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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:17:38
Rodent of Unusual Size (Ken.Coar@Golux.Com)
Thu, 24 Dec 1998 11:57:36 -0500
sameer wrote:
>
> C2Net, producer of the popular Stronghold product, in
> conjunction with Ralf S. Engelschall, author of the popular mod_ssl
> and mod_rewrite modules for Apache, together announce the creation of
> the OpenSSL Project.
:
> While we had been hoping to delay our announcement until we
> had a release finished with some significant added functionality, Ben
> Laurie's recent announcement forced our hand. We don't want to see a
> division of effort in the community, so we felt it important that we
> make this announcement now. We plan to make a more formal announcement
> after the New Year.
FWIW, I find this announcement extremely disturbing. Considering
Ralf's recent public upbraiding of Ben for not being 'friendly'
and supporting 'teamwork,' I find his (Ralf's) prominent mention in
this competing soi-disant 'OpenSSL' project highly hypocritical.
And I can't help but wonder how Ralf intends to deal with the
legal aspects he claimed would interfere with Ben's project.
Pots and kettles, friends, pots and kettles.
I regard this announcement as blatant grandstanding and
handwaving. Ben & company have already done some work, and
announced their project, but rather than C2Net et alia supporting
an already-announced and underway project, they've determined
to loudly handwave a new competing project. And why? Because
Ben 'forced their hand.' Clearly a valid technical reason.
I'm sorry, folks, but this sounds more like self-interest than
public interest to me. 'We do SSL for a living, so we're in charge.'
Not so much protecting the SSLeay package and technology, but
the investment made in it. Perhaps that's not the intent, even
behind the scenes, but that's certainly how it comes across to me.
Wanting to wait to announce until they 'had a release finished
with some significant added functionality' supports this impression.
I also find it troubling that C2Net has (or intends to) switch to
mod_ssl for the SSL portion of Stronghold. That certainly sounds
like a conflict of interest for Ralf/C2Net to me.
Unless someone backs down (and IMO it should be C2Net et al.
due to Ben's prior announcement), I think this effort is doomed
to be plagued by bickering and divisiveness, and the stated
intent -- preserving and enhancing SSLeay -- will actually
suffer rather than be properly fulfilled.
We need one project, not a multitude. And after reviewing the
two project announcements repeatedly, I think Ben's supports the
open-source model much more closely and reliably than 'OpenSSL.'
In other words, I think C2Net's/Ralf's project should be disbanded
and their efforts redirected toward joining and supporting -- as
peers -- Ben's and Steve's project.
Just my 2d.
-- #ken P-|}Ken Coar <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/> Apache Group member <http://www.apache.org/> "Apache Server for Dummies" <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/ASFD/>
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:17:38