User:Jacques Le Roux

https://fr.linkedin.com/in/les7arts

Specialities: Apache OFBiz expert developer

Why I consider myself an *expert developer* and *not an architect*: http://martinfowler.com/ieeeSoftware/whoNeedsArchitect.pdf

In Fall 2004, I was looking for a POS system. I then crossed the road of OFBiz (Open For Business) which would become Apache OFBiz later in June 2006 (http://ofbiz.apache.org/). This project, started by David E. Jones (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonesde) and Andrew Zeneski (http://www.linkedin.com/in/zeneski) in mid 2001, rapidly got enough attention to fastly grow. In 2003, it was becoming stable enough to be used in industry. Mostly in eCommerce, though OFBiz is primarily an ERP framework with embedded ready to use applications. For instance, its Entity Engine (not an ORM engine, something more subtle) was then and is still used in Atlassian Jira.

So in January 2006, after I contributed to the OFBiz POS for 1 year, the OFBiz community decided to become an Apache project. After 6 months of incubation, with the help of our mentors, Apache OFBiz was already a TLP (Apache Top Level) project. I then become a plain committer for the whole project. Since then I enjoyed to work inside the ASF's (Apache Software Fundation) cocoon. Not only with OFBiz mates (they are great! https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/x/JoB2), but also with the infrastructure team which is always ready to help. I can't miss to note Gavin McDonald (http://au.linkedin.com/in/ipv6guru) here, without him things (demos, CI, etc.) would have been much more complicated...

Since OFBiz is a TLP project, it has gained a solid reputation as a community driven, open source ERP project. They are very few around, most open source ERPs are actually backed by a company which decides of the project future. And that's why I deeply enjoy working with OFBiz. This feeling to work with peers and not to follow demands from the marketing... Of course there are drawbacks, because freedom comes also with a cost: entropy. But all in all this is what I prefer!