Christof Pohl's Improved mod_frontpage has a goal of providing features and security fixes for Apache servers that are not provided by the Microsoft mod_frontpage module. One of those improvements most sought after was it's ability to work with and be compiled on the latest versions of Apache. Also, it fixed the problem of suexec not functioning in some cases with Microsoft's fpexec. On top of that, it properly works with most other popular Apache modules like PHP and mod_ssl.
Improved mod_frontpage also adds two directives called FrontpageDisable and FrontpageEnable that allow you to disable or enable specific virtual hosts in your main Apache configuration file. This way you can globally disable FrontPage and then enable it for specific hosts.
One other thing that I like about improved mod_frontpage is that it follows the source tree layout that the Apache source tarball sets up. It patches the files it needs in rest of the tree, but when setting up the actual module code and fpexec source file, it puts it in src/modules/frontpage. The Microsoft module on the other hand puts itself right in the base directory as if it was the most important module in the world.
Recently Adrian Hosey and I worked on making the module a true DSO module that could be compiled on it's own using the apxs program. This means that now it can be compiled for SSL based web servers like RedHat's Secure Web Server, where recompilation of the httpd binary is impossible. RedHat even said on their website that it was impossible to use FrontPage extensions with their Secure Web Server product.
One of the most important things about improved mod_frontpage though is that it's being developed openly by many people around the world making contributions and suggestions. Security and bug fixes get fixed in a matter of days instead of waiting months for Microsoft to release a "complete" update.
Christof Pohl told me recently that the next release of the distribution will probably be completely independent and compilable on it's own through the use of it's own configure script and Makefile. So probably by the time you read this that new version will be available (current version is 1.5.1). I think that these features will help to give improved mod_frontpage the acceptance it needs to be bundled with other third party distributions of Apache.
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