Comments on: Apache vs. IIS – What is your favorite market share statistics?

By: Marijn Ophorst

Marijn Ophorst — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:49:02 +0000

Statistics are of course always interesting (the famous quote, I believe, was from Mark Twain BTW), but I call upon everyone to do their own survey. Just open your top-10 personal favourite websites and see what they run on. Go on.
Heck, take the first 100. Or 1000. Okay, now go find a hosting provider for your own website. The vast majority default to Linux/Apache.

Sure, among the Fortune 1000 companies Windows is predominant. I’m sure a couple of years ago Windows 2000 would be the most-used OS in that segment as well, but that (obviously) doesn’t mean it was the most-used OS at the time. Sorry, but big bucks simply aren’t representative.

By: Apache Vs IIS (estadísiticas de netcraft) | Ni Mucho Ni Poco

Apache Vs IIS (estadísiticas de netcraft) | Ni Mucho Ni Poco — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:03:36 +0000

[...] Inquirer planteaba. En efecto, después de rebuscar entre las noticias del RSS encontré de nuevo el artículo en 4sysops (de nuevo una página que aconsejo a todo el mundo). En ella se puede ver de forma más clara la [...]

By: Alan Lord

Alan Lord — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:35:47 +0000

Yes I did “grab the wrong end of the stick” a bit, sorry.

I have read somewhere recently (but I can’t find the source) that almost all of Microsoft’s *profitable* business comes just from Windows OS and the Office portfolio.

It would be interesting to see if there is really a shift of balance – which I expect there is – towards Open Source… I try and get most news items and reports etc so I’ll keep looking. But the EU seems keen to develop it’s Open Source credibility and they are funding quite a few research activities.

Balmer has recently said that they may well be buying Open Source companies in the near future. The challenge for them will be to keep the community on-board. They are pretty much hated in our world. With their antics over the ISO/OOXML and the recent EU Antitrust case they have a long way to go before they become as respected as the likes of Sun and IBM. Even Oracle are becoming more and more “open”. They just released a new driver for PHP to work with their db and gave it to the community.

We do live in interesting times and it’s good to dialogue

Thanks

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:59:46 +0000

I think you misunderstood me. I have no doubt that the Open Source business is doing well. It is improving every year. But the same applies to Microsoft’s revenues. It seems to me that they are even growing faster since Open Source is so successful. Actually, I think that Open Source helped Microsoft to extend their business in the server market. Open Source almost ruined some of Microsoft’s biggest competitors such as Sun or SCO. Maybe even IBM lost more with Open Source than they earned with it. I think in the future Microsoft will embrace Open Source more and more. Microsoft’s earns with selling software, not with programming it. If others can earn with selling OSS why not Microsoft?

By: Alan Lord

Alan Lord — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:00:23 +0000

Hi again, “There is no reason to believe that Open Source is a serious threat to Microsoft at the moment. Even Ballmer accepted this now.”

I’m not quite sure where you get that idea from? The survey data and analysts reports from all over the place are all saying much the same thing… Open Source is gaining at an incredible pace and is already dominant in certain enterprise niches.

This eweek article (sorry about their stupid ads at the beginning) which covers what Gartner (a ususally pro M$ research group) think about Open Source.

“Open-source products accounted for a 13 percent share of the $92.7 billion software market in 2006, but should account for 27 percent of the market in 2011 when revenue is expected to be $169.2″

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2186932,00.asp

And there are many more with similar general findings. Why do you think M$ is working so hard to bolster their revenue by using IP Licensing and Legal suits rather than developing and selling software that customers actually want?

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:58:16 +0000

I wouldn’t take data about Open Source that comes from IBM too seriously. They are trying everything to push Linux and Open Source in general. I believe that Linux and also Apache made some progress recently among big companies. However, the reason is that many just moved from other UNIX systems to Linux. This also applies to Apache. Many still had Netscape servers running and now moved to Apache. There is no reason to believe that Open Source is a serious threat to Microsoft at the moment. Even Ballmer accepted this now.

By: Alan Lord

Alan Lord — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:06:23 +0000

As the saying goes: “There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies, and statistics.” (Probably Benjamin Disraeli). So we can all use them to prove what ever we want to

It is interesting that the Fortune 1000 seem to favour IIS. I am quite surprised at that with the appalling security record it had, especially a couple of years back.

Some other surveys would suggest that “big business” is actually starting to favour Open Source and is moving (albeit quite slowly) away from Microsoft in the server space: http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com/content/view/27/66/1/1/ with link to the original source (IBM) too.

One other point may be to do with legal concerns. We are fortunate here in the EU to not be encumbered by the ridiculous patenting laws that exist in the USA [and also perhaps a generally less litigious culture]. The Fortune 1000 are mainly, I assume, American businesses. Perhaps there is more reticence on their part to deploy OSS as they might fear being sued by M$ or another Patent Troll… Just a thought…

Thanks

Alan
The Open Sourcerer