Nginx, the web server competing with Apache2, has been purchased for $670 million by a competitor, F5 Networks. F5 Networks is an application services and application delivery networking company. A little less than a year ago, Nginx raised $43 million to fund expansion. Netcraft's February 2019 web server survey shows Nginx hovering at around 20% of all active sites and around a quarter of the busiest sites.
F5 said that it will be merging its own operations with those of NGINX, with current NGINX CEO Gus Robertson and founders Igor Syosev and Maxim Konovalov all joining the company.
More details can be found in the F5 Press Release and in NGINX CEO Gus Robertson's blog which also provides a history of how NGINX came to be.
[Disclaimer: SoylentNews uses NGINX.]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:24PM (11 children)
Is there anyone around who can explain why that choice was made? Was there some specific benefit over Apache (or any other contenders) that made the decision fall that way?
--
Pollen: when flowers can't keep it in their plants.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:33PM
NGINX is russian, so it is obviously better.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:04PM (6 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:12PM (5 children)
Reverse proxy/load balancer, yep. Less overhead and better performance than Apache if it only needs to do those jobs.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:55PM (4 children)
Apache Traffic Server (ex Yahoo Traffic Server), may be an option.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mrpg on Tuesday March 12 2019, @04:46PM (3 children)
"Apache Traffic Server™ software is a fast, scalable and extensible HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2.0 compliant caching proxy server. Formerly a commercial product, Yahoo! donated it to the Apache Foundation, and currently used by several major CDNs and content owners."
http://trafficserver.apache.org/ [apache.org]
Has anybody here used it? Comments? Opinions?
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Shire on Tuesday March 12 2019, @09:16PM
I use it extensively as a reverse proxy. It's very simple to deal with and very flexible very reliable and very fast. There may well be better alternatives out there but for the networks I support it's worked well.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ilsa on Tuesday March 12 2019, @09:23PM (1 child)
A better question would be, if you've already got a perfectly good and working nginx config, why would one want to switch over to this traffic server? Does it do something that nginx can't, or can it do the same things better?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:59PM
Spoken like a proper admin. If/when they screw Nginx up bad enough that it's worth the trouble of setting up a new reverse proxy, we'll find another solution. Until then, it ain't broke and I ain't fixing it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @05:40PM
Why do you feel so strongly about nginx?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @06:59PM
i use nginx over apache b/c i like the config better and i believe it to be more secure and better written. i also believe it to be faster for many things, but it's been a while since i even thought about this. i made this decision years ago and haven't had cause to look back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:57PM
AFAIK you can't run a Soylent instance without Apache. The code is too dependent on modperl.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:09PM (5 children)
These things never turn out well - particularly not in the "stack" - stuff that a billion people use every day, as you can't avoid it. I'm still perturbed that mysql is still in such wide use, given that mariadb is a plug in replacement, and doesn't have the same level of corporate baggage. And I won't even mention browsers...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:32PM (2 children)
> I'm still perturbed that mysql is still in such wide use, given that mariadb is a plug in replacement, and doesn't have the same level of corporate baggage.
I admit running mysql on some servers I admin, and I somewhat have the authority to change that. Normally I'm the first to make that kind of change- certainly have with my home systems. It's a combination of factors like priorities, "it ain't broke so don't fix it", mariadb isn't showing up in the many CentOS repositories I've enabled, and many other priorities in my life.
I did try nginx but it was a lot of work getting it to run WordPress and I really didn't see any advantages. I did not run many load tests because at that point A) it was more work and potential for problems than I could justify, and B) we don't typically have heavy loads, and C) Apache (frankly) gives me good info messages if I mess up a configuration.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @04:55PM
Wise.
I will admit to up/side-grading a cloned non-critical IDS test database system from MySQL to MariaDB just to see what would happen and then getting bitten by some weirdness when comparing the test results, nothing major, but still..and as I've not got the time to debug the issues (or, frankly, the inclination nowadays to fuck around with database code), I let the other existing MySQL databases be, all new ones are MariaDB.
Ditto, sort of (minus the Wordpress), despite the mutterings of some of my collegues to the contrary, I dont think i can currently call the work I put into my little nginx project a complete waste of my time as I still see an advantage in using nginx, but due to lack of time it's another back burner project for that mythical day when I've nothing else to do...Ha.Fucking.Ha..
But I think when I do get back to it, I'll work with an older copy of nginx, not that I'm a cynical fucker, but looking at their effusive gushings about this deal the old 'bad vibe' meter started spiking into the red...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @06:55PM
"nginx -t" will test your config and tell you exactly what you screwed up.
(Score: 1) by ptman on Tuesday March 12 2019, @07:08PM
There's already https://tengine.taobao.org [taobao.org]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday March 13 2019, @02:03AM
>These things never turn out well
indeed if 670M get paid for something, more money are expected to be made. Problem, it is difficult to make money from something that is cheap, easy to use/integrate and efficient. So one of the aspects must go. Possibly all of them. This way you kill the goose laying golden eggs, but that is irrelevant because you are part of the system, and the system can pay whatever amount of the money it owns to destroy things that don't make them money. Balance is not an issue. The system is not interested in making money, is interested in maximising the amount of control had by money.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:28PM
Netcraft has confirmed: NGINX is dying?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @05:10PM
Confirmed: 2019 is the year of OpenLiteSpeed.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday March 13 2019, @08:50AM
It turns out I was not cynical enough when checking links for the summary. F5 is not just a competitor to NGINX, it is also a long time M$ partner / proxy [f5.com]:
For more than a decade, F5 and Microsoft have partnered to develop joint solutions that help you get the most value from your technology investments. Whether for dynamic data centers, cloud solutions, or unified communications, F5 provides intelligent application delivery by placing strategic points of control in your infrastructure. Deep integration, expert deployment guidance, and a vibrant support community enable F5 products to enhance Microsoft technologies with maximum availability, performance, and security.
Stick a fork in it. It's done. SN will have to have contingency plans to move to Apache2, that's only got a little M$ in it these days. The move won't have to happen right away, but I figure that by 18 to 24 months from now, NGINX will show a lot of damage from the sale and changes to the code will force the matter.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.