After I took part on a panel the FreeBSD conference in October, an attendee invited me to test the honesty of both Linux Journal and its community by looking at exactly which operating systems hosted the most popular Web sites. So I did. The server and host columns below contain exactly the data yielded by Netcraft at its "What's That Site Running?" page on October 26, 1999.
The source list of Top 50 sites (in the U.S.) comes from Media Metrix, which is the primary source of Web site popularity figures.
Indeed, the results look good for BSD. The look better for Solaris. They perhaps look best for Bill Joy, whose genius is behind both the Berkeley and Sun breeds of UNIX. Although only Real Networks and Go2Net were found to be running on Linux, Netcraft informs us that other Linux sites include DejaNews, eToys and The British Royal Family (we knew those folks had taste).
Since we're being utterly fair here, Microsoft's OSes (let's face it: NT), don't do too badly, either.
Next, the necessary disclaimer. "There's no sure way to tell what OS a host is running," says our top tech wizard, Dan Wilder. "Indeed, there are lots of ways to fool people about what host is running. OS names are easily spoofed. We used to spoof them here at SSC, to foil hackers." To find a fun hack on the supply side of this information, look at the Server finding for Real.com, below.
Consolation: as we see elsewhere in this section, Linux is gaining rapidly overall and now hosts about one third of all Web domains (according to The Internet Operating System Counter).
— Doc Searls
| Media Metrix - Top 50 Web Sites in the U.S. |
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| September 1999 Measurement Period | ||||
| (9/1/99 through 9/30/99) |
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| Combined At Home and At Work | ||||
| Rank | Web Sites | Unique Visitors (000) | Server | Host |
| Total Universe | 63,374 | |||
| 1 | Yahoo.com | 32,131 | Unknown | FreeBSD |
| 2 | Aol.com | 28,440 | NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/2.3.3 | Solaris |
| 3 | Msn.com | 28,186 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT3 or Windows 95 |
| 4 | Netscape.com | 19,623 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 | Solaris |
| 5 | Microsoft.com | 19,602 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT3 or Windows 95 |
| 6 | Geocities.com | 19,345 | Unknown | Solaris |
| 7 | Go.com | 18,889 | Unknown | Solaris |
| 8 | Excite.com | 14,085 | Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 | Solaris |
| 9 | Hotmail.com | 13,648 | Apache/1.3.6 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.8 SSLeay/0.9.0b | FreeBSD |
| 10 | Lycos.com | 13,439 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP2 | Digital UNIX |
| 11 | Passport.com | 13,006 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT3 or Windows 95 |
| 12 | Amazon.com | 11,283 | Netscape-Commerce/1.12 | Digital UNIX |
| 13 | Angelfire.com | 11,075 | Apache/1.3.4 | Linux |
| 14 | Tripod.com | 10,315 | Apache/1.3.4 | Solaris |
| 15 | Real.com | 10,138 | This·is·a·real·operating·system·from·the·free·world·1.2alpha12 | Linux |
| 16 | Ebay.com | 9,991 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 17 | Altavista Search Services | 9,453 | AV/1.0.1 | Digital UNIX |
| 18 | Bluemountainarts.com | 9,155 | Apache/1.3.4 | FreeBSD |
| 19 | About.com | 8,138 | Apache/1.3.4 | FreeBSD |
| 20 | Looksmart.com | 8,063 | Apache/1.3.4 | Solaris |
| 21 | Hotbot.com | 7,922 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 22 | Snap.com Search & Services | 7,661 | Netscape-Communications/1.12 | Solaris |
| 23 | Goto.com | 7,316 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.0K | Solaris |
| 24 | ZDNet | 7,308 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP2 | Solaris |
| 25 | Xoom.com | 7,077 | Apache/1.2.5 | FreeBSD |
| 26 | Weather.com | 6,705 | Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 | Solaris |
| 27 | Msnbc.com | 6,666 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 28 | Icq.com | 5,809 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.0 | Solaris |
| 29 | Infospace.com | 5,306 | Unknown | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 30 | Sportsline USA | 4,655 | Apache/1.3.4 | Solaris |
| 31 | Pathfinder.com | 4,469 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP1 | Solaris |
| 32 | Earthlink.net | 4,458 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 | Solaris |
| 33 | Digitalcity.com | 4,419 | NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/3.0b | Irix |
| 34 | Cnet.com | 4,416 | Netscape-Communications/1.12 | Solaris |
| 35 | Barnesandnoble.com | 4,381 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 36 | CNET Software Download Svcs | 4,228 | Netscape-Communications/1.12 | Solaris |
| 37 | Cdnow.com | 4,188 | Apache/1.3b5 | Solaris |
| 38 | Expedia | 4,140 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT3 or Windows 95 |
| 39 | Cnn.com | 4,132 | Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 | Solaris |
| 40 | Askjeeves.com | 4,039 | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | NT4 or Windows 98 |
| 41 | Simplenet.com | 3,746 | Apache/1.3.1 | Solaris |
| 42 | Fortunecity.com | 3,698 | Apache/1.2.6 | Solaris |
| 43 | Broadcast.com Inc. | 3,648 | Microsoft-IIS/3.0 | — |
| 44 | Sony Online | 3,635 | Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 | Solaris |
| 45 | Go2net.com | 3,634 | Apache/1.3.6 (Unix) ApacheJServ/1.0 PHP/3.0.12 mod_perl/1.16_03-dev | Linux |
| 46 | Att.net | 3,625 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP2 | Irix |
| 47 | Mypoints.com | 3,561 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.5.1G | Solaris |
| 48 | Warner Bros. Online | 3,518 | Netscape-Enterprise/3.5.1C | Solaris |
| 49 | Travelocity.com | 3,498 | Netscape-Communications/1.1 | Irix |
| 50 | Macromedia.com | 3,450 | Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) mod_perl/1.18 | Solaris |