The unthinkable happens: Apache gives way to Microsoft's IIS

Apache has always been thought of as untouchable. Long before Linux and other open-source software made inroads on Microsoft's turf, Apache's web server project lobotomized Microsoft's market share (in the web server market).

Today, it appears that some cracks have appeared in Apache's defense, according to this Netcraft survey of 127 million sites:

• Microsoft continues to increase its web server market share, adding 2.6 million sites in July as Apache lost 991 thousand hostnames;
• As a result, Windows improved its market share by 1.4% to 34.2%, while Apache slipped by 1.7% to 48.4%.

This should serve as a wake-up call to Apache and, indeed, to open-source projects everywhere: Microsoft isn't sleeping at the wheel.

Market Share for Top Servers Across All Domains August 1995 - August 2007

(Credit: Netcraft)

If Microsoft can compete in web servers, then it can compete anywhere. Time to get back to work. Open source may have been sleeping at the wheel this time....

[theopensourcerer]

How real are the measurements?

Obviously there is a "trend" happening here, but the recent very large swing suggests something else to me.

Is it more of the GoDaddy migrating 4m parked domains from Apache to IIS (That M$ allegedly paid for)?

Or could it be the growth of Google's own web server and the lighttpd taking share just at Apache's expense?

The graph shows a MAJOR event happened between Nov 2005 and May 2006 (Just at around the same time Apache reached over 50% more coverage than M$). Looking at the end of the graph, we appear to be in another 'significant event' scenario.

Being a bit of a cynic (isn't that us Brit's prerogative anyway?) I suspect that there is some serious manipulation of figures going on somehow... Just like in the Ecma-376 (MS OOXML) voting bodies ;-)

Thanks for a great blog.

Alan

[Matt Asay]

Very good points

I wasn't aware of the GoDaddy decision, and the Google idea is interesting, as well. I agree that something is likely going on, as I haven't heard any general griping about Apache's web server....