ApacheCon wrapup: podcasts, markmail, apache felix

So I stumbled upon a wonderful resource for those who like Apache software and may want to feel a little bit more "in the loop". It's called FeatherCast and it's a useful podcast (it's on iTunes, too) from Rich Bowen and David Reid. Through listening you not only get information about up-and-coming projects, but also a feel for the Apache community.

The podcast has already yielded fruit. First, I was introduced to MarkMail, a very very nice way to search the Apache mailing lists (and a nice AJAX application in it's own right). This is a great resource for searching lists before posting. I'd love to have it for other mailing lists too. (MarkMail also represents an interesting take on marketing for MarkLogic - to them, MarkMail is a free service is a showcase for their commercial XML database/search product.) Interestingly, I guess Jason Hunter (a fairly famous Java author) put it together.

The other thing of interest was Apache Felix. This is an OSGi implementation, alongside Equinox and Knoplerfish, which aims to be small and embeddable. OSGi is, in my mind, the forerunner of a CJAN, and so it's quite important. It's nice to see so much open-source interest in the area, although it takes commercial interest to really make a compelling product like Pulse, apparently.


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