usually committed
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesfirst and then changed as needed, with conflicts resolved by majority vote.
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgOur primary method of communication is our mailing list. Approximately 40
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesmessages a day flow over the list, and are typically very conversational in
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholestone. We discuss new features to add, bug fixes, user problems, developments
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgin the web server community, release dates, etc. The actual code development
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholestakes place on the developers' local machines, with proposed changes
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholescommunicated using a patch (output of a unified "diff -u oldfile newfile"
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholescommand), and committed to the source repository by one of the core
ce22ce4743d79a889dca64df4459c598e2c188c7fuankgdevelopers using remote svn. Anyone on the mailing list can vote on a
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesparticular issue, but we only count those made by active members or people
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholeswho are known to be experts on that part of the server. Vetoes must be
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesaccompanied by a convincing explanation.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesNew members of the Apache Group are added when a frequent contributor is
b387b9d37fc71c534f4718777454a8f5a1169017fuankgnominated by one member and unanimously approved by the voting members.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesIn most cases, this "new" member has been actively contributing to the
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesgroup's work for over six months, so it's usually an easy decision.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThe above describes our past and current (as of July 2000) guidelines,
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholeswhich will probably change over time as the membership of the group
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholeschanges and our development/coordination tools improve.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes ============================================================================
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThe Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org)
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesThe Apache Software Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal,
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesand financial support for the Apache open-source software projects.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesFounded in June 1999 by the Apache Group, the Foundation has been
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgincorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation in order
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgto ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgof individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgand funds on a sound basis, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgexposure while participating in open-source software projects.
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgYou are invited to participate in The Apache Software Foundation. We welcome
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgcontributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgwho have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative open-source software
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgdevelopment through sustained participation and contributions within the
d5ef50bb5810983012435957be0680bde34d1e44fuankgFoundation's projects. Many people and companies have contributed towards
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesthe success of the Apache projects.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholes ============================================================================
56ab8639aed4d3b2f031d9c1160c5f40af01bdebjerenkrantzWhy Apache Is Free
be88e49281c5becee364ab9c6a0576f9b9844e0fbnicholesApache exists to provide a robust and commercial-grade reference
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesimplementation of the HTTP protocol. It must remain a platform upon which
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesindividuals and institutions can build reliable systems, both for
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesexperimental purposes and for mission-critical purposes. We believe the
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholestools of online publishing should be in the hands of everyone, and
56ab8639aed4d3b2f031d9c1160c5f40af01bdebjerenkrantzsoftware companies should make their money providing value-added services
56ab8639aed4d3b2f031d9c1160c5f40af01bdebjerenkrantzsuch as specialized modules and support, amongst other things. We realize
56ab8639aed4d3b2f031d9c1160c5f40af01bdebjerenkrantzthat it is often seen as an economic advantage for one company to "own" a
56ab8639aed4d3b2f031d9c1160c5f40af01bdebjerenkrantzmarket - in the software industry that means to control tightly a
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesparticular conduit such that all others must pay. This is typically done
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesby "owning" the protocols through which companies conduct business, at the
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesexpense of all those other companies. To the extent that the protocols of
f7d723f1ad88ed006c6caf4c2c6604b7c59dd172bnicholesthe World Wide Web remain "unowned" by a single company, the Web will
f7d723f1ad88ed006c6caf4c2c6604b7c59dd172bnicholesremain a level playing field for companies large and small. Thus,
4f935de4900dc064a1e145be5e48f6af77ac24fcbnicholes"ownership" of the protocol must be prevented, and the existence of a
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesrobust reference implementation of the protocol, available absolutely for
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesfree to all companies, is a tremendously good thing.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesFurthermore, Apache is an organic entity; those who benefit from it
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesby using it often contribute back to it by providing feature enhancements,
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesbug fixes, and support for others in public newsgroups. The amount of
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholeseffort expended by any particular individual is usually fairly light, but
e961abd49ab1b184b356f63591d37083a5651451bnicholesthe resulting product is made very strong. This kind of community can
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesonly happen with freeware -- when someone pays for software, they usually
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesaren't willing to fix its bugs. One can argue, then, that Apache's
5f2aaa2483c4526d7930df4a0e5844c1b7b6c9c0fuankgstrength comes from the fact that it's free, and if it were made "not
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesfree" it would suffer tremendously, even if that money were spent on a
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesreal development team.
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesWe want to see Apache used very widely -- by large companies, small
440cda576ca9ff6476e4a04bdb253c5023da15eejerenkrantzcompanies, research institutions, schools, individuals, in the intranet
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesenvironment, everywhere -- even though this may mean that companies who
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholescould afford commercial software, and would pay for it without blinking,
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesmight get a "free ride" by using Apache. We would even be happy if some
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholescommercial software companies completely dropped their own HTTP server
bb2b38cd44b032118359afbc743efbea12f48e61bnicholesdevelopment plans and used Apache as a base, with the proper attributions
4a59e9d628fb857a45d516ad1cdc2a3499427e97fuankgas described in the LICENSE file.
a400161a259d6d9fd47a47fd9a4bb413fd85e3bcsfThanks for using Apache!