Covalent has today announced their new Raven SSL 1.4 module for Apache (BTW,
Randy Terbush from Covalent is also on the sw-mod-ssl list, when I remember
correctly). I today had a detailed look at their website under
http://www.covalent.net/raven/ssl/
and was surprised to see that they seem to have finally switched from their
Apache-SSL-based Raven 1.3 product to a Raven 1.4 product which is now based
on mod_ssl (Oops, I've to update the product table in my slide-set for
ApacheCon'99, too ;-).
Although they do not explicitly say this and Randy also not dropped my at
least a single note about this, I'm 100% sure it's either based on some
mod_ssl 2.2.x version or on a mod_ssl 2.1 version where some 2.2 features were
backported. For instance under
http://www.covalent.net/raven/ssl/docs/configuration
we can find the Reference Chapter 3 (ssl_ref.html) from our mod_ssl User
Manual. It was completely relayouted (hmmm... it no longer fits very well my
typographic eyes, but ok) and slightly reworded (to get rid of my wodden
English ;_) and adjusted for Raven paths and product names. But it's
_definitely_ the ssl_ref.html document, of course.
What surprised me was that although it includes SSLRandomSeed (introduced by
me in 2.2.0) it doesn't speak about the per-directory facility of
SSLCipherSuite, SSLVerifyClient, etc (although this was introduced with the
_same_ 2.2.0 version). Very interesting.... either Covalent doesn't trust this
2.2 facility and removed hints to it or Raven 1.4 is just mod_ssl 2.1 plus
some backported functions of 2.2. Hmmm... at least _very_ interesting.
Although I wished I had received a little bit of information about this
interesting switch before it finally happended (hey, sure it's Open Source,
but wouldn't it be gentleman-like to drop the author at least a short note
before one kicks out a product to the market based on his work?), perhaps
Randy can at least _now_ give us now some statements about the current Raven
state-of-the-art, the technical decisions behind the switch, the actually used
software versions and perhaps even some details about Covalent's plans for the
future of Raven? Randy, do you listening?
Anyway I'm very happy to see that one more product on the market is based on
my work and I wish Covalent really the best with their new Raven product. At
least they can be sure I'm personally supporting their decision and handling,
(although I will never receive any money or other similar return service for
this, of course).
But at least I hope the mod_ssl community also gets something back from
Covalent: general feedback and perhaps even bugfixes and enhancements. At
least I can say that another vendor who works on switching to mod_ssl (and
still hasn't finished) _already_ contributed a lot more to the mod_ssl project
than Covalent (from them I've still not received feedback or patches). Randy,
I treat it as a point of honour and a must that Covalent also _actively_
supports the mod_ssl community by sharing patches and enhancements and giving
feedback from time to time. Eventually it should be at least in Covalent's own
commercial interest, of course.. ;-)
So, let us be happy that one more commercial vendor on the market based their
product on our Open Source software. A better recognition we cannot expect on
the market, of course. :) And perhaps Covalent/Randy additionally gives us a
little bit of background information...
Greetings,
Ralf S. Engelschall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.engelschall.com
______________________________________________________________________
Apache Interface to OpenSSL (mod_ssl) www.engelschall.com/sw/mod_ssl/
Official Support Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
