Apache Rewrites History: Why is it Named “Apache”?

http://xahlee.info/UnixResource_dir/open_source_rewrite_history.html

by brudgers • 13 years ago

25 27 13 years ago

jcr2• 13 years ago

If you didn't know, long ago in the 90's there was a kerfuffle between the Apache Nation (Native Americans) and the Apache software project over the ownership of the "apache.org" domain name. Needless to say, the project won and retained the domain.

If the software project actually had any respect for the Native American Apache tribe, then they would have given the domain name to the tribe/nation.

protomyth2• 13 years ago

I get the feeling that some of the tribes are getting much more tech and IP savvy. At some point, some of these projects are going to get served WTO complaints. Particulary if they change their websites to put up revised histories.

Regardless, it is a scummy practice and obscures searches.

pjscott• 13 years ago

What practical purpose would that serve, other than breaking a bunch of links?

protomyth2• 13 years ago

Why the desire to change college team names to something other than Native American names? Why shouldn't they get to use their name on the web?

jcr2• 13 years ago

It's a fair question. In 1995/96 when the kerfuffle went down, the number links on web were nothing by today's standard. Heck, I remember reading discussion surrounding the disagreement on usenet, and at the time, the web was still fairly new.

The main issue I wanted to point out is how their revisionist history is entirely disingenuous, and their refusal to give the domain to the Apache Nation pretty much proves the level of respect they really have for the Native American tribe.

As a person with the first name of "John" I'm certainly aware of how easy it is for a single name to be shared, but sadly, domain names don't work that way.

Oddly enough, it seems someone has edited wikipedia to match the revisionist history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server

mtdewcmu• 13 years ago

Gosh. Yet another insult in a long history of insults.

withoutthis3• 13 years ago

But they owned it first.

Or are you trying to steal JCR.org ?

tvachon• 13 years ago

I, for one, choose to believe it was named for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLK5ZOjWaXE

codepopacy• 13 years ago

Please, please, not the kitsch... respect the original and great...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLocafpLMi0

enduser• 13 years ago

Xah Lee is a long-time troll. However, this post is true. See references:

  * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=466302
  * http://xahlee.info/Netiquette_dir/troll.html (from his own site)
  * http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/python/python/489908?do=post_view_threaded#489908
  * https://github.com/hober/troll-filters

chittis• 13 years ago

What's the purpose of your comment? Are you concerned people might browse xahlee's pages and find some useful information there?

withoutthis3• 13 years ago

Political correctness is a bitch.

dalke5• 13 years ago

Or the other way. I didn't follow the link because I know it's to a known troller's site and therefore my default assumption is it's wrong or at least highly distorted.

When the g'parent poster commented that 1) it's a known troll but 2) the information is correct anyway, I decided to look further into the topic.

michaelhoffman• 13 years ago

If Apache wants to rewrite history, they should at least acknowledge that the version they now regard as incorrect was propagated by their own documents for many years.

o0-0o• 13 years ago

Interesting post, but I think a lot of times the nuanced details of a name are usually multi-faceted (read, there are multiple reasons for a name, which is why is sticks). I'm sure it was innocent, and not ill-willed. Both Apache nations have given much to love.

tg3• 13 years ago

I always thought the original name for PHP was "Personal Home Page Tools" (PHP Tools). Was that another name along the way to the current, or am I just totally misremembering?

derleth• 13 years ago

http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/96-04-04

> If you don't know where Apache came from, here's a short history lesson. In late 1994 and early 1995, the NCSA server was stuck at version 1.3. Patches being submitted for the NCSA server didn't get incorporated. So a group of people who wanted to keep developing the server got together, and using the public domain code from NCSA 1.3 developed their own server. There was also some doubt over what the license would be for the next version of NCSA. Because the new server developed from a need to integrate outstanding patches, it became known as "a patchy" server.

http://web.archive.org/web/19961028122409/www.apache.org/doc...

> Why the name "Apache" ?

> A cute name which stuck. Apache is "A PAtCHy server". It was based on some existing code and a series of "patch files".

So there you go. You'd think a bunch of people who make web servers would understand the archival properties of the web.

dalke5• 13 years ago

The earliest archive reference I can find for "Apache" is dated 27 Feb 1995, at http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-dev/199503.mb... :

> As to the product, we seem to have decided to call it Apache. (If you're wondering about the name, say "Apache server" ten time fast. Europeans may want to fake their best American accent while trying this).

It does not give the origin of the name. That discussion must have been pre-archive or in private email.

This topic has come up elsewhere. Quoting from a Linux Magazine interview of Brian Behlendorf published in April 2000: and available at http://web.archive.org/web/20000711011824/http://www.linux-m... :

LM: Who thought of the name Apache?

BB: I had some friends at a company called Enterprise Integration Technology, and somebody there asked me, "What would be your ideal Web server?" So I wrote about a bunch of stuff that I thought was missing from NCSA's server -- some stuff that still isn't in a lot of Web servers like revision control and stuff like that. I put it on a page and said: "I should come up with a name for this." The name literally came out of the blue. I wish I could say that it was something fantastic, but it was out of the blue. I put it on a page and then a few months later when this project started, I pointed people to this page and said: "Hey, what do you think of that idea?"

[BB:] Someone said they liked the name and that it was a really good pun. And I was like, "A pun? What do you mean?" He said, "Well, we're building a server out of a bunch of software patches, right? So it's a patchy Web server." I went, "Oh, all right."

Quoting elsewhere:

On Sat, 2003-11-29 at 18:35, Roy T. Fielding wrote:

> Apache was named after the Apache tribes -- "a patchy" server was an afterthought. We've generally avoided any discussion of the topic because involvement of a native american "activist" will only result in trouble for us. Those people are not Apache -- they don't even have a clue. The various tribes that are called Apache (by their enemies) have more specific names for themselves. Thus, we don't have any complaints from the Apache people (only from white folks who think they know better).

The best conclusion I can draw is that nobody is certain about why the name was chosen. Different people involved have different views, and no one has published an email from that time. (I can assume that if an email existed AND it was archived AND someone who had a copy cared enough to research it AND if it didn't jibe with the current FAQ then there MIGHT be disincentive to publish it. However, that's too long of a chain to be a useful inference.)

However, the FAQ should definitely not be so certain about its claim.

rst• 13 years ago

I am the author of the email you quoted, and the punning reference to "patchy" is exactly what the "say 'Apache Server' ten times fast" bit was meant to refer to. (I didn't feel the need to elaborate, at the time, because the whole thing was about patches. As that email also states, we didn't yet have any kind of central source control; we were instead reviewing and voting on code deltas in patch format that we were sending around in other email.)

vorg• 13 years ago

Another rewrite is Groovy's G-Strings. Originally named after the item of clothing by Groovy's original creators, its subsequent corporate owners introduced an "Elvis operator" with the intention of claiming G-String is named after a string on Elvis's guitar.

Apache Rewrites History: Why is it Named “Apache”?

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