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The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home. The foundation doesn't employ developers or really allocate resources

by pquerna 10y ago

The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home. The foundation doesn't employ developers or really allocate resources for a specific project. It is a "home" with a legal structure, IP structure, some infrastructure, a recurring conference for community events, etc. I think most people misunderstand the ASF. It is not meant to be the home for every software project. It is meant to be the home for projects that care about community and long term stewardship. By long term, I mean, more like 100 years than the next 10 months. It has successful projects, and failures. Maybe it should be more vocal about the successes, but Apache isn't. The foundation isn't flashy. It isn't "hip". It shouldn't be. It's supposed to outlast the corporations we think about today as giants. (I'm an ASF member)

ceejayoz 10y ago
> The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home. I think the point that's being made is that a home in a neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties winds up losing a lot of its value.
- pquerna 10y ago
  Almost 300 projects now: https://projects.apache.org/ https://projects.apache.org/ I wouldn't describe it as a "neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties". Yes, theres been a bunch of drama around OpenOffice, but many projects are doing great.
mrweasel 10y ago
>I think most people misunderstand the ASF. That really my point. I don't think that any project has ever failed because it was adopted by Apache, but the foundation has adopted some hopeless cases and they seem to get most of the focus.
nixos 10y ago
Can you please explain the purpose behind ASF? Back in the day, providing hosting space was really a big deal, but nowadays, with GitHub, GitLab, or SF, why put a project on the ASF rather than just dump the code to GiHub with an Apache license?
- mvc 10y ago
  I think it is a reasonable default governance framework if you're a maintainer or group of maintainers who don't have strong opinions on something better and just want to focus on building a healthy open source project
  - nixos 10y ago
    >reasonable default governance framework Why do you need one? What will happen if you just build a community around github (especially an Apache-licensed project which doesn't have licencing enforcement issues found in copyleft code)

by pquerna 10y ago

ceejayoz 10y ago

> The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home. I think the point that's being made is that a home in a neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties winds up losing a lot of its value.

pquerna 10y ago
Almost 300 projects now: https://projects.apache.org/ https://projects.apache.org/ I wouldn't describe it as a "neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties". Yes, theres been a bunch of drama around OpenOffice, but many projects are doing great.

mrweasel 10y ago

>I think most people misunderstand the ASF. That really my point. I don't think that any project has ever failed because it was adopted by Apache, but the foundation has adopted some hopeless cases and they seem to get most of the focus.

nixos 10y ago

Can you please explain the purpose behind ASF? Back in the day, providing hosting space was really a big deal, but nowadays, with GitHub, GitLab, or SF, why put a project on the ASF rather than just dump the code to GiHub with an Apache license?

mvc 10y ago
I think it is a reasonable default governance framework if you're a maintainer or group of maintainers who don't have strong opinions on something better and just want to focus on building a healthy open source project
- nixos 10y ago
  >reasonable default governance framework Why do you need one? What will happen if you just build a community around github (especially an Apache-licensed project which doesn't have licencing enforcement issues found in copyleft code)