Does anyone understand how the Apache foundation works? Do projects receive monetary funding, or is it just the “prestige” of becoming an Apache project? What’s the advantage of being under their umbrella?
At this point, any legitimacy of working with their foundation may be lost under the weight of hundreds or even thousands of projects of unknown quality levels (I’m not talking about this project’s merits, which I know nothing about).
20+ year Apache Member here... yea, it is pretty much prestige. But you get community, infrastructure, legal, branding, as well as mentoring on 'how do to open source'.
It is all pretty well documented. Here are a couple good links to get you started...
Apache Foundation provides well-trod legal path for large corporations to release their internal code as open-source.
They do have some competition. Linux Foundation is another large non-profit that creates umbrella entities for a bunch of open-source software originally created within larger tech companies. I get the impression that Apache Foundation goes for breadth, taking any and all donations, while Linux Foundation goes for depth in specific topics.
In terms of funding, for open-source projects originally created within a larger company, that company will often provide a financial donation to the foundation that is taking on its ongoing management. The foundation will also take a cut of future donations to the project, to pay for the administrative overhead of the non-profit.
At this point, any legitimacy of working with their foundation may be lost under the weight of hundreds or even thousands of projects of unknown quality levels (I’m not talking about this project’s merits, which I know nothing about).