Stuck between a rock and a hard place, ASF ditches the feather, but keeps the Apache name: not enough for the left, too ‘woke’ for the right? Welcome to modern America…
Yesterday, a little over a year after officially saying goodbye to its iconic feather logo, The Apache Software Foundation unveiled its new oak leaf logo.
In July 2024, I reported that on October 7 of that year ASF would be officially dropping its iconic feather logo in favor of an as yet to be announced new logo. At the time, Apache had been using a feather as its logo symbol for a quarter century, since it was founded in 1999.
So, how does an oak leaf relate to the organization that’s the home to the Apache web server and other open source software projects?
“The oak leaf represents strength, resilience, and interconnection — qualities that define the ASF’s unique model of community-driven, consensus-based software development,” ASF’s Melissa Logan wrote in an email to the press. “Like the oak, our foundation grows slowly but steadily, supporting a vast and diverse ecosystem built to endure.”
The change of logo — along with a partial name change to ASF for most public facing activities — was a response to concerns expressed by members of the Native Apache community. The logo rebranding was guided by a logo project management committee made up of ASF Members.
“The new logo retains our historical color palette for continuity, while updating our identity to better meet modern needs,” Logan said.
Apache Naming History
It’s not clear who came up with the feather motif to match the Apache name way back when. However, it’s common knowledge that Brian Behlendorf came up with the Apache moniker, which is where the real problem lies — and why the organization changed the name of its annual conference from ApacheCon to Community Over Code starting in 2023.
Behlendorf, an ASF founder, who these days has a private consulting practice and sits on the boards at Mozilla and Electronic Frontier Foundation, explained how that came about:
“I had just seen a documentary about Geronimo and the last days of a Native American tribe called the Apaches, right, who succumbed to the invasion from the West, from the United States, and they were the last tribe to give up their territory and for me that almost romantically represented what I felt we were doing with this web-server project.”
As I wrote last year, Behlendorf’s sentiments weren’t exactly shared by 21st century Apaches:
It’s a “frankly outdated spaghetti-Western ‘romantic’ presentation of a living and vibrant community as dead and gone in order to build a technology company ‘for the greater good’” is how Adam Recvlohe, Holly Grimm, and Desiree Kane put it in a highly cited January 2023 post taking ASF to task that appears to be no longer available online.
Retiring the Name Is… Well, Complicated
Going forward, it will be a rare thing to see the foundation called anything other than its new moniker, ASF. However, the Apache name will remain officially tied to the organization, and it will continue to do business using Apache Software Foundation letterhead.
In a statement published yesterday on The Apache Software Foundation Blog — note that it’s not the ASF Blog — the organization offered an explanation:
“When a name has been in use as long and is as widely used as ours, the ramifications of changing it are both broad and deep. The implications on the security of the global software supply chain if the ASF were to move away from the “apache.org” domain are such that a change is not practical to do. However, we recognize that language and symbols matter. As part of our ongoing efforts to align our brand with our values, we are re-evaluating how and where we use “Apache,” especially in visual branding. Please see Evolving the ASF brand for further context and community guidance.”
“While both logos are appropriate, the ASF logo — using just the acronym — can be used in general and project-related contexts. The full “Apache Software Foundation” logo will be used for legal and institutional use by the Foundation itself (e.g., tax filings, board reports, and official notices).”
If I can close on a personal note: I’m not Native American, but I spent a bit of time, off and on, in the late 1970s and early 1980s on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. Because of my experiences there — which were all good — I encourage ASF to do whatever it takes to drop the name completely. The Apache name belongs to the Apache people, and if they don’t want you to use it, you should honor those wishes.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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