apache software

["Shah, Soniya M. [RA]" <ss...@telcordia.com>]

Hi All,
 
I have been using Apache software for a long time and am very happy with it.
 
But my management has strong concern's about this. Their main question is
"if we run into a really critical problem on client side, how do we support
it?". 
 
 I have not seen anything in the newsgroups where people had major problems
with the software. 
 
Have anyone experienced any critical problems in production environment? 
 
Any opinion on this question?
 
Thanks,
Soniya

Re: apache software

[__matthewHawthorne <ma...@apache.org>]

Shah, Soniya M. [RA] wrote:
> I have been using Apache software for a long time and am very happy with 
> it.
>  
> But my management has strong concern's about this. Their main question 
> is "if we run into a really critical problem on client side, how do we 
> support it?".
>  
>  I have not seen anything in the newsgroups where people had major 
> problems with the software.
>  
> Have anyone experienced any critical problems in production environment?
>  
> Any opinion on this question?


Every piece of software I've ever used has had problems -- some large, 
some small.  From Eclipse to Weblogic to JBoss to Oracle to MySql to 
Linux to Windows, there are bugs aplenty.

The nice thing about Apache, and the open source scene in general, is 
the surrounding community.  If I do find a bug, I can easily get help 
from other users who may have been in the same situation.  There are 
usually a few WIKIs, and also mailing list archives, which are a great 
information source.  And if need be, I can usually get in contact with 
the author of the code to inquire about the problem.

In a critical situation, I can get the source code, write a patch and 
submit it, then run my local copy until the patch is committed.  I've 
done this in the past with much success.

I've found dealing with critical problems in non-Apache software to be 
much more difficult.