Apache Software Foundation Releases Apache 2.0 Alpha

The Apache Software Foundation last week
at the ApacheCon 2000 conference in Orlando, Fla., unveiled the alpha release of Apache 2.0.

In a move that was probably
designed to fan the fires of the Open Source community, Apache made the
announcement by posting the news on the Slashdot.org web site, which was
projected on a viewscreen in front of the closing ceremony audience.
The Apache Software Foundation last week
at the ApacheCon 2000 conference in Orlando, Fla., unveiled the alpha release of Apache 2.0.

This pre-release version of Apache 2.0a provides several improvements over
the previous (1.3) release, including:

• Unix Threading – for Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache
  will be able to operate in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode; this
  should improve scalability
• New Build System – the build system has been rewritten from scratch to
  be based on autoconf and libtool; this makes configuration system for
  Apache more similar to that of other packages, and thus, easier to use
• Multiprotocol Support – this release of Apache has some infrastructure
  in place which will support the serving of multiple protocols; mod_echo has
  been written as just such an example
• Better support for non-Unix platforms – this release should be faster
  and more stable on non-Unix platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows; with
  the introduction of platform-specific multiprocessing modules and the
  Apache Portable Runtime, these platforms will be able to avoid using
  POSIX-emulation functions that can tend to be buggy and hurt the web
  server’s performance
• New API – the API for modules has been significantly changed for this
  release; many of the module-ordering problems from 1.3 should be gone; much
  of this is accomplished automatically, and module ordering is done per-hook
  to enable additional flexibility; new calls have been added that should
  enable modules to do more without requiring patching of the core Apache server

For additional information, or to download the Alpha release, visit the Apache Server Project Web site.

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