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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."
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 (and 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 of one of the darling projects of open source, Apache.
There's a lot of talk about "community" in the open source world, and learned papers by the hundreds are chasing the mystery of why highly talented hackers give away code for free. But for those of use who don't hack code, maybe we just have to try to sit and stare at a blank wall for an hour or so to experience the "Zen" of something as grinding and nitty gritty as infrastructure maintenance.
Maybe it's sort of like the tedious poses that yoga practitioners do; or the mind-numbing, repetitive training that star athletes engage in; or the hours of relentless practice of top violinists slashing away at their violins. Maybe true beauty can't be bought by the billions of dollars stashed away in Microsoft's banks. Maybe the only way to "get" the Zen of open source community is to hunker down and grind out deadly dull infrastructure maintenance work. Maybe you actually gotta "feel the burn" to get the high.
There were no corporate press releases for this event. No splashy media ads or glossy print magazine ads. The event did not take place in a big, loud conference center such as San Francisco's spacious Moscone Center. There was no hoard of gawkers hoping to catch sight of someone famous. There were no booth babes or flashy booth displays or big deal keynote speakers giving presos in front of massive, wall-sized video flat screen panels;and no banners or security guards or fancy speaker passes. It took place at Brian Behlendorf's house, which is not even in a gated community. We drove right past his house the first time while looking for his address.
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 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.
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.
When I asked these guys what they liked about the infrathon, some of them did talk about seeing the physical manifestations of the stuff that they were "seeing" in code form: they liked to visit the co-location facilities, the cages, and the actual boxes that are the work horses of the minor miracle that is Apache. They talked about the massive numbers of committers they support, the huge volumes of server hits and email messages, and the security measures protecting all of that massive activity, and they liked the fact that their work here makes all of that stuff go. But mostly, they just liked to hang out with each other.
I'm sure that each of them, upon reading this article, will say that I have made a big deal out of nothing. Each of them was busily volunteering each other's availability when I told them that I was going to interview them for this article.
I spoke with Brian Behlendorf, Upayavira, Greg Stein, and Roy Fielding, in that order, and their interviews have been transcribed, snipped, and pres
At one time the empire of IBM was threatened by an uprising of folks building their own microprocessors (amateurs and small business), now the empire of Msft is threatened by folks writing their own software and making it available free or inexpensively.
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