Open Source Poster Boys

It's nice that "the media" and the outside world in general have finally noticed Open Source. Trouble is, unless you mention Linux, their eyes glaze over like yesterday's halibut. Open Source has a lot of successes, especially Apache . So how come you never see that rainbow feather on the news? Read on.

Sometimes it seems that we're all living in some Bizzaro web world.

Apache runs on over half the sites on the entire web. It's beating the pants off Microsoft's "offering," IIS, as well as other such solutions from such Web "pioneers" as Netscape. One would expect that when the Web and Open Source were discussed in the media, Apache would be a constantly featured player. But other than some noteworthy exceptions, Apache is rarely if ever mentioned.

Today's media darling, when it comes to Open Source technology, or even anything web, is Linux. Why has the popular media (and even some geek media, which should know better) focused so extensively on Linux, at the expense of other powerful and noteworthy successes? If you are one of the more paranoid among us, the answer is clear. With one target, it's easy to get your aim right. After all, if you take down Linux, then by default you take down all the other Open Source players, and Microsoft comes out smelling like a rose. Surely this is all a ploy to ensure total world domination by Microsoft!

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I do tend to think that the media likes playing up the David vs. Goliath angle of "Linux vs. Microsoft." It needs a single player on the Open Source side, to even out that 800lb gorilla called Microsoft. There's this simple fascination that someone, somewhere could "beat" Microsoft. Imagine that!

With that in mind, I'd like to tune the media into a little secret. Shhhhh. Come closer, so I can whisper it into your ear.

"IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING BABY! IT'S CALLED APACHE "

If people are so concerned or curious whether Open Source can be a success and "beat" Microsoft (or any commercial and/or proprietary company) in this "web thing," then Apache is proof positive that the answer is yes. Apache never started out to "beat" Microsoft, nor is that one of it's goals. It presents itself only as an accurate, reliable and decently fast web server. And for the vast majority of those looking for web servers, what's important is that Apache delivers what it promises. Maybe that is another key feature of Apache's success: that it doesn't promote itself as ABM (Anything But Microsoft). It's content with letting it's performance and track record speak for it. Trouble is, in today's world, you gotta shout.

Certainly, the "battle over the desktop" sounds sexier than "the battle over the web servers," and Microsoft is known more for Windows and NT rather than IIS. So it makes sense that an alternative that goes toe-to-toe with Microsoft in a specific arena that they have controlled for so long, will become such a well known entity. But it is up to all of us to make sure that the message about Open Source is more than just Linux. There are other players that deserve their time in the spotlight, not only for their continued health and survival but also because it presents a more accurate and well-rounded view of what Open Source really is. Open Source is a rich and varied rainbow of projects, each one clearly showing that Open Source is viable, that it can succeed, that it does succeed. Allowing the media to portray one project as the focus of the entire movement does a disservice to the countless other projects and their developers. Open Source can not and should not live or die by what happens to Linux.

Apache makes our case stronger, and in doing so, helps out the entire Open Source movement. So does Perl. So does PHP. So does FreeBSD. Let's make sure the world gets the whole picture. We will all, even Linux, be the better for it.