<story><title>Interview with creator of Nginx, Igor Sysoev</title><url>http://www.webhostingskills.com/open_source/articles/interview_with_creator_of_nginx_igor_sysoev</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maratd</author><text>&amp;#62; Despite having U.S. investors, Nginx&apos;s engineering team is based in Russia.&lt;p&gt;Not only is it based in Russia, it is 100% Russian. If that doesn&apos;t scare the shit out of you, then I already know that you&apos;re not Russian =)&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; One interpretation is that you don&apos;t need to be in the Valley to develop a first-rate product&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ll stick with Apache HTTPD and the Apache Foundation, despite its alleged shortcomings.&lt;p&gt;The web server is front and center in pretty much every business. I&apos;ll pass on an outfit that sticks communist imagery into its logo.</text></item><item><author>EvanMiller</author><text>Igor has been one of my programmer heroes for many years now, and I&apos;m glad to learn more about his background through this article. The reading&apos;s a bit tough, as many verbs appear to be missing and a few Russian words remain untranslated. Some interesting takeaways:&lt;p&gt;* Igor wrote Nginx while working as a sysadmin for Rambler. Classic bottom-up innovation: he could see Apache&apos;s shortcomings in a very up-close and personal way. This also explains why Rambler does not hold the copyright on Nginx (see the end of the interview).&lt;p&gt;* He is quite modest when comparing Nginx to other web servers. This reflects well on his character, but perhaps has &quot;slowed&quot; the adoption of Nginx. It&apos;s clear from this article that Igor is an engineer, not a salesman. I find this to be refreshing in an era when many open-source projects seem to achieve adoption by being the loudest, rather than by being the best.&lt;p&gt;* Igor put off starting a company until there was just too much work for him to do alone. I liked this quote: &quot;I rarely change my life direction: for example, [before] Rambler, I spent seven years working for a company, [and at] Rambler, I also worked for ten years. Change is hard for me. But, nevertheless, by the spring of this year, I did finally decide to found a company that would help the further development of the project.&quot;&lt;p&gt;* Despite having U.S. investors, Nginx&apos;s engineering team is based in Russia. One interpretation is that you don&apos;t need to be in the Valley to develop a first-rate product; you just need to be in the Valley when it&apos;s time to hustle it.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, an interesting read. Apparently this article is his first public interview. I know Igor doesn&apos;t like publicity, but it&apos;s inspiring to read his story.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TeMPOraL</author><text>I believe he meant the opposite of what seems to be understood - in stereotypes russians are highly respected for being &lt;i&gt;extremely&lt;/i&gt; smart and resourceful, to the point of being completely badass for western standards.&lt;p&gt;For example, in Poland we sometimes joke about how russian/soviet technology came only in two kinds - if a device won&apos;t fall apart immediately after start, it will last forever. It&apos;s mostly meant to be whining about &quot;planned obsolescence&quot; and other business attitudes that came from west, that ultimately is about short term money gain for producers on the expense of consumers&apos; money, happiness and natural resources.</text></comment>
<story><title>Interview with creator of Nginx, Igor Sysoev</title><url>http://www.webhostingskills.com/open_source/articles/interview_with_creator_of_nginx_igor_sysoev</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maratd</author><text>&amp;#62; Despite having U.S. investors, Nginx&apos;s engineering team is based in Russia.&lt;p&gt;Not only is it based in Russia, it is 100% Russian. If that doesn&apos;t scare the shit out of you, then I already know that you&apos;re not Russian =)&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; One interpretation is that you don&apos;t need to be in the Valley to develop a first-rate product&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ll stick with Apache HTTPD and the Apache Foundation, despite its alleged shortcomings.&lt;p&gt;The web server is front and center in pretty much every business. I&apos;ll pass on an outfit that sticks communist imagery into its logo.</text></item><item><author>EvanMiller</author><text>Igor has been one of my programmer heroes for many years now, and I&apos;m glad to learn more about his background through this article. The reading&apos;s a bit tough, as many verbs appear to be missing and a few Russian words remain untranslated. Some interesting takeaways:&lt;p&gt;* Igor wrote Nginx while working as a sysadmin for Rambler. Classic bottom-up innovation: he could see Apache&apos;s shortcomings in a very up-close and personal way. This also explains why Rambler does not hold the copyright on Nginx (see the end of the interview).&lt;p&gt;* He is quite modest when comparing Nginx to other web servers. This reflects well on his character, but perhaps has &quot;slowed&quot; the adoption of Nginx. It&apos;s clear from this article that Igor is an engineer, not a salesman. I find this to be refreshing in an era when many open-source projects seem to achieve adoption by being the loudest, rather than by being the best.&lt;p&gt;* Igor put off starting a company until there was just too much work for him to do alone. I liked this quote: &quot;I rarely change my life direction: for example, [before] Rambler, I spent seven years working for a company, [and at] Rambler, I also worked for ten years. Change is hard for me. But, nevertheless, by the spring of this year, I did finally decide to found a company that would help the further development of the project.&quot;&lt;p&gt;* Despite having U.S. investors, Nginx&apos;s engineering team is based in Russia. One interpretation is that you don&apos;t need to be in the Valley to develop a first-rate product; you just need to be in the Valley when it&apos;s time to hustle it.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, an interesting read. Apparently this article is his first public interview. I know Igor doesn&apos;t like publicity, but it&apos;s inspiring to read his story.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mitjak</author><text>Do you also avoid Chinese and German products for similar reasons? If so, are you a time traveller from 1952?</text></comment>