Apache 2.0 and Red Hat

I know there's a lag between writing an article and its publication, but
Apache 2.0 _is_ the default Web server for Red Hat.

In version 8.0, released this past week. (You can see that at
http://www.redhat.com/software/linux/technical/packages.html) That
information was long available via the public beta releases.

Your article also mischaracterizes the Apache development process:
although the current version is 2.0.43, the first 'production' version
in the 2.0 series was 2.0.35. Everything prior to that was a beta, as is
documented at http://www.apacheweek.com/features/ap2

I suspect that the API has been quite stable since 2.0.35 was released
in April of this year, though I'll admit to not having verified this. 
To characterize the Apache release process as having 30 incremental
releases is to misunderstand the open-source development process as it
applies to Apache. Surely you wouldn't claim that the Linux 2.4.2 kernel
was the 63rd incremental release of the system? (There were 51 patches
in the Linux 2.3.x development series, plus 9 patches at the 2.3.99
level.) 

As far as the performance of Apache goes, it's true that Apache
1.3's primary concern was stability, not performance. But, as a
consultant and system administrator, I've found few instances where
the performance of the Web server was the bottleneck. (More often,
it's poorly-architected dynamic content that can be accelerated via
a code rewrite or mod_perl.)

None of the production environments I work in have upgraded to Apache
2.0. Why not? Because what isn't broken, and what isn't a performance
bottleneck, doesn't get replaced. This is not, as the article suggests,
a failing of Apache 2.0 but a mark of Apache 1.3's success.

I look forward to using Apache 2.0, either when it comes preinstalled
on a system I am using, or when I develop a site that needs its power.
Until then, as both a Web developer and a Unix systems administrator,
I'm satisfied with Apache 1.3.

Jon Lasser
-- 
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