Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:38:34 +0100
To: Open-Source followers <catherine@ala.com>
From: Catherine Dickson <catherine@ala.com>
Subject: ApacheCon Europe 2000


The Apache Software Foundation: Overview

Table of Contents

1.	The Evolution of Open Source and Free Software Movements
2.	Industry Embrace
3.	Apache -- The World's Leading Web Server
4.	The Apache Software Foundation [ASF]
5.	ASF Projects
6.	A Global Reach
7.	Get Involved
8.	Resources


1. The Evolution of Open Source and Free Software Movements

Open source and free software have evolved from the mid 1980s, when an
ad-hoc grouping of software developers banded together in a common pursuit.
They sought the ability to freely run, copy, distribute, study, change and
improve upon the publicly-available source code of a piece of software.
Open source does not have licensing restrictions that limit use,
modification or redistribution in the way many corporate-produced programs
do. This offers developers the freedom to study how programs work and the
opportunity to adapt programs to individual needs. It also offers the
ability to freely redistribute and share copies of programs and most
importantly, improve programs and release these improvements to the public
for the benefit of the whole community.

The result of this rapid evolutionary process is better-developed software
than the traditional closed model, in which only a few programmers have
access to the source. Mature open-source products are considered far more
reliable than their closed, corporate-produced counterparts, and support
for them is dramatically cheaper and easier to obtain than that from closed
vendors. Some of the most popular free software initiatives that have
evolved include: Linux, PHP, BSD and GNU.
While the free software movement gained momentum among individual
programmers worldwide, it also garnered support by for-profit corporations,
universities, consortia, government agencies and contractors. Historically
open-source software has been closely linked to both the Internet and Unix,
where many different hardware architectures require support. In cases like
this, source code distribution is the only practical way to maintain a
certain level of support.

Although the free software movement had its followers from within the
developer community, there was a significant level of scepticism regarding
the development of "real" tools and end-user solutions. Further doubt arose
when faced with the challenge of building a viable operating system, that
is, until the introduction of Linux.

The open-source alternative to Windows, Linux begun in 1991 by Linus
Torvalds while a college student in Finland, and was made freely available
to the developer community. Programmers all over the world have contributed
to the code and today millions of people are running Linux on their PCs.
Originally only available for PCs, Linux now supports systems ranging from
PDAs to huge supercomputing clusters. Countering the criticism that Linux
was beneficial to hackers for experimental purposes but inadequate for
robust end-user and Internet applications, Linux evolved into a preferred
alternative operating system to Microsoft. By mid 1999, sales of Linux
transcended Windows 98 at major software retail outlets.

However, the negative connotations associated with the term "free software"
continued to pose a threat to the open development process. In early 1998,
a small group of industry leaders met to help describe the process on
pragmatic, business-case grounds that would motivate companies to help
build open standards as actual software and collaborate on a product that
neither companies nor individuals could achieve alone. Their collaboration
resulted in the term "open source". A few weeks later, the description
appeared in the media and became the de facto term for an open development
process that promotes reliability, security and quality by supporting
independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code.

The core tenets of the open source movement revolve around the following
benefits, with the underlying goal of increased reliability:

1.  Free Redistribution -- the license may not restrict any party from
selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software
distribution containing programs from several different sources. The
license may not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2.  Source Code -- the program must include source code, and must allow
distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a
product is not distributed with source code, there must be a
well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a
reasonable reproduction cost -- preferably, downloading via the Internet
without charge.

3.  Derived Works -- the license must allow modifications and derived
works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the
license of the original software.

4.  Integrity of The Author's Source Code -- the license may restrict
source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license
allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the
purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly
permit distribution of software built from modified source code.

5.  No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups -- the license must not
discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6.  No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavour -- the license must not
restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of
endeavour. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in
a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7.  Distribution of License -- the rights attached to the program must
apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for
execution of an additional license by those parties.

8.  License Must Not Be Specific to a Product -- the rights attached to the
program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular
software distribution.

9.  License Must Not Contaminate Other Software


2. Industry Embrace

1998 marked several significant events heralded by the media and developer
community as breakthroughs for the open source movement: IBM announced
support and inclusion of the Apache Web server in its commercial solutions
and increased interest in Linux resulted in feature articles in both trade
and financial media outlets. This caused the industry as a whole, and in
particular Microsoft, to take notice. By the end of the year, the Linux
market share increased 212%.

Embrace of open-source software swept throughout the industry, with
commitment from key players such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics
Inc., Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat Software, Computer
Associates, Cygnus Solutions, C2Net, Netscape Communications, Covalent
Technologies, Corel and Linux Mall to participate in open-source
development as part of their solutions -- both commercial as well as
testbed implementations.

Currently, numerous open-source products are commercially supported,
including the Netscape browser -- convinced of the high productivity,
integrity of process and quality of open-source development, the browser
was made freely available and source code was released. As a result, a
worldwide community of programmers evolved, contributing to the code,
fixing bugs and enhancing the browser's functionality.

3. Apache -- The World's Leading Web Server

The origins of the award-winning Apache Server begin in 1995, when
development of the NCSA HTTP daemon, the leading server software on the Web
at the time, had stalled. This led a small group of webmasters to develop
their own "bug fixes" -- solutions to fix unwanted properties of the
program that were causing malfunctions, along with "patches" -- temporary
additions to the code as a quick-and-dirty remedy to existing bugs. To help
drive common distribution of these patches, the group collaborated
initially via email, and later formed a mailing list to coordinate changes
to the code. Shortly thereafter, eight core contributors to the code of
what was becoming informally referred to as a "patchy server" and later
evolved into the Apache Server, formed the foundation of the original
Apache Group. Less than a year after the group was formed, the Apache
server passed NCSA's httpd as the #1 Web server on the Internet.

