The state of Abyss Web Server and its future

admin

Several users have contacted us recently inquiring about the state of Abyss Web Server and its future.
The short answer:
ABYSS WEB SERVER IS STILL ALIVE and we are still committed to its development.
The long answer:
We have never ceased supporting Abyss Web Server. All support requests which reached support@aprelium.com or priority@aprelium.com have been replied to. It seems that some of you have not got replies from us on an occasion or two. All our apologies for that. A timestamp of their outgoing emails may help us understand what was wrong with the receipt of their messages.
We have continued to update aprelium.com with new PHP releases. The whole site was upgraded late 2015 with a new responsive design to make it readable with mobile phones and tablets.
We recognize that we've been absent from the forums which seemed abandoned. Actually, spam has challenged us several times. Its volume and its "quality" (irony - spammers are always inventing new ways to fool us and look legit) made this place unmanageable in quite a long time. The problem is now partially solved, but we may require some help from you to better moderate and accept new users from now on.
The last public version of Abyss Web Server was released on November 2014. A newer version 2.10 was in the works and planned for June 2015. It has been powering our Web sites since July 2015 and we provided it to a few of our close partners who bundle Abyss Web Server with their products. But it was never broadly published.
Version 2.11 is almost ready and it is already powering this site. Its preview will be made available for those who request it next week. We hope to make it public by the end of March 2016. Version 2.11 adds several new improvements mainly: SNI support (virtual hosting of HTTPS sites on the same IP), SHA-2 SSL certificates support/generation, HTTP/1.1 reverse-proxy and a console with a responsive design to make it accessible on mobiles/tablets as well as normal computers.
We are still committed to the development of Abyss Web Server. Not only is it a central piece in our product portfolio but it is also important to many of our partners who built products or services based on it. You (Customers of X2 and users of X1) are also very important to us and we greatly value your support and your loyalty to our software.
Our development team is already working on the new generation of Abyss Web Server, which will include the latest HTTP/2 and make integration with new Web technologies easier. We hope you'll be among the first to give it a try when it will leave our R&D facility.

fearworksmedia

This is great news Aprelium!
It's also proof that we, as users, aren't entirely responsible for the lack of updates simply because we don't request new features (as some people seem to claim). The whole web hosting industry moves fast enough to make regular updates a bit of a necessity - from time to time.
So, the obvious question is - will we have to purchase a new license or will you honour your previous personal message to me, where you stated that customers whose update protection has lapsed will get a complimentary update protection extension?

berniooo

Yeah, thats great!

srtech

Hello.
I too am a very long time user (over a decade as well) of Abyss for both linux and windows and my subscription remains current through this year. I am very happy to see this post. I, like many other uses, will probably never see this post. I just happened to check for updates and ran into fearworksmedia post.
I have been disappointed with the update releases. I do have a legitimate issue with 64bit server and have implemented a work around with your tech support, which was excellent by the way.
However, as I approach updating my server to ubuntu 16.04 I must be able to work with native 64bit os without installing multi arch and running the 32 bit version of abyss. It would also be helpful to have sni and the other advnacements mentioned in Aprelium's post.
I am a very low volume niche user, however, I offered to add an up to date article, with some help of aprelium, onto Digital Oceans Tutorials. I know that abyss server is Ideal for many use cases and would gain traction. not everyone needs or wants a full blown apache or nginx install. The users controls and many of the other functions, security and usability in abyss are just top notch, especially for those new to the field, niche functions and low resource to mention a few. That is not to say it abyss is unable to scale up, it is!
Anyway. I am a cheerleader for this software and company, so, I hope we can see some movement in a new release very soon. I would love to base some future projects for now and the next 10 years with aprelium and believe some of the ones i have in the pipeline will offer positive advertising and promotion for them.
Admin/aprelium please do contact me by pm or my email if you are able to advance me a release candidate to check if the problem I have, has been fixed.
Thank you and hoping for the best, cheers all!

admin

First of all, we'd like to thank all of you who took the time to comment our official statement here on the forum or by email. Your feedback was very heartwarming!
Regarding the update protection issue: our position is clear: customers whose update protection lapsed without getting any update will be offered a complimentary extension so that they could download the new version 2.11 when it will be out.

fearworksmedia

Aprelium,
I have sent you an email requesting access to the latest release or beta release, as you said at the top of this thread to get in touch if we want to test it out.
Heard nothing back yet but very keen to see what improvements/enhancements have been made!
Thanks.

admin

fearworksmedia,
Thanks for your email. We've been a bit slow responding to it because we were preparing the release of 2.11. It is available right now for download.

