IMO

Previously I posted about how while at OSCON, I was interviewed by Paul Hudson from Linux Format UK. Well, the interview is out, in their Linux Format 74, Christmas/December issue. It's kind of embarrassing First of all, I'm mentioned twice on the cover, then a small snapshot of me in the ToC and then a very nice article with large pictures. And then there's that "Lord Jim" phrase... And I'm thinking to myself, "Who the heck am I that I 'earned' this?" I just consider myself a guy who has some marginal talent and was lucky enough to be at the right places and the right times. There are other "unknown heroes" that I know quite well, who deserve just as much recognition, if not more. Then again, there are also lots of other people who, IMO, don't "deserve" as much as they get, so I guess it all evens out The interview itself is pretty good, though there are some typos and what appear to be mistakes in transcription. And my kids get a kick out of seeing their old man in a magazine. And my wife likes it when I call her "Lady Eileen." So even though I feel kind of "modest" about the whole thing, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a totally cool blast. So it was a very surprising, but nice, early Christmas present. Thanks again to Paul and LF-UK!

Lots of stuff to post about, but instead of lumping them all into one, I'll make separate entries. First big news is that we've released v2.2.0 of the Apache HTTP Server ("Apache"). I must admit that I was somewhat concerned about what appeared to be a rush to release, to meet some artificial deadline, but the more I think about it, what's important is getting this release out quickly to many people, so they can use it and provide feedback on it. Even though the 2.1 tree has gotten a serious workout by some very large, big-name sites, now that 2.2 is GA, the codebase will get an even wider user audience. There are a lot of very cool features, and some "older" features have been significantly improved. I'm expecting a lot of people to finally migrate off of 1.3 in favor of 2.2. Much is being made about how 2.2.0 was released 10 years to the day from 1.0.0. Somehow that makes me feel both old and young at the same time. It seems crazy that I've been developing and hacking Apache for over 10 years now. That's a relationship longer than a lot of marriages I know about! During that time it's been my fortunate good luck to have worked with some truly gifted programmers, true artists of the craft. I don't like mentioning names because there are so many, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but 2 in particular stand out, and I feel comfortable mentioning them because they are no longer actively engaged with the ASF. Robert S. Thau (RST) was crucial in the initial design of the main aspects of what we currently think of as basic Apache concepts (pools, the API, etc...). And Dean Gaudet was a master in going from concept to code, and in optimization of both. I learned much from both. It's also interesting to see how things have changed, and how the basic concept of how the ASF works is constantly being verified by Apache. In the over 10 years since Apache was released, I've seen developers come and go, yet the community remains, and it's the community that develops. I've seen other open source projects whither and die when a "key" developer leaves, yet healthy ASF projects continue to grow, because we've always stressed the community; and time and time again we've seen how right that is, and that people step up, and fill any "voids" that might exist.