On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Lee wrote:
> I wondered if I could throw some questions your way to get more information
> and to generate quotes?
Shoot!
> They want to how Midgard compares with application servers from the giant
> players (specifically Vignette and Sun/Netscape),
Those are some pretty big players right there. Midgard is closer to
Vignette than to the Sun/Netscape server. All three will allow one to
build web-based applications, but Vignette StoryServer and Midgard both
have a strong focus on built-in content-, user- and layout management.
> and how likely they are
> to succeed against big marketers like these?
Midgard is pretty new to the market; how well it will stack up
against the commercial offerings is hard to say right now.
What will work to our advantage is the current wave of popularity
of the OpenSource phenomena.
For smaller companies and private persons, the price (Midgard
being free) will probably be the prime argument for going
with Midgard.
But if you're considering StoryServer vs. Midgard you're likely
to be a largish corporation, and the purchase price will
be less of an issue, if at all. What OpenSource 'buys' you,
in this case, is freedom and protection. Missing features can
easily be requested, or even paid for (http://www.cosource.com),
and the chance that the company that builds your mission-critical
software goes bankrupt or is embraced-and-smothered is non-existant.
Furthermore, since most OpenSource projects are run by volunteers,
they have much to gain by adopting open standards for reasons of
interoperability and collaboration.
> How does Midgard differ from other application servers?
Most application servers focus entirely on application development.
Midgards' built-in content management system makes it very
suitable for rapid and flexible deployment of content-oriented
sites like ezines and community servers. Furthermore, the separation
of content and presentation that Midgard offers allows the web
builder to easily present multiple views on the content (with
or without frames, graphics or flash, browser-dependant pages,
personalization, printer-friendly versions, etc.) without an
awkward duplication of the material you want to present.
The content providers need not know about the way(s) their
articles will be presented.
I hope this gives an idea of what we're trying to achieve. You
may also be interested in our write-up at
http://www.midgard-project.org/article/884.html. If there are
more questions you're very welcome to pose them on our list.
Bye,
Emile
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