Lithorien

I am so happy to see that Abyss Web Server hasn't been abandoned. I have been a very long time customer of the web server and an even longer time user, and it is hands-down the best web server I have had the pleasure of running. To see that the support staff and Aprelium team is still alive and working on the product makes me extremely happy.
Thank you for the update.

pkSML

Got the wonderful email today! Thanks Aprelium for continuing to develop the software. And I see both my licenses have a year of update protection on them! I have proudly been an X2 customer since March 2006. That was back in the ver. 2.3.0.5 days. And I just found out I saved the HTTP headers from my X2 purchase (what a nerd lol)... What a great web server!

fearworksmedia

Ok, I feel I ought to post this.
Aprelium have finally released version 2.11 of Abyss Web Server. Not only that but they have extended update protection for some customers (or maybe all? I'm not too sure).
This is great news. I finally have the update I whinged about! It also reassures me that Aprelium are healthy and still supporting their software, which is a major (MAJOR!) factor for me, and probably other people too. The latest version seems to be, as always, a great improvement - for me, SNI allowing multiple SSLs on one IP is the stand-out feature, but of course behind the scenes all of the security enhancements will keep my sites secure and at the cutting edge of internet security.
Aprelium, I am glad we've found ourselves in this position, and long may it continue!
Thanks.

TRUSTAbyss

Update 6/13/2018: I've ran into some set backs again during development and with me being the only developer of this script, it's taking longer than usual to develop. I plan on releasing this before the end of year. I have some catching up to do. The good news is that the translator function has been written.
I am also pleased that Aprelium has released a new update to Abyss Web Server. I have been a member since 2003 and I plan to continue to support this excellent software. It is the most least complex software on the market and helps you get your site up in running in as little as a few minutes. Not only that but it's great for web development!
P.S. Mod Rewrite Translator 2.0 is in development and will be released this year! :D
Features announced for version 2.0
+ Save translated data to a copy of Abyss's configuration file
+ Browse server's document root manually for an htaccess file
or a specific folder
+ Real-time translation of text input. Paste the contents of an htaccess
file directly in your browser and see the results!
+ Password protection using Abyss's configuration of user accounts. Why create an account when it's already there!?
+ A new graphical interface
+ Open source! Script will no longer be obfuscated.
+ parseModRewrite() function will no longer use a complicated multi-dimensional array but instead return a URLRewrite object, making it easier to use.
Please note that login will not be necessary for just pasting the contents of an htaccess file, but the features of browsing for files and saving to abyss's config will require authentication.
ETA for AWS:MRT 2.0 will be set for early Fall 2016. Beta versions will hopefully be ready by mid summer. It is hard to make an exact timeframe on when this beast will be ready. I will make an effort to work on this project every day after work and also on the weekends. Last but not least, the 1.1 version was skipped due to the extended time it took to get this thing back in action. It's time for a major release!

srtech

Yes, all good news indeed!
Hello JH (trustabyss) I am happy to see you are still around as well. I have to admit in the early days, your help and posts were instrumental to getting me going, and hooked, on abyss.
Thanks to all! Best Regards.

richardyork

Hey Guys,
I pop in to the forums quite frequently and it's a welcome sight to see a new release.
Keep up the good work

HowardSi

What's the state of the Abyss Web Server nowadays? Is it worthwhile checking out?

admin

HowardSi wrote
What's the state of the Abyss Web Server nowadays? Is it worthwhile checking out?

Hi Howard,
Thank you for asking about Abyss Web Server.
Actually, the software is still maintained and we're about to release a new version with major new features.
https://aprelium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=639027#639027
By the way, we are looking for Beta testers right now for the new version.

Lithorien

HowardSi wrote
What's the state of the Abyss Web Server nowadays? Is it worthwhile checking out?

It certainly is. While it's not quite as feature rich as ones like Apache, it's more stable, MUCH faster, and uses many, many less resources. I've been using it, as far as I can remember, since my website went online back in 2003 - and haven't looked back since really. It's what I recommend to all my friends and clients who look to self host - it's dead simple to maintain, and powerful.

admin

Lithorien wrote
While it's not quite as feature rich as ones like Apache, it's more stable, MUCH faster, and uses many, many less resources. I've been using it, as far as I can remember, since my website went online back in 2003 - and haven't looked back since really. It's what I recommend to all my friends and clients who look to self host - it's dead simple to maintain, and powerful.

Thank you for your positive feedback about Abyss Web Server and your testimonial.
Regarding being feature-rich (as Apache seems to be), we have always tried to not include features that are not useful or that may bloat our software. Some features in Apache are also related to very specific uses and we chose to not integrate them (although there is always a way to simulate them with URL rewriting or with scripting.)
The only major feature current Apache has and that is lacking in Abyss Web Server is HTTP/2 support. It is expected to be included by the end of this year in the next major version.

pkSML

admin wrote
The only major feature current Apache has and that is lacking in Abyss Web Server is HTTP/2 support. It is expected to be included by the end of this year in the next major version.

I'm very much looking forward to this feature!