title: Whither OpenDS? link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/whither-opends/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 596 created: 2007/12/03 14:46:15 created_gmt: 2007/12/03 14:46:15 comment_status: open post_name: whither-opends status: publish post_type: post

Whither OpenDS?

The sad, pathetic, case of Sun management’s effort to strong-arm former developers, including founder Neil (he is, and always will be, “Directory Manager”) Wilson, on their OpenDS project has boiled over into public view.

A summary is up on El Reg today, written by John Waters, entitled Sun accused of hardball open source project tactics. For more detail see the once -proud-to-be-Sun OpenDS project lead’s An Open Letter to the OpenDS Community and to Sun Microsystems.

While I was never much interested in OpenDS itself, being convinced that real men write their LDAP servers in C (as God intended), I have benefitted enormously from the expert advice conveyed in the project blog. The comments attached to Neil’s original post make it clear that I’m not alone in feeling that way. Several comments urged the OpenDS developers to shift their efforts to the ApacheDS project, as a way of redeeming their skills for the benefit of the whole open source community. My own opinion is that if we must have a pure Java LDAP server, it would be a good thing if Neil & Co. were involved, and a project sponsored by the Apache Foundation is far preferred to one controlled by any commercial entity (apart from Red Hat, whose own behavior as an open source company is easy to contrast with Sun’s — just ask the guys over at CentOS).

Meanwhile, the latest news up on the OpenDS Project site is that you can now buy t-shirts and mugs at their Gift Shop. There’s a real great leap forward for open source!

Copyright 2004-2019 Phil Lembo