Sun Open Sources the Netscape Enterprise Server

An anonymous reader writes "Brian Aker has announced that Sun has open sourced the Netscape Enterprise Server under the BSD license. This is the evolution of the original server Netscape sold in the '90s during the rise of the first bubble. Almost twenty years later, Apache's original competitor is now made available for anyone to use under an open source license."

Comments

Relevant?

[bradgoodman]

Is this even relevant anymore? Does anyone even care?

Re:Relevant?

[vux984]

Is this even relevant anymore? Does anyone even care?

That's what I was thinking too...

I actually used Netscape enterprise server way back when... it did LDAP, email imap/pop, and other stuff too... not just web. It competed, in my opinion more than just Apache.

Its surely seriously outdated code by now in terms of standards supported, etc so its probably not very useful... but who knows... maybe there is something worth looking at in the code. Its certainly not a bad thing that its been open sourced.

Re:Relevant?

[truthsearch]

Nope, it's dead. And this time netcraft really does confirm it.

Re:Relevant?

[htnmmo]

For those that still use it/need it might have to support it it's good. It's also an important part of internet history.

Re:Relevant?

[AKAImBatman]

LDAP, email imap/pop

Those were different products often bundled as part of a complete Netscape (later IPlanet) solution. Those are now sold as Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition and Sun Java System Messaging Server, respectively.

And this code isn't the dead version of Netscape Enterprise Server. It's the core to Sun Java System Web Server, yet another piece of the Sun Java Enterprise System.

Make sense? Next order of business, then. May I have a call for all those in favor of firing Sun's marketing department? (Slashdot crash in 3... 2... 1...)

Re:Relevant?

[athakur999]

So we always talk about how companies should open source software that is no longer being maintained or sold... then when a company actually does it, we say "who cares".

Re:Relevant?

[ducomputergeek]

It can't hurt. As much of pain as it is to operate in mixed environments, we deploy a mix of lighttpd and apache web server for the very reason that even if a major bug or exploit is found in one, about half our front end systems would still be available while the others are being patched.

The more options the better in my book.

Re:Relevant?

[afabbro]

I think about once a week I hit a page that has the Sun logo as its favicon, a telltale sign of NES.

Look for Jonathan Schwartz to write a four-paragraph blog on how this move "leverages the power of our dynamic open source global environmental network" and Sun's "innovation-intensive open ecosystem for defining new architectures and requirements for radical scale, economics and availability" and such.

Also look for Sun's stock price to continue sinking.

Re:Relevant?

[tonyr60]

This is not the original Netscape code that is being open sourced, it is the current Sun Web server that has its roots in the Netscape Web server. I doubt there is much of the original code left.

what is not clear is that this is just part of Sun's strategy of outsourcing ALL their code. For example the Sun Application server is outsourced as Glassfish, Directory server is OpenDirectory and the SeeBeyond stuff is going into open source components of JavaCAPS.

Interesting the way the licensing is going, earlier outsource efforts were CDDL, then GPL, now BSD. If this keeps up slashdotters are going to have to find another company to bitch about.

Re:Relevant?

[dedazo]

As good as Apache is, it could use some competition. Apache also creates a sort of monoculture that is probably not very healthy (especially in conjunction with PHP).

I personally have been moving away from Apache and using lighttpd (and FastCGI) whenever possible with my Python applications.

More choices are always better.

Re:Relevant?

[ACMENEWSLLC]

Na, only a few people said who care. I say "Cool, another open source product."

I'll never use as a developer, but another free option is always good. Like someone else said, maybe there is some good code in there. Perhaps projects I do use will benefit from this.

Kudos to Sun.

Re:Relevant?

[AKAImBatman]

Java software is portable and generally a hell of a lot less painful to setup and configure. (Which I guarantee from experience, Apache DS is much smoother than SJDS.) Believe it or not, there's a hell of a lot of advantages to having your server software written in Java.

If you have a bias against Java, you might want to check it at the door pronto. You're cutting yourself off from some of the best server-side software in the industry.

Kudos to Mr. Aker!

[AKAImBatman]

Wow. Netscape Enterprise Server. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I was actually pretty excited about looking at the code to satisfy my historical interest. There's a lot of old Netscape technology that's bitten the dust over the years!

Unfortunately, this appears to be the modern Java Enterprise Server code. There's even Java 1.5 classes to read in modern XML configuration files. I can't find any sign of some of the really interesting stuff from days gone by. (e.g. LiveScript - a technology that was before its time and thus under-implemented compared to what it could have been used for.)

Still, this is a very interesting bit of history and I'd like to thank Sun and Mr. Aker for releasing it! I'm going to dig through the versioning history and see if there's anything in there. Anyone else here find something interesting?

One thing that impresses upon me about this server is how little code their is. Weighing in at only 13 MBs, it's far too small of a project to be of commercial interest today. But back then, this was some pretty big stuff! ;-)

Re:Kudos to Mr. Aker!

[CyberLord Seven]

Netscape Enterprise Server. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

Why, oh why, did you have to phrase it like that and trigger the memory?

NCSA Mosaic: Netscape Enterprise Server. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time.

Luke Spyglass: I heard he died during the Browser Wars.

NCSA Mosaic: Oh, he's not dead. Not yet, anyway.

Luke Spyglass: So, you know him.

NCSA Mosaic: Of course I do. He's me!

From the Slashdot discussion "Browser Wars Declared Over?

April 18, 2007

From Browser Wars IV: A New Hope

by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18, @01:34PM (#18784983)

Luke Spyglass: "You fought in the browser wars?"

NCSA Mosaic: "I was once a web browser the same as your father."

Luke Spyglass: "My father didn't browse the web. He was a finger server at the community college."

NCSA Mosaic: "That's what your Uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals. He thought he should stay home. Not gotten involved."

Luke Spyglass: "I wish I had known him."

NCSA Mosaic: "He was a cunning application, and the best downloaded in the galaxy. I understand you've become quite a good downloader yourself. And he was a good friend. For over a thousand days the W3C protected the web. Before the dark times. Before the Empire"

Luke Spyglass: "How did my father die?"

NCSA Mosaic: "A young web browser named Internet Explorer, who was a derivative of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Emporer hunt down and destroy the W3C standards. He betrayed and murdered your father. IE was seduced by the Dark Side of the internet."

Luke Spyglass: "The internet?"

NCSA Mosaic: "Yes, the internet is what gives a web browser his power. It's an energy field created by all connected computers. It surrounds us. Penetrates us. Binds the world together. Which reminds me. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your Uncle wouldn't allow. He thought you'd follow NCSA Mosaic on some idealistic crusade."

Luke Spyglass: "What is it?"

NCSA Mosaic: "It is open source browser source code. The weapon of a web browser. Not as random or clumsy as a closed source. An elegant idea for a more civilized age."

What next? OS/2?

[netglen]

Shouldn't this announcement be placed under "too little, too late"?

Re:What next? OS/2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too little? Sun in pretty much open sourcing everything it has ever produced, and that's a lot.

Too late? As far as I know, Sun is massive company that manages, among other things, one of the world's most used programming platforms/languages.

Has it's stocks gone down a lot? Sure. It's a shame. But every time I see "too little, too late" I must wonder... WTF

Re:Scott McNealy: almost twenty years too late ..

[ishobo]

You may want to come out of your cave. Jon Schwartz is the CEO and has been for several years.