As of today the Apache 1.3 HTTP Server is at its official End of Life with its 1.3.42 release, eight years after its successor Apache 2 debuted.
That’s along time for a ‘legacy’ tech isn’t it? Well yeah, but Apache 1.3 isn’t just any legacy tech, it’s the tech that at one point was the most widely deployed server version on Earth and was also likely the mostly widely deployed and popular open source project of its time.
The Apache 1.3.42 release provides a few bug fixes and one security fix for a mod_proxy integer overflow security issue.
“This release is intended as the final release of version 1.3 of the Apache HTTP Server, which has reached end of life status,” Apache wrote in its release announcement. “There will be no more full releases of Apache HTTP Server 1.3. However, critical security updates may be made available.”
Aha! A lifeline! You see great open source technology never actually dies – it becomes more dependent on a dwindling community of people willing to contribute to its ongoing maintenance.
