Apache 2.0 to Debut Monday – Partway

Covalent Technologies will release its long-awaited version 2.0 of the Apache Web server software Monday–ahead of software from the larger Apache project itself. Apache 2.0 initially was expected by the end of 2000 but only entered beta testing in April 2001. Covalent decided version 2.0 was ready for prime time, said Jim Zemlin, vice president of marketing.Covalent sells the core open-source package along with proprietary enhancements that allow easier management, encrypted communications for credit card transactions, and other features. “We’ve done extensive testing and quality assurance, and we think it’s ready to deploy at large enterprises,” he said. But Covalent, which employs some but not all of the key members of the Apache development effort, is ahead of the rest of the Apache programmers, who still consider 2.0 to be beta software and whose current “production version” is 1.3.22, which is ready for real-world use.