The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache SpamAssassin Version 3.3.0

Leading Open Source Email Filtering Package Offers First Major Code Release Since 2007

FOREST HILL, MD – 26 January, 2010 – The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) today announced the release of Apache SpamAssassin 3.3.0, the first major code release from the Apache SpamAssassin Project since May 2007. Apache SpamAssassin v3.3.0 marks the Project's 4th major (and 24th overall release) since the SpamAssassin Project joined the ASF in December 2003.

Apache SpamAssassin is an award winning, mature, wide-spectrum, extensible email filtering package deployed by hundreds of thousands of organizations world-wide.

"Apache SpamAssassin is the leading Open Source email spam filtering software package that is in use by national, regional and local ISPs, email service providers, Fortune Global 500 companies, small to enterprise businesses, all levels of the education sector, governments and private individuals," said Daryl C. W. O'Shea, Chair of the Apache SpamAssassin Project Management Committee (PMC) and Information Technology Coordinator at the Township of Tay in Ontario, Canada. "SpamAssassin is also in use at the core of many commercial offerings of premier email and spam filtering firms: with its automatic update feature, sa-update, SpamAssassin now not only saves the time of end-users, it saves the time of email administrators, further increasing the software's ROI. We're very proud that SpamAssassin has become the standard for extensible and effective spam filtering software."

Apache SpamAssassin 3.3.0 represents a major shift in how SpamAssassin rules (the actual patterns that help to identify spam) are updated. Starting with version 3.3.0, rules are now separate from the core product and are instead downloaded using "sa-update", SpamAssassin's automatic update software. This method was optional with the 3.2.x series of releases and has proven to be very popular.

SpamAssassin provides a comprehensive set of features and support for methods and standards such as text based patterns, bayesian scoring, DNS based black and white lists, DKIM and SPF sender authentication, and email signature clearing houses. The software utilizes a principle of identifying multiple reasons for classifying an email as spam to improve accuracy and decrease the chance of legitimate emails being incorrectly identified as spam.

Les Tutkaluke, President of netGUARD Solutions said, "NetGUARD Solutions has been utilizing SpamAssassin for 8 years starting with version 1.0. The advanced e-mail scanning functions within the processing engines of netGUARD Solutions manages in excess of 75 million messages per day for our vast customer subscriber base. SpamAssassin is an integral and admirable addition to our filtering system and is a significant part of the accurate identification of unwanted e-mail. The success of netGUARD Solutions is directly tied to SpamAssassin and the solid programming within it."

"Over the past 365 days, SpamAssassin has blocked 516,975 unsolicited junk mails while letting through 85,032 clean ones. Without SpamAssassin email would simply be unusable. It is an essential component to our business activities," said Jean-Yves Avenard, SysAdmin at Hydrix Pty Ltd, Australia.

Released under the Apache Software Licence v2.0, Apache SpamAssassin 3.3.0 can be downloaded at http://spamassassin.apache.org/; additional user reviews and industry testimonials are available at http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/Testimonials

About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)

Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees more than seventy leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server — the world's most popular Web server software. Through The ASF's meritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," nearly 300 individual Members and 2,000 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation’s official user conference, trainings, and expo. The ASF is funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors including Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Progress Software, SpringSource/VMware, and Yahoo! For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/.

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Posted at 03:04PM Jan 26, 2010 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Pivot as Top-Level Project

Version 1.4 of platform for building rich Internet applications in Java now available.

FOREST HILL, MD – 19 January, 2010 – The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) today announced the graduation of Apache Pivot as a Top-Level Project (TLP), signifying that the Project's community and products have been well-governed under the ASF's meritocratic process and principles. In addition, the Project announced the release of Apache Pivot 1.4, the fourth update since joining the Apache Incubator in January 2009.

Apache Pivot is a platform for building rich Internet applications (RIAs) in Java. It combines the enhanced productivity and usability features of a modern RIA toolkit with the robustness of the industry-standard Java platform. Pivot provides a foundation upon which sophisticated and engaging applications can be easily built and deployed over the Web. Because Pivot applications are written in Java, they can take full advantage of the comprehensive feature set and extensive industry support of the Java platform.

