Dr. Christopher Kunz

I recently read about the APS project and became curious. APS, shorthand for Application Packaging Standard, is - as far as I understand it - a relatively recent standard that provides SaaS providers (i.e., us as a hosting provider) with a standardized format for software packaging. So far, some sounding names from the PHP Open Source community have embraced APS, including the notorious, but indispensable phpBB, Drupal, Magento and Typo3.
For hosters, APS is supposed to be a great addition to their portfolio:

The introduction of APS advances the web hosting industry. By implementing APS, hosting service providers can gain access to a great variety of APS applications. In turn, application vendors that implement APS, can get access to a vast sales and marketing channel via APS-enabled hosting providers.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find detailed documentation on the process of implementing an APS socket - the only freely available docs seem to be the standards document and ISV guidelines, both of which don’t really help me.

Now, I reach out to you PHP guys - has any of you ever had something to do with APS (preferrably on the hoster/provider side of things)? Do you have pointers as to where to start the socket implementation? I’m looking forward to your input.

(Didn’t get to blog this earlier, sorry)
I was very surprised and disappointed to find a very harshly formulated FUD flyer in my conference bag that was obviously aiming at Typo3. I am talking about the anti-Typo3 tirade that “Flying Dog” uses to lobby their own commercial content management system. I’ve taken the liberty of scanning it and providing you with a rough translation (click thumbnail for a larger view).

Basically, it says “Would you entrust your content to these 3Types” on the crimson-red front, showing three bad clip-art mobsters. The cenral mobster turns up on the backside, showing his best gangster face and telling the reader that, “our opensource CMS is complex and can do a lot. It is user friendly for editors and has a lot of extensions: You can do almost everything with these. It has a large community. Apart from that, it’s free, opensource and therefore your first choice. Why use a commercial CMS?”

“Man, he’s right”, you might say. I would think so too, and actually this whole statement is entirely true. While you can probably say a lot against Typo3, it has all the features described. The UI needs a little getting used to, but most editors of online media I know are fine with it. Flying Dog software, the vendor of the Powerslave CMS, seems to think differently. They state so on the right side of their flyer, saying “There are modern myths that present themselves as a collective, irrational imagination”. You doggy guys are talking about flying spaghetti monsters, are you? Because good open-source PHP CMSes are not a myth, nor irrational - but they’re certainly modern. Some hints for you: eZ publish, Typo3, Papaya, Joomla. All of them surely have their up- and downsides, but doesn’t any product have these?

The last paragraph is a short “feature” list, more or less only marketing speak, with no contradiction or clarification on why the so-called “myths” are mythic at all. It’s ironic, though, to see the last bullet point (above the price): “10 years of experience in the area of conflict of open technologies and commercial software”.

There is no argumentative approach to the whole matter at all and I personally feel this flyer to be offensive to anybody who embraces OSS, sells products and suppot based on OSS and helps build OSS. I am quite convinced I will never recommend Powerslave to any one of my customers (I wouldn’t have anyway, Typo3 is fine for most) and the whole marketing campaign leaves a more than stale taste.

Is FUD the only way out for commercial vendors? Shouldn’t you find a USP for your product instead of spreading fear amongst your free competitors’ users? Should flying dogs try barking up different trees?

(Update: Turns out other blogs (german) have a more positive attitude towards this advertising. Doesn’t really surprise me, the ECM blog is a blog for commercial vendors obviously sSee comments for clarification on the last sentence.)