On 4/14/08, Johnny Kewl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Yes, The more I look at IT biz models, the more I worry about IT and Java > I also think that Apache must make sure their biz model is absolutely > transparent.
The Apache Software Foundation is a charity. We're not a business and don't have a business model. Apache has philosophies. In a world full of pragmatism, this is powerful. > Every project needs to be an island, so that if two projects are competing, > Apache itself is nothing more than a delivery vehicle. No project is an island: that's what distinguishes Apache from sourceforge. Social ties bind us together. Even when we're working on projects which provide different solutions to the same problem, we're still all part of the broader community. Learning from one another makes us all stronger. Apache is a distributed organisation. Power and responsibilty is pushed from the center to the peripheries. Projects are self-organising and self-determining communities, within the broader Apache community. > Java is living on a knife edge, Sun competing with Apache is I think very > unhealthy. If either wins, Java loses. Apache believes in Software Darwinism: that the very act of creating competing software that others are free to learn from and build on is for the public good. Whilst there are developers who have ideas which improve the current art, Apache cannot lose. If Sun creates the perfect open source Java then harmony will die but Apache will have achieved it's goal. As soon as Sun adopts GPL3, any improvements made at Apache can be made into their Java. Everyone wins in software terms. > Users I think are becoming very aware that products materializing now are > designed more as war tools, than for the betterment of Java. Clandestine biz > models are not going to benefit anyone. > Somewhere trust has completely broken down. > > Suns biz model, I really dont like, I think its preditory, but then Apache's > biz biz model is a big unknown, so maybe Sun see's it as defending whats > theirs... whatever the actual problem is, the current trend seems to be on > the low road for Java. Sun owns the Java trademark. Sun has the power to decide the future of Java. Apache just likes to let communities of developers express themselves though code. we've not a business and don't have a business plan. harmony has done some very interesting and cool stuff by allowing the developers to determine direction. Apache trades control for innovation, and so there's not telling where any of this will lead... "the FSF may have a viral license model but the ASF has a viral development model" - robert
