Why so many open source projects end up at Apache

Matt Raible reports that the Wicket web framework might become an Apache project and wonders why so many open source projects try to work under the Apache umbrella.

Apache has become a well-known brand that is know outside the developer's world as well. Journalists, financial analysts, clients in vertical markets and the average person all have heard somehow about Apache due to the popularity of the Apache httpd project.

The open source community does not only consist of spare-time-developers who code for fun and really don't have any commercial interest in their projects. There are a lot of professional developers who see better quality through collaboration, inspiration, and sharing of ideas for core concepts as important benefits of open source. The source code might be a major asset, but not as much as the brains behind a project. And basic technologies like programming frameworks are not so well suited to be released as a commercial project. They grow better in an open source ecosystem. Although one gives away a lot at the beginning, the contributions by the community are far more worth than that initial gift. But it needs a community for that to work. And the place where a community has the highest changes to form itself is at the Apache Foundation. For everything else there is always SourceForge. Codehaus seems to be good, but has not the visibility of Apache. So in the end everybody with higher ambitions will try to get into Apache.

Another motivation for some developers is to draw attention by potential consulting clients. The Apache brand certainly helps in this regard as well. So to go with Apache makes a lot of sense.

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