Over the past two decades, Linux has risen from obscurity to dominate the server and supercomputer landscapes鈥攏ot to mention serving as the foundation for Android smartphones and tablets. On the other hand, the Apache Software Foundation appears to be on shaky ground, with its leadership facing growing scrutiny.
銆€銆€The Apache Software Foundation is currently grappling with OpenOffice.org and other open-source projects.
銆€銆€InfoWorld’s Serdar Yegulalp delved deep into this issue last week: Has Apache lost its way? He wrote: “Whether the Apache Way is suited to open source project development in today’s software world is at the root of tensions within the ASF and discontent across the open source community…”
銆€銆€Yegulalp argues that open-source software development is increasingly splitting into two paths: one is “individually guided, spontaneously collaborative, GitHub-hosted, often with no formal support but great passion and energy,” and the other is “commercially sponsored, heavily invested in by the Apache Software Foundation, like OpenOffice.org, Hadoop, CloudStack, Tomcat, etc.”
銆€銆€As Brian Proffitt, an adjunct instructor at the University of Notre Dame, pointed out, “The ASF is very good at doing big projects that can revitalize their organization and resources. But their approach doesn’t work as well for small projects, lacking flexibility in handling issues.”
銆€銆€InfoWorld’s Andrew C. Oliver offered his own perspective on Apache’s internal contradictions:
“If you don’t care about profit but want to attract volunteers and users, Apache can help you. But Apache is heavyweight for any project. It takes a lot of time to make decisions, which sparks all kinds of arguments that might not even be necessary. Projects need leaders, but Apache strips leaders of the authority to steer projects on the right track. Instead, the leader has to become a community organizer. Some software developers are great at being community organizers, but most……are not.”
銆€銆€Yegulalp also agrees that the ASF is better suited for non-profit projects, like “broad platform-type technologies” or infrastructure, and that the foundation’s rules could also be seen as “a kind of reproach rather than a system. There is no reason for the ASF to try to be everything to everyone, and the model has done well so far. But it’s clear that it is far from being the only model in the open source world.”
銆€銆€Oliver’s views, drawn