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Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

The issue is that the Apache Foundation have been used as a dumping ground for "unwanted" projects. There's a number of projects that have done very well under Apache, but it's all projects where developers have moved with the code.

Sadly there's also a large number of projects that have just been thrown under the Apache hat, assuming that the foundation would somehow allocate developers. So it often seems like Apache is the place where projects go to die, while the projects that do well aren't often viewed as Apache projects. I mean who thinks about Hadoop being and Apache project?

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The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home. The foundation doesn't employ developers or really allocate resources for a specific project. It is a "home" with a legal structure, IP structure, some infrastructure, a recurring conference for community events, etc.

I think most people misunderstand the ASF. It is not meant to be the home for every software project. It is meant to be the home for projects that care about community and long term stewardship. By long term, I mean, more like 100 years than the next 10 months.

It has successful projects, and failures. Maybe it should be more vocal about the successes, but Apache isn't. The foundation isn't flashy. It isn't "hip". It shouldn't be. It's supposed to outlast the corporations we think about today as giants.

(I'm an ASF member)

>I think most people misunderstand the ASF.

That really my point. I don't think that any project has ever failed because it was adopted by Apache, but the foundation has adopted some hopeless cases and they seem to get most of the focus.

> The Apache Foundation doesn't "make" projects successful or failures, it provides a home.

I think the point that's being made is that a home in a neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties winds up losing a lot of its value.

Almost 300 projects now:

https://projects.apache.org/

I wouldn't describe it as a "neighborhood full of foreclosures and zombie properties". Yes, theres been a bunch of drama around OpenOffice, but many projects are doing great.

Can you please explain the purpose behind ASF?

Back in the day, providing hosting space was really a big deal, but nowadays, with GitHub, GitLab, or SF, why put a project on the ASF rather than just dump the code to GiHub with an Apache license?

I think it is a reasonable default governance framework if you're a maintainer or group of maintainers who don't have strong opinions on something better and just want to focus on building a healthy open source project

>reasonable default governance framework

Why do you need one?

What will happen if you just build a community around github (especially an Apache-licensed project which doesn't have licencing enforcement issues found in copyleft code)

"The issue is that the Apache Foundation have been used as a dumping ground for "unwanted" projects."

Not quite... instead, Apache has been used by some projects to give it a "kick-in-the-pants" and a renewed opportunity to grow and thrive. The ASF wouldn't take on any "dumped" project unless that opportunity was there. It's what the whole Incubation process is about. Sure, sometimes it doesn't pan out, but that is far from it being a place where projects "go to die".

As far as "who thinks about Hadoop ... being ... Apache", well, everyone should. We kind of stress that people correctly make such attributions. As someone who clearly knows that Hadoop is under the ASF, you, for example, instead of perputuating FUD about Apache could be reminding people about the slew of incredibly successful, innovative and forward-think projects that live there.

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