"Users have much higher expectations for Web applications now than they did 10 years ago," said Greg Brown, Chair of the Apache Pivot Project Management Committee (PMC) and Principal Consultant at Cantina Consulting. "This is why we're seeing tools like Flex and Silverlight beginning to gain traction; however, both of these require developers who are otherwise happy using Java to switch technologies. Pivot is an attempt to create a modern, rich client development platform in Java."

Pivot provides a comprehensive set of standard user interface elements ranging from simple buttons to editable tree and table controls. It also includes a number of features that significantly simplify development of modern GUI applications, including an XML markup language for declaring the structure of a user interface, data binding, animated effects and transitions, and Web services integration.

"I've tried the demos and I was stunned," said Pivot user Trelieux Einagen. "The framework uses easy to understand markup for the applet front end while at the same time taking advantage of the power of Java for business logic and server side processing...I think the Java community in general is fortunate enough to have those guys at Pivot stand up and build something that can actually compete RIGHT NOW with the likes of Flash/Flex and Microsoft Silverlight/WPF without losing your sanity."

Pivot user Scott Lanham said, "The current default theme has a nice clean look and feel...I am impressed with the good selection of widgets. They appear to cover just about every need of an application...Well done with Pivot!"

"Thank you guys with coming up with Pivot," said Java developer and Pivot user N. Forbes. "Java really, really needs a smooth, coherent RIA next generation framework to 'seriously' compete with the likes of Flex and SilverLight/WPF...I saw someone comment on the Pivot Framework that it leverages existing Java skills to make the transition to the framework as seamless as possible. I looked at the source code and screamed out in joy: you guys may actually end up bailing out the Java RIA from pure academic obscurity and back into the more popular sphere of mind."

Apache Pivot 1.4 is released under the Apache Software License v2.0 and can be downloaded at http://pivot.apache.org/.

About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)

Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees more than seventy leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server — the world's most popular Web server software. Through The ASF's meritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," nearly 300 individual Members and 2,000 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation’s official user conference, trainings, and expo. The ASF is funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors including Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Progress Software, SpringSource/VMware, and Yahoo! For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/.

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Posted at 11:11AM Jan 20, 2010 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

The Apache Software Foundation Welcomes Facebook as its Newest Sponsor

posted by ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski:

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is excited to welcome Facebook as the newest addition to our roster of sponsors. 

Sponsoring the ASF helps us grow existing projects, incubate new initiatives, promote community development, host user events, expand our outreach, and provide the infrastructure that keeps the Foundation running on a day-to-day basis. We are grateful for the generous support of Facebook as Gold Sponsors.

With Open Source in its DNA, Facebook is an enthusiastic champion and active contributor to the ASF, including the Hive subproject of Apache Hadoop, as well as the popular incubating projects Thrift and Cassandra – all originally developed at Facebook.

Facebook joins ASF Platinum Sponsors Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!; Gold Sponsor Hewlett-Packard; Silver Sponsors Progress Software and Springsource/VMWare; and Bronze Sponsors BlueNog, Intuit, Joost, and Matt Mullenweg.

Posted at 06:00PM Jan 12, 2010 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

NOTICE: Apache SpamAssassin Y2K10 Rule Bug - Update Your Rules Now!

The following notice has been sent by Daryl C.W. O'Shea, VP of Apache SpamAssassin --

I've posted the following note on the Apache SpamAssassin website [1] about an issue with a rule that may cause wanted email to be classified as spam by SpamAssassin.  If you're running SpamAssassin 3.2.x you are encouraged to update you rules (updates were released on sa-update around 1900 UTC Jan 1, 2010).

Y2K10 Rule Bug - Update Your Rules Now!

2010-01-01:

Versions of the FH_DATE_PAST_20XX [2] rule released with versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5 will trigger on most mail with a Date header that includes the year 2010 or later.  The rule will add a score of up to 3.6 towards the spam classification of all email.  You should take corrective action immediately; there are two easy ways to correct the problem:

1) If your system is configured to use sa-update [3] run sa-update now. An update is available that will correct the rule.  No further action is necessary (other than restarting spamd or any service that uses SpamAssassin directly).

2) Add "score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0" without the quotes to the end of your local.cf file to disable the rule.  If you require help updating your rules to correct this issue you are encouraged to ask for assistance on the Apache SpamAssassin Users' list.  Users' mailing list info is here. [4] 

On behalf of the Apache SpamAssassin project I apologize for this error and the grief it may have caused you.


