from the “comically ironic” department

For a while now, I’ve been kind of half-seriously joking that AOL should release its Netscape Enterprise Server web server as open source software since it already did with its other web server software, AOLserver.

Today, my joke has become a reality in a way: Red Hat announced that it is acquiring the Netscape Enterprise Suite from AOL and will be releasing it as open source software (press release). The Netscape Enterprise Suite includes Netscape Directory Server and Netscape Certificate Management Server.

Perhaps another one of my long-term visions will also come true: I can finally implement NSAPI support for AOLserver, which would make things a little easier for folks to migrate to AOLserver.

Comments

  1. Wow! That’s big news. Do you think this will have an adverse effect on AOLServer’s adoption or those fill two different niches of the market?

  2. Doh! I just read the press release … Netscape Enterprise Suite doesn’t include the webserver … Maybe with this we will have a rock solid cert management software that we can use to implement more secure authentication solutions than just OpenLDAP …

  3. Actually, it is my understanding that the “Netscape Enterprise Suite” consists of the three products: Netscape Enterprise Server, Netscape Directory Server and Netscape Certificate Management Server.

    This may have an adverse affect on AOLserver’s adoption — but also opens things up for AOLserver as well, if we can benefit from leveraging or integrating functionality from NES into AOLserver. It’s a win-win, as far as I can see.

  4. Apparently, Rohan Pinto found this blog entry worth reposting in his own blog:

    http://www.rohanpinto.com/2005/01/from-comically-ironic-department.html

    Thanks to Madhu for bringing it to my attention on his blog:

    http://www.madhoo.com/archives/003206.php

  5. For posterity:

    Blizzard wrote something about Sun and Red Hat both looking to release the Netscape assets as open source:

    http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/html/2005/01/#200501052359

  6. The “Fedora Directory Server Project” launched June 1, 2005:

    http://directory.fedora.redhat.com/wiki/Main_Page

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