The Jakarta Site

Say, why isn't there an ApacheForge?

For the time being, there are incubators enough. Though, if someone has the itch for an incubator project to host products with licenses compatible with Apache, the appropriate party to contact with a proposal for such a thing would the Apache Software Foundation.

Many SourceForge projects do use the Apache License , and we hope this segment will continue to grow. Indeed using Apache Software license before you make a proposal for becoming an Jakarta project will help ease fears that kudos was a motivator.

If an open source product you use is not distributed under an ASF-compatible license, please take the initiative and lobby the developers of that product to reconsider. <hint>Of course, any development team would be more amenable to such a suggestion if it came from an active contributor to the product or its technical support list.</hint>

It is important to note that the Apache Software Foundation is committed to supporting products "characterized by a collaborative, consensus based development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software that leads the way in its field."

The community factor is an essential component of the ASF's mission, and would difficult to monitor in a free-for-all incubator environment. We do not necessarily believe that more is better, and would not be eager to sacrifice the importance of community simply to gain "license-share". The horse must come before the cart.

We value communities more than software and it takes a lot of energy to build a community solid enough to build good enough software to pay back Apache for the risk of diluting the brand each time a new effort is added.

Of course, if someone were able to marshal the physical resources, the Apache community would undoubtedly welcome an open source incubator that promoted ASF-compatible licenses.