Comments on: The ASF is the Switzerland of Open Source

By: Lahiru

Lahiru — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:56:23 +0000

I was there at lightning talk…!!! Excellent comparison ..

By: niq

niq — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:40:49 +0000

Bertrand, the talk was even funnier, and was by far the best lightning talk at this year’s ApacheCon.

Thank you!

By: Shane Curcuru

Shane Curcuru — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:35:48 +0000

@Rogier I totally agree – I’d been saying that the ASF is the Switzerland of open source for years, but hadn’t realized the meme had legs.

It’s true, too: with our pragmatic license, we’re happy to work with anyone who wants to contribute, either code or documentation. We then ensure that the public at large is able to use it in whatever manner they see fit – privately or publicly, giving it away, or selling it for profit.

This also shows in the programming for ApacheCon: we’re happy to have vendors present – as long as the presentations are about interesting technical problems. It’s actually refreshing to see this is widely recognized in our CFP process as well: we get high quality technical, or business overview talks, every time. People understand that ApacheCon is a place to learn about the technology and make connections.

Hmmmm – now I wonder if we need to prod a few other people to post their Lightning Talks as well…

By: bdelacretaz

bdelacretaz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:41:16 +0000

@Rogier, the ASF is indeed an excellent neutral ground for people who might otherwise be “enemies” or at least competitors to cooperate.

I should have mentioned that, but that might have made my lightning talk too serious to qualify ;-)

By: Michael Marth

Michael Marth — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:39:04 +0000

there is also project/canton forks, see Jura in 1979

By: Rogier Peters

Rogier Peters — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:25:36 +0000

I was waiting for the “ASF is neutral, compared to commercial open source vendors” argument…

By: bdelacretaz

bdelacretaz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:22:52 +0000

No, no, not an attic! My canton might be the first to go there ;-)

By: Sylvain Wallez

Sylvain Wallez — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:12:33 +0000

LOL! I wish I could attend the live talk…

So as Greg shows, you do have an incubator. And do you have or plan to have an attic for retired cantons?

By: bdelacretaz

bdelacretaz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:23:00 +0000

@Greg, you’re absolutely right, Switzerland *used to* have an Incubator. It’s dead now, I guess ;-)

By: Greg Klebus

Greg Klebus — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:40:49 +0000

> Contrary to the ASF, Switzerland does not have an Incubator and does not accept new cantons. Swiss folks are not that crazy.

Not being an expert on either, I beg to differ here: Switzerland has grown from the three primitive cantons to today’s 26! The last one, Canton Jura, was actually accepted to the Confoederatio Helvetica not so long ago, in the late 1970s (actually, it was a spin-off of another project, err, canton).

You’re right though, that we’re probably going to wait a good while for another canton to join ;-)