general/1435: Request for contact (fwd)

[Marc Slemko <ma...@znep.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 19 Nov 1997 21:48:13 -0000
From: Sam Hulick <hu...@lucent.com>
To: apbugs@hyperreal.org
Subject: general/1435: Request for contact


>Number:         1435
>Category:       general
>Synopsis:       Request for contact
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Nov 19 13:50:01 PST 1997
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     hulick@lucent.com
>Organization:
apache
>Release:        1.2
>Environment:
Solaris
>Description:
I wasn't able to find a contact address on your page.  I work for Lucent
Technologies, and I'm in the process of trying to convince our department to
switch from Netscape Enterprise 3.0 to Apache.  I was curious about the commercial
support teams, since that's one issue Lucent will be concerned about.  They don't
want to hear that support isn't available for it.

Also, do you sell your server with a full license, etc.?  I'm afraid that perhaps
this company frowns upon free software--thinking that because it's free, it's
unstable and may not support mission-critical projects, so it may be better for
Lucent to purchase Apache (maybe Stronghold?).

If you have any tips on how to promote this, or any lists lying around that compare
Apache to other web servers, that would be great.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
-Sam Hulick
Lucent Technologies
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Re: general/1435: Request for contact (fwd)

[Marc Slemko <ma...@worldgate.com>]

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Marc Slemko wrote:

> I wasn't able to find a contact address on your page.  I work for Lucent
> Technologies, and I'm in the process of trying to convince our
> department to switch from Netscape Enterprise 3.0 to Apache.  I was
> curious about the commercial support teams, since that's one issue
> Lucent will be concerned about.  They don't want to hear that support
> isn't available for it. 

There are various organizations that provide third party support
for Apache, however there aren't really any that stand out as
having a large market share or being particularily visible.

http://www.apache.org/info/support.cgi contains some (somewhat 
outdated, unfortunately) information on some companies that do
Apache stuff.

> Also, do you sell your server with a full license, etc.?  I'm afraid

No.  We do not have the corporate structure or resouces to back up
such a commitment, even if we wanted to.

A full license is what everyone has.

> that perhaps this company frowns upon free software--thinking that
> because it's free, it's unstable and may not support mission-critical
> projects, so it may be better for Lucent to purchase Apache (maybe
> Stronghold?). 

A person who knows what they are doing and has the source is a lot
more likely to be able to get a time-critical fix done ASAP than
someone with $$$ of support contacts with a vendor who doesn't
really care much.

You may want to look at Stronghold.  It gives you the advantage of 
source, a strong base in the Apache server, support, RSA licenses
for SSL, and a pretty interface.  

Unfortunately, there are no nice answers.  When BSDI tripled
their price for BSD/OS based on marketing people's recommendations
(even though the tech guys thought it was crazy), sales went up by
a factor of three or something.  The issue of perceived value is
quite important to many people for some reason; doesn't mean it
has any basis in reality, but...