Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 18:24:43 +0100 (CET)
From: Henri Bergius <bergie@s001.nl.envida.net>
To: user@midgard-project.org, lwn@lwn.net, marty@linuxtoday.com
Subject: Midgard 1.4 "Bifrost" released

Midgard 1.4 "Bifrost" released

HELSINKI, DEC 26TH 2000 -- The Midgard Project Ry has released a new
version of Midgard Content Management and Application Serving
Suite. The new release contains Midgard core libraries, a PHP3-based
Web application server for the Apache platform and Asgard, the
Web-based administration interface.

THIS RELEASE

Midgard 1.4 brings numerous enhancements to the Midgard 1.x
architecture. A number of bugs have also been fixed since the Midgard
1.2.5 release.

The Bifrost release holds many new features, including:

	- Object-Oriented data handling is now supported for
	  all Midgard data, bringing flexibility and easier
	  programming interfaces

	- Midgard now includes Repligard, a powerful XML-based
	  replication system

	- Same Midgard server can now host multiple virtual databases
	  using the SiteGroup system

	- Midgard now includes a new administration interface,
	  Asgard. The interface is available for many languages
	  including English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch

	- Midgard data can now be served from the file system
	  using XML-based FileTemplates

This release is the first one wholly built by Open Source developers
around the world, with only minor additions made by the original
development team. It has also been sponsored by various companies,
including major support by Aurora, a French software company.

While the Bifrost release still relies on the PHP3 scripting language,
a patch to support PHP4 is coming, and will be released in January.

ABOUT MIDGARD

Midgard 1.4 is an Open Source (OS) content management system based on
Apache and MySQL. The system uses PHP as its scripting language. The
application and documentation are licensed LGPL, GPL and GFDL which
ensures developers, webmasters, ISPs, and business managers that
they're investing in a strategy that grants everyone the freedom to
share solutions and participate in the application design. While
Midgard will always implement an OS development to publishing
solution, future releases will include APIs for implementing
commercial applications. Midgard works on most common UNIX platforms,
including Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris.

Midgard already has a quite good set of features for creating powerful
web sites, and is being used with successful results by some
commercial and un-commercial organizations. But this is not where the
development will end; rather, the development team also has more
ambitious goals about revolutionizing the way people think about Web
development.

LICENSING ISSUES

The Midgard core libraries are distributed under the GNU Library
General Public License, a license which permits the software to be
freely used so long as it is dynamically linked or the user can relink
it to new versions of the libraries. This is the same license used by
the Linux C libraries. This licensing scheme qualifies Midgard as free
software developed with an Open Source model.

The Midgard-based administration tools and usage examples in the
Midgard packages are distributed under the X Consortium license, which
doesn't impose any conditions on modification or redistribution of
source code or binaries other than requiring that copyright/license
notices are left intact. The new administration site, Asgard, is
licensed under GPL.

Official Documentation is licensed GFDL which supports the Free Usage
principles defined by the GPL for code.

DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS

	Source packages:
		http://www.midgard-project.org/download/

	Binaries (Red Hat, Mandrake):
		http://www.midgard-project.org/download/binaries/

	Midgard 1.4 Manual:
		http://www.midgard-project.org/req/midgard-1.4/

BUG REPORTS

Bug reports and enhancement requests on Midgard 1.4 can be submitted
to the Midgard Bug Tracker at

	http://www.midgard-project.org/bugs/

Users are also encouraged to join the discussion on the Midgard user
mailing list. Information on subscribing can be found from

	http://www.midgard-project.org/article/996.html

THE MIDGARD PROJECT

Midgard Project Ry (MPRy) is a nonprofit organization founded in
Helsinki, Finland for the advancement of Midgard by guaranteeing free
usage to developers and users. MPRy is responsible for governing
copyrights for the major components of the Application. Voting members
of the board are a volunteer group of professional software engineers
who are responsible for managing the core distribution and
coordinating development.

MPRy promotes Midgard by publishing a Web site, mailing lists and
newsletter. The organization represents Midgard by participating in IT
events, arranging training, Public Relations etc.

To support its operations, MPRy accepts donations and collects
membership fees. MPRy may choose to publish and sell supplemental
Midgard products. Membership to the Midgard Project is open to
everyone.

CONTACT INFORMATION

	Alexander Bokovoy, Midgard 1.x branch maintainer
	ab@avilink.net

	Henri Bergius, chairman, MPRy
	Henri.Bergius@iki.fi, +358-40-525 1334

	http://www.midgard-project.org/

-- 
-- Henri Bergius -- +358 40 525 1334 -- Henri.Bergius@iki.fi --
               http://www.iki.fi/Henri.Bergius