[1] http://spamassassin.apache.org/
[2] http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/Rules/FH_DATE_PAST_20XX
[3] http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/RuleUpdates
[4] http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/MailingLists

Posted at 04:56PM Jan 02, 2010 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

If it's not at apache.org, it's not from the Apache Software Foundation!

A number of websites have "apache" in their domain name, and sometimes pretend to be official sources of information about projects of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). How do you find out if it's the case?

The rule is very simple: if a website is not hosted on an apache.org domain, it's not a website of the ASF (with a few exceptions, see below).

In other words, if the site's address doesn't end with .apache.org, it's not ours. Note the dot before apache.org: fooapache.org or apachefoo.org wouldn't belong to us, whereas foo.apache.org does.

The only exceptions to that rule are apachecon.com, which is jointly managed between
the ASF and companies producing our conferences, and spamassassin.org and myfaces.org, for historical reasons.

So remember: if it's not at apache.org or one of the three above domains, it's not from us!

Posted at 08:13AM Dec 04, 2009 by bdelacretaz in General  |  Comments[1]

Apache Asia Roadshow 2009: Bejing, China, and Colombo, Sri Lanka

Posted at 12:53AM Dec 02, 2009 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

The Apache Software Foundation, live on Times Square and in Vegas!

Thanks to our very own Sally Khudairi, VP Marketing and Publicity, the ASF's 10 years shout out was recently displayed on New York's Times Square and in Las Vegas - and we have visual evidence!

Posted at 07:57AM Nov 20, 2009 by bdelacretaz in General  |  Comments[2]

Governor Schwarzenegger and Mayor Dellums honor the Apache Software Foundation

As mentioned in a previous post, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums have recently recognized The Apache Software Foundation for a decade of open source leadership and technology innovation.

Mayor Dellums proclaimed November 4th, 2009 as the Apache Software Foundation Day!

Here are their letters, as presented last week at ApacheCon US 2009 in Oakland, CA. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

Posted at 08:46AM Nov 18, 2009 by bdelacretaz in Milestones  |  Comments[2]

ApacheCon US 2009 Draws Unprecedented Support From the Global Open Source Community and Recognition for the 10th Anniversary and Influence of The Apache Software Foundation

ApacheCon US 2009 Closing Press Release; California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums recognize The Apache Software Foundation for a decade of open source leadership and technology innovation[Read More]

Posted at 02:08PM Nov 11, 2009 by Sally in General  |  Comments[0]

Raise a Glass to Apache: Join The Apache Software Foundation in celebrating its 10th Anniversary!

As you know, the ASF turned 10 this year — our celebrations kicked off with cake at ApacheCon Europe this past March. We were thrilled to receive birthday wishes from so many members from the Apache community from across the world.

Our festivities will continue at ApacheCon US (Oakland, California), where we will be holding the Big Feather Birthday Bash and related community events during the conference. We anticipate seeing many of you there!

Some of you are unable to join us in person, but we don't want you to miss out on the fun. As such, we're inviting our global community to "Raise a Glass to Apache" and celebrate this landmark event at your own local gathering. Recognizing Apache developers and users as part of the ASF's 10th Anniversary is very important to us. We want you to join the fun, meet other Apache enthusiasts, make new friends, put faces to the names behind those emails, and, of course, engage in all things Apache.

We understand that communities have their own local culture and preferences: you are welcome to host the type of event best suited to your needs. Preferably, this will take place during the week of ApacheCon (2-6 November, 2009; the Big Feather Birthday Bash is on Wednesday, 4 November) —  your event can be held on any day of that week, at any time of the day or night that is most convenient for you. Events include but are not limited to:

• Social Gatherings – getting together over coffee, lunch, drinks, or dinner
• Tech Talks – individual or industry presentations given about ASF projects and actvities
• Product Demos – showcasing how Apache technologies are powering creative and robust solutions
• Hackathon – collaborating on Apache code bases with ASF Committers
• MeetUps or GetTogethers – featuring talks or presentations on a specific Apache Project or activity
• Networking and Job Match – connecting developers with users, employers with potential hires, clients with contractors/consultants, etc.

