apache

Q&A: Google's open-source balancing act

Chris DiBona's job--manager of Google's open-source programs--is a balancing act.

Google consumes a lot of open-source software for its own highly profitable business. But as he oversees the search powerhouse's open-source work, DiBona has to ensure that the company reciprocates. It can't be all take and no give.

Free and open-source software advocates can be powerful allies--but also vocal critics. For example, some have critized Google for its lack of support for the Affero GPL license, which can require those using software for a publicly available network service to share modifications they've made to an … Read more

Google carves an Android path through open-source world

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google didn't invent open-source programming or pioneer the mobile-phone software market, but when it comes to its Android project, don't accuse Google of playing follow the leader.

Although the company has long used open-source software within its internal operations, Android is Google's highest-profile attempt so far to use the collaborative programming method to change how computing is done outside the company's walls.

Google is hardly the first company to try using open-source software to shake up the industry. What's notable is Google's willingness to ruffle feathers in the open-source world, including … Read more

When open source eats itself: SpringSource acquires Covalent

Ostensibly, SpringSource today announced the acquisition of Covalent to beef up its support for the Apache-sponsored project Tomcat. The problem with such thinking is that if this is the real reason, SpringSource got very little for its money.

There's no doubt that Spring+Apache is a recipe for success. In my own experience, I've seen widespread adoption of both, and often together (not the least being within the product my company, Alfresco, ships). Rod Johnson, CEO and founder of SpringSource, states:

We see Apache code being used by many of our customer accounts--the Apache Web server, Tomcat, Web services frameworks, Active MQ and a slew of other Apache technologies. We see pent-up demand for services from folks using Spring and Apache technologies.

It's unclear how an acquisition furthers this, since the best that SpringSource has acquired is a few developers associated with the project, but not the project itself.… Read more

2007: A great year for Apache

Call it the year of Apache, if you will. The Apache Software Foundation ("Apache") has announced strong results for 2007, which is even more significant when one considers how strong Apache was already.

Here are a few of the more salient and impressive results:

Starting from a base of 21 members (with the right to commit code to Apache's various projects) at Apache's inception in June of 1999, Apache grew 56 members in 2007 to a total of 259 members (and over 1,500 committers and a much larger number of non-affiliated contributors).… Read more

Using MAMP for local web development

I stumbled on MAMP this weekend when I couldn't figure out why my Apache installation on the Mac no longer seemed to support PHP.

MAMP stands for: Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP and is basically the Mac version of the LAMP stack. The thing I enjoyed is that it's a drag and drop install and you have the whole stack live with no configuration necessary. While it's not really for production it's much easier than having to navigate some of the intricacies of Apache (not that IIS is any easier, despite having better GUI tools) for development.… Read more

Yahoo! ups its financial commitment to Apache. Can we get more code with that?

Yahoo! continues to augment its open-source credentials, most recently by announcing that it has become a platinum sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. Yahoo!, along with the other web companies, has reaped massive rewards from adopting open-source technology like Apache. This is an effort to give a little back.

An open question, however, is what Yahoo! expects to get back from its financial commitment....

Yahoo!'s support of the ASF stemmed from its work with the Apache HTTP Server and Lucene projects. Today, several members of Yahoo!'s development teams are active, long-term code contributors to Apache Hadoop, the open source platform that makes it possible to efficiently process vast amounts of data on a cluster of commodity hardware.… Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

Marc Fleury dings Apache Software Foundation -- JBoss founder says Apache should get over the BSD license and work with other Java projects such as JBoss or Sun Microsystems' OpenJDK rather than replicate its own. Harald Welte leaves OpenMoko -- He's getting back into GPL enforcement after "quite a bit of internal friction" at OpenMoko, an attempt to make an open-source mobile phone that began at Taiwanese company FIC. Ulrich Drepper: Energy saving is everybody's business -- A call to arms for programmers to make their code interrupt the CPU less often, and a hint that … Read more

Marc Fleury to Apache: Get relevant

I see Apache doing great work all over the place, but Marc Fleury sees things differently, perhaps because the projects his old JBoss team competes with (like Geronimo) have been lackluster competitors. Marc takes a swipe at community cheerleaders and those that suggest he should do more to support Apache.

At the heart of Marc's Apache complaint is a belief that code is king in open source, not the ill-defined "community" around that code:

[At JBoss] we paid for coders; not politicians, or should I call them Aparachiks. The idea of funding somebody like Geir Magnusson, who as far as I can tell, has never written a line of code, but runs around contributing "community spirit" offends my sensibilities. Even if it didn't, I would still decline the offer. My Red Hat contract prohibits me from contributing to projects that compete with JBoss. Do I need to remind Jim that Geronimo competes with JBoss, albeit not very successfully. Should I be grateful for Geronimo?… Read more

Quicksilver goes open source for the Mac's Leopard release

How do you make a popular piece of desktop software even better? You open source it so that your users can become your co-developers.

In the case of the excellent Quicksilver - a Mac OS X application that lets you easily launch applications and more - you release the source code under an Apache license and invite the desktop world (i.e., everybody) to collaborate on shaping the product in the community's image.

While this sort of community development doesn't always materialize in many open-source projects, I'm convinced that Quicksilver will be different because it's an application that many developers already use and love and who therefore have an interest (and, presumably, an aptitude) in modifying.

Here's what users can expect from the open-source release in the short term:… Read more