Netcraft: Linux/Apache and Microsoft/IIS holding steady

According to the most Netcraft Web Server Survey <http://netcraft.com/survey/>, Apache's share of the Net's Web server population peaked in June 2001 at 63.02%. Starting the next month, Apache's share began to decline to around 57%, where it has more less plateau'd since. That's about where it stands in the latest survey, from April 2002. Meanwhile Microsoft IIS has held on to gains during the same period, holding about a 32% share.

The story Netcraft tells is actually one of success for both Linux/Apache and Micrsoft/IIS. Here are some of the elements to that story:

• Most hosting companies now offer a choice of Linux or Windows on generic Intel machines. Even Rackspace, a traditional Linux shop (it received venture funding funding from Red Hat) now offers dedicated Windows servers as well as Linux.
• Microsoft's Commerce Server [formerly Site Server] continues to dominate the mid-level e-commerce market, where there are no significant UNIX or Linux competitors. Its new Commerce Server 2002 is also .Net enabled, which should boost sales.
• Linux also gets a boost on commerce sites from the growing popularity of Miva and PHP.

There are no other major competitors in the Web server space. As of Aptil Zeus has 2.26% and iPlanet has 2.21%. "Other" totals 7.19%.