Can't wait until ApacheCon? That's OK: we're always up for a celebration, so feel free to get started as soon as you'd like — you can Raise a Glass to Apache at an upcoming conference such as the OpenWorld Forum (Paris), SpringOne 2GX (New Orleans), CPOSC 2009 (Harrisburg, PA), FOSS4G 2009 (Sydney), NLUUG Open Web (Amsterdam), UTOSC 2009 (Sandy, UT), and OSMC 2009 (Nürnberg), among others.

So let's get started! There are three steps to make your event happen:

Step 1: Organize. Decide who will be the host(s)/main point(s) of contact, where the event will be held, the day and time, the format, and any costs.

Step 2: Publicize. Spread the word to your coworkers, the press, and your friends. Post details on your event on blogs, mailing lists, event listings, etc. Drive enthusiasm by discussing the event details to the media and on podcasts. Ask people who will be there to invite other groups who may be interested.

Step 3: Apprise. Share your goodwill with the Apache community. Wish the ASF a happy anniversary on the Foundation blog;  post photos of your event online; and submit a "MyApache" video tribute (can be one or more of the following -- 1-2 minutes describing why you love Apache; 1-2 minutes of your group Raising a Glass to Apache/singing Happy Birthday; 2-5 minutes describing the cool ways you use ASF technologies ... be sure to mention which Apache projects you use as well as your results.)

The important thing is to have fun! Get inspired by checking out the ASF's YouTube channel. "MyApache" submissions received by 2 October (midnight US Pacific time/GMT-8) will receive priority consideration to be featured in the ASF's ApacheWay channel and at the Big Feather Birthday Bash!

A schedule of all confirmed events will be posted on the ApacheCon site. To be included in the list, please send a copy of your invitation (including the date, time, and location) to sk@apache.org. I will send you information on how to add your event in the ApacheCon network, how to submit your "MyApache" tributes, as well as suggestions on how to organize and publicize your event.

Feel free to drop us a note with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted at 03:47AM Sep 26, 2009 by Sally in General  |  Comments[1]

Love Apache? Give Back with a "MyApache" Shoutout!

[Read More]

Posted at 02:26AM Aug 19, 2009 by Sally in General  |  Comments[4]

ApacheCon US Early Bird Discount Extended through 21 August

If you haven't registered for ApacheCon US yet, you're in luck!

We've extended the Early Bird Discount through this Friday, 21 August, giving attendees the best rates available, with savings up to $200 on a full conference pass. Catch your favorite Apache projects, including Tomcat, Hadoop, and the world's favorite Web Server, and join us in celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Apache Software Foundation!

Sign up today!

Posted at 11:03PM Aug 18, 2009 by Sally in ApacheCon  |  Comments[1]

Early Bird Registration for ApacheCon US Ends 14 August!

Join us at ApacheCon US 2009, the ASF's official user conference and expo, 2-6 November in Oakland, California.

This year's show is anticipated to be the largest gathering of the global Apache community, bringing together Foundation Members, code contributors, users, developers, system administrators, business managers, service providers, and vendors for a week of training classes, seminars, sharing, and hacking. 

 In celebration of the ASF's milestone 10th Anniversary, this year's ApacheCon features the largest program to date, including special content tracks, MeetUps, GetTogethers, and a number of free events that are open to the public, such as the Hackathon and 2-day BarCampApache, in appreciation of their support over the past decade.

We're excited to return to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we held our first ApacheCon, and hope that you will help us celebrate the ASF's success!

Check out the ApacheCon site for details including registration and sponsorship information.

Posted at 01:16AM Jul 27, 2009 by Sally in ApacheCon  |  Comments[0]

Applications for Travel Assistance for ApacheCon US 2009 now open

The ASF Travel Assistance Committee (TAC) has opened applications to assist those seeking to attend ApacheCon US 2009 (2-6 November in Oakland, California), but are unable to do so for financial reasons.[Read More]

Posted at 12:48AM Jul 27, 2009 by Sally in ApacheCon  |  Comments[0]

ASF Members share their experiences with Apache

The ASF launches a series of interviews with Members, Committers, developers, and users in celebration of the ASF's 10th Anniversary. Clips of select interviews will be posted online up to ApacheCon US 2009, where we will showcase the full series, along with birthday wishes from the Apache community at-large.
[Read More]

Posted at 09:23PM Jul 25, 2009 by Sally in General  |  Comments[1]