announcing freenginx.org

[Sergey Brester]

Hi Maxim,

it is pity to hear such news...

I have few comments and questions about, which I enclosed inline 
below...

Regards,
Serg.

14.02.2024 19:03, Maxim Dounin wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> As you probably know, F5 closed Moscow office in 2022, and I no
> longer work for F5 since then. Still, we've reached an agreement
> that I will maintain my role in nginx development as a volunteer.
> And for almost two years I was working on improving nginx and
> making it better for everyone, for free.

And you did a very good job!

> Unfortunately, some new non-technical management at F5 recently
> decided that they know better how to run open source projects. In
> particular, they decided to interfere with security policy nginx
> uses for years, ignoring both the policy and developers' position.

Can you explain a bit more about that (or provide some examples
or a link to a public discussion about, if it exists)?

> That's quite understandable: they own the project, and can do
> anything with it, including doing marketing-motivated actions,
> ignoring developers position and community. Still, this
> contradicts our agreement. And, more importantly, I no longer able
> to control which changes are made in nginx within F5, and no longer
> see nginx as a free and open source project developed and
> maintained for the public good.

Do you speak only about you?.. Or are there also other developers which
share your point of view? Just for the record...
What is about R. Arutyunyan, V. Bartenev and others?
Could one expect any statement from Igor (Sysoev) about the subject?

> As such, starting from today, I will no longer participate in nginx
> development as run by F5. Instead, I'm starting an alternative
> project, which is going to be run by developers, and not corporate
> entities:
> 
> http://freenginx.org/ [1]

Why yet another fork? I mean why just not "angie", for instance?

Additionally I'd like to ask whether the name "freenginx" is really well 
thought-out?
I mean:
   - it can be easy confused with free nginx (compared to nginx plus)
   - the search for that will be horrible (if you would try to search for 
freenginx,
     even as exact (within quotes, with plus etc), many internet search 
engine
     would definitely include free nginx in the result.
   - possibly copyright or trademark problems, etc

> The goal is to keep nginx development free from arbitrary corporate
> actions. Help and contributions are welcome. Hope it will be
> beneficial for everyone.

Just as an idea: switch the primary dev to GH (github)... (and commonly 
from hg to git).
I'm sure it would boost the development drastically, as well as bring 
many new
developers and let grow the community.

Links:
------
[1] http://freenginx.org/