Today, the Apache Server remains the leading Web server worldwide, with
hundreds of developers participating in code development. The Apache family
of open solutions for various desktop and server operating systems are used
by large and small corporations, research institutions, educational
organizations, individuals as well as government entities. Apache remains a
platform upon which individuals and institutions can build reliable
systems, both for experimental as well as mission-critical purposes.
The unparalleled success of the Apache Server project serves only to
illustrate the benefits of open-source development methods for the
interoperability of core software. Projects such as Apache demonstrate the
positive results of a collaborative development process, where individuals
join forces and transcend boundaries to build upon each other's work, and
create a newly customized and regularly improved product for the benefit of
the global community. Without spending any funds on research, marketing, or
advertising, this grouping of volunteer programmers accomplished a feat
that has become the aim of commercial software developers worldwide.

4. The Apache Software Foundation [ASF]

Formed in June 1999 by members of the Apache Group to provide
organizational, legal and financial support for the Apache open-source
software projects, the Apache Software Foundation [ASF] was founded as a
membership-based, non-profit corporation to ensure that the Apache projects
continue to exist beyond the participation of individual volunteers, enable
intellectual and financial contributions and provide legal support for
participating in open-source software projects.

The ASF is a volunteer-based organization, whose membership consists of
individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative open-source
software development through sustained participation and contributions
within the Foundation's projects. In addition, many individuals and
companies have contributed towards the success of the Apache project.

5. ASF Projects

While the ASF shepherds the development of the Apache Server Project, it is
also the home of several industry-defining initiatives. They are:

Apache Server Project [aka The Apache Project]
The Apache Project continues to develop the world's leading robust,
commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available source code
implementation of an HTTP Web server. The project is jointly managed by a
group of volunteers located around the world, using the Internet and the
Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and its related
documentation. These volunteers are known as the Apache Group. In addition,
hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code, and documentation to the
project.

Apache XML Project
The Apache XML Project provides commercial-quality standards-based XML
[Extensible Markup Language] solutions that are developed in an open and
cooperative fashion, to provide feedback to standards bodies such as IETF
and W3C from an implementation perspective, and to be a focus for
XML-related activities within Apache projects. This project has been seeded
with significant code contributions from a number of individuals, including
Stefano Mazzocchi and James Tauber. The Java-Apache community, as well as
corporations that include IBM, Sun Microsystems, Exoffice, DataChannel and
Lotus Development Corporation have also made contributions.

Jakarta
Jakarta is home to two new projects related to server-side Java,
specifically Tomcat, a Java Servlet engine, and Josper, a Java Server Pages
reference implementation. The Jakarta Project is composed of members of the
Apache Jserv Project, engineers from major corporations such as Sun and
IBM, newer companies like Exoffice, and serious, committed individual
developers.

Java-Apache
The Java-Apache Project is home to various other server-side Java projects:
Apache JServ, a servlet engine; JSSI, a template engine for Java; Cocoon,
an XML processing engine implemented as a servlet; and the Element
Construction Set, a servlet for rendering HTML from complex data
structures. This project and Jakarta are very closely connected.

mod_perl
The Apache/Perl integration project brings together the full power of the
Perl programming language and the Apache HTTP server. With mod_perl it is
possible to write Apache modules entirely in Perl. In addition, the
persistent interpreter embedded in the server avoids the overhead of
starting an external interpreter and the penalty of Perl start-up time.

In addition, the ASF hosts the ApacheCon developer conference series to
provide those involved in open-source development the opportunity to meet
many of the key players active in various Apache initiatives as well as
bring their unique expertise to bear on issues that will play a vital role
in the development of computing in an open, collaborative forum.

6. A Global Reach

In October 2000, the ASF will host ApacheCon 2000 Europe -- the first
European conference and exhibition for Apache-related software -- in
response to growing European interest in open-source software. ApacheCon
Europe 2000 follows a highly successful ApacheCon 2000, the first Apache
users' conference held in Orlando Florida in March, where tutorials,
presentations, birds-of-a-feather sessions and keynotes were held by
thought leaders from academia as well as independent developers, and
representatives from international corporations including IBM, Collab.Net,
Sun Microsystems, Covalent Technologies, Lotus Development Corporation,
C2Net, Enkubator and JaguNet.

7. Get Involved

ApacheCon Europe 2000 is an ideal opportunity to meet many of the Apache
developers and to find out more about the Foundation and its projects. With
an anticipated attendance of at least four hundred Internet professionals,
ApacheCon Europe 2000 attendees will witness and participate in one of he
most interesting new software projects since the dawn of computing -- the
open source revolution.

Developers: send email to <info@apachecon.com> with your name, address,
company name, title, and any additional questions or information. The
conference planning team will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.

Members of the Press: to register, please contact Dan Chappell on:
+44.1273.675100 or at <apachecon@zotgroup.com>

8. Resources

Further information on the Apache Software Foundation, its Projects, as
well as the open-source software movement is available at

*	The Apache Software Foundation http://www.apache.org/
*	ASF Projects http://www.apache.org/foundation/projects.html
*	Open Source http://www.opensource.org/
*	The Free Software Foundation http://www.gnu.org/

ASF Board Members and Official Spokespeople -- please send inquiries to
<board@apache.org>with copy to <apache@zotgroup.com>

*	Brian Behlendorf
*	Roy Fielding
*	Ken Coar
*	Lars Ellerbecht
*	Ben Laurie
*	Dirk-Willem van Gulik
*	Randy Terbush
*	Jim Jagielski
*	Sameer Parekh


------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASF Team at ZOT Group
6 July 2000


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