This report summarizes the status of the Pringo assessment after a one-day session with
Pringo.
The Pringo system is built on a LAMP configuration (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and
PHP). This combination of technologies is familiar to open-source developers and
represents one (perhaps the most common) way to build web sites and web services.
However, just because it is common, doesn’t make it the best (or worst).
In contrast, the Passenger platform is built on essentially the polar opposite of LAMP,
being Java based and built on Java-related technologies. That doesn’t make one
intrinsically better or worse than the other, but they are about as different as they can be
in terms of development, deployment, and troubleshooting.
A few caveats to be aware of: There is bit of “religion” in this area of LAMP vs. Java.
Reasonable people accept that both approaches have their merits and either can be
applied effectively. However, it is not hard to find zealots who claim (with vigor) that
one is clearly superior to the other. As I heard someone once say on this subject: “My
point is simply this, everyone has an opinion and they're all right and wrong.” In terms of
the implications for Passenger specifically, there may be a bit of a culture-class on this
topic, but I don’t know either team well enough to know if something like that would
manifest. Another practical matter would be integration: if some Pringo-based
services/features were made available to a Passenger community – due to the two
systems using such opposite technology, it may be difficult to avoid a “visible transition”
that the end-user would notice.
In terms of the Pringo system, it is built as follows. At the front-end it uses D...
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...nd negative
consequences in terms of negotiating a deal and prospectively. In short, I think the Pringo
system is worth a lot less without Harv and my first guess is it would be hard for him to
carry the same level of passion into a Passenger-owned Pringo platform, regardless of
what contractual commitments he might make (I’m reminded of the guys we brought
over to EarthLink from PeoplePC).
There is also the question of compatibility of the existing Passenger team with the Pringo
code base. While the Passenger team is probably quite capable of working with the
Pringo PHP code and system, there could be issues with how well the two cultures may
work together. I’m not sure how strongly either side feels about their approaches in this
specific case but I have seen similar issues arise in the past, so we would want to assess it
as best we can.