[Fedora-directory-users] Advantages of using FDS vs OpenLDAP?

[Mike Jackson]

Howard Chu wrote:
> Sorry to poke at a moldy old thread, but I think some misconceptions
> need to be cleared up.

Hi Howard,
  That certainly was a moldy old thread. I'm surprised it took this long 
to catch your attention :-)


> I'm not here to attack FDS. I have nothing but respect for the team
> working on it today. But the fact that OpenLDAP developed under
> different conditions, with a different philosophy, is just that -
> philosophical difference.

  This is one problem which I have with using OL in commercial systems: 
developers pushing their philosophy. The preaching of philosophies is a 
fundamental difference between open-source and commercial 
projects/products, and fortunately not all open-source projects do it. 
With a commercial product, the customer is always right and new features 
(like MMR) will appear and be enabled by default with sufficient 
customer demand. With an open-source project, the developers sometimes 
call the "customers" crazy, stupid, uninformed, etc, and tell them to be 
quiet or go away if they don't like it. Since this project's software 
has commercial roots, and still has commercial funding, thankfully you 
don't see much pushing of philosophy here.

  The biggest problem I have with OL is that the -users mailing list is 
censored, which is sometimes used to ensure that philosophy can be 
pushed without being questioned. I have had numerous postings to 
openldap-users blocked, which either questioned (even indirectly) the 
philosophy of OL or mentioned the name of another directory server. I'm 
happy that we have freedom of speech on this list and can have this 
discussion; it would be prohibited on openldap-users. I really despise 
being censored, and I'm sure that many other people feel the same way.

  Considering those two problems, I would have a difficult time saying 
that I have nothing but respect for the *entire* OL team. However, I do 
have a lot of respect for you because you listen to opposing views with 
an open mind and are willing to debate them in a friendly manner.

BR,
Mike