Zen and the Art of Apache Maintenance

SilentBob4 writes "Apache recently held a week-end "infrathon" to sweep the dust out of the corners, squash a few old bugs, drink a wee bit of ale (maybe a wee bit more than a wee bit) and get their hands dirty with the Zen of maintaining their infrastructure. MadPenguin.org crashed the party in search of the secrets of getting into the "zone" while peeking into the grittiest of the nitty gritty with one of the darling projects of open source, Apache." From the article: "The guys that I interviewed were among some of the brightest minds in open source; Brian Behlendorf; Upayavira; Greg Stein; and Roy Fielding, all of whom are well known and regarded (or deserve to be). These guys have the skills to be Microsoft millionaires, but instead flew thousands of miles to sit slouching on couches and squatting on cushions hacking infrastructure maintenance for free, primarily just to hang out with each other, even though they could have done the same thing on line."

Comments

Uh

[Elwood P Dowd]

In public statements and in its 2004/9/1 SEC 10-k mandatory legal filing, Microsoft calls open source projects like Apache the second greatest profitability concern behind a weak global economy. Yet Microsoft doesn't "get" why their profitability is imperiled by a movement that their Chairman called a group of "communists." Maybe Chairman Bill doesn't "get" it because he's too busy answering press calls about his generosity in donating his billions to them poor brown people over there.

Wait, what's your point?

Re:Uh

[The Angry Mick]

I don't get it either, dude. Is he complaining about A) Bill being tied up with the press, B) giving away his money, or C) giving to charity, or D) all of the above?

If it's A, it's probably intended to mean Bill should spend more time with his developers. Possibly a valid point, but presented in a horribly malignant way.

If it's B or C, he should seek professional counselling. Soon.

If it's D, there's no hope for him. He'll never be happy and should consider moving to a small shack somewhere in the wilderness - preferably without easy access to the Internet, firearms and/or explosives.

RE: I imagine...

[fshalor]

That this meeting format method may even crop up on some HR person's desk as the next idea to try at m$.

I mean, apache's clearly costing a lot less to make into a good product than IIS. And compare the relative profitability... hehe ...ale and couches at redmond. slashdot article coming next month ...

This reminds me of the PostgreSQL crew...

[tcopeland]

...the fellows that keep the PostgreSQL server farm up and running. It seems like there's always something coming up - new releases, web page tweaks, PGFoundry activity, and all that. Props to Marc Fournier, Dave Page, Andrew Dunstan, and the other fellows who make things run smoothly!

Re:They Care.

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> this is what sets OSS above/apart from The Microsoft Way

True, but I don't think it's just a Microsoft thing.

Any large software company will have red-tape out the wazoo. If you had a bright idea and wrote some spiffy new bug-fix, it would go into a repository, need to get sold in house and then reviewed & tested before going gold in a patch god-knows-how-many months later...

As much as anything I think the processes are to help management cover their asses - If it goes through a 17 step analysis and is still wrong, they've done due diligence...

Re:Skills

[serutan]

I haven't even read the article but I was compelled to come in here and make sure somebody rebutted that statement. I've been a contractor at MS on and off for years, and although there are lots of smart people there, they probably aren't any smarter than you are, and they certainly aren't any less smart than the ones I knew there in 1990 who became millionnaires because of Windows 3.1.

Those folks didn't get rich because they're brilliant programmers, they got rich because Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are brilliant business tycoons. The proof is in the plethora of ex-MS employees whose own startups failed in the late 90s. I was a contractor at one of those too... high rise offices with breathtaking view, high-energy 20-something CEO with breathtaking secretary... product never saw the light of day.

Many of the men who survived sailing with Columbus, Magellan, etc, no doubt considered themselves a cut above the ordinary run of sailors, but how many of them can you name?

Ok, got that off my chest, now to go back and read the Apache article. Looks pretty interesting.