The Apache Web server basks in the admiration of commercial software distributors and customers alike. According to a May 2003 survey by Netcraft, about 63 percent of all Internet sites are powered by Apache. Indeed, its open-source model seems destined to become the darling of commodity software markets. . .
The Apache Web server basks in the admiration of commercial software distributors and customers alike. According to a May 2003 survey by Netcraft, about 63 percent of all Internet sites are powered by Apache. Indeed, its open-source model seems destined to become the darling of commodity software markets.

But there is a flip side to Apache's success. There are hundreds of distributors of the software, and most of them make tiny changes to the code to suit their own needs. Keeping a tight rein on modifications seems like a difficult proposition, but the politics of the open-source community have kept Apache largely intact. Still, some vendors are going their own way with the software and finding that certain improvements do make sense.

"A distribution may include Apache, but may [also] include some things not based on Apache," Mark Cox, editor of Apache Week and a consulting engineer for Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) , told NewsFactor. "People moving from closed-source environments may not realize that." Apache Week recently conducted a survey of 10 distributions of Apache to see what major modifications had been made to the software.

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