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Will Microsoft IIS Overtake Apache?

First time accepted submitter jcdr writes "February's 2014 Web Server Survey by Netcraft shows a massive increase [in the share of] Microsoft's web server since 2013. Microsoft's market share is now only 5.4 percentage points lower than Apache's, which is the closest it has ever been. If recent trends continue, Microsoft could overtake Apache within the next few months, ending Apache's 17+ year reign as the most common web server."

35 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    With so many botnets taking over IIS, it seems only fair.

    1. Re: why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      If I remember correctly, Microsoft was paying large hosting providers like GoDaddy to use IIS over apache

    2. Re: why not? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 4, Funny

      Next: Paying consumers to use Surface instead of iPad as their go-to breakdancing training device.

    3. Re: why not? by dmiller1984 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't know if Microsoft paid them, but GoDaddy did move all of their parked sites to IIS by default instead of Apache, which caused a major percentage change for Microsoft.

    4. Re:why not? by Danzigism · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I seem to remember a substantial amount of botnets running on Linux servers that have Apache on them. Also thanks to poor coders with bad PHP, SQL injections are quite common as well. But this article is bound to spark knee-jerk reactions to OSS software fanatics. Just don't forget that tons of people are switching to nginx and lighttpd on a daily basis which also decreases Apache's use as well.

      --
      *plays the Apogee theme song music*
    5. Re: why not? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If I remember correctly, Microsoft was paying large hosting providers like GoDaddy to use IIS over apache

      The evidence of that is the "all sites" graph which shows IIS's share increasing vs. the "active sites" graph which shows IIS's share plummeting. IIS appears to be hosting a lot of dead sites, ironically.

    6. Re: why not? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

      IIS appears to be hosting a lot of dead sites

      Which is good news for the IIS performance metrics MS will be releasing... :-)

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    7. Re: why not? by Sez+Zero · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The evidence of that is the "all sites" graph which shows IIS's share increasing vs. the "active sites" graph which shows IIS's share plummeting.

      I think the most interesting graph is the last: 1 million busiest sites. The downtick of Apache looks a lot like the opposite of the uptick for nginx. For busy sites, it seems nginx is separating from Google and IIS, but at the expense of Apache.

    8. Re: why not? by petermgreen · · Score: 5, Informative

      mmm, the "active sites" graph looks far more stable, apache is showing a slight downward trend recently but the market share it's losing doesn't seem to be going to MS

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    9. Re: why not? by petermgreen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      At this point, I'm not 100% sure what in any reasonable configuration Apache would offer over nginx.

      A couple of things i've noticed

      1: The combination of nginx and php can be a pain. It's easy enough to make it work for the root of a hostname but if you then add a subdirectory of the domain that is mapped to a different local directory it breaks because nginx passes the wrong path to php. I belive it's possible to make things work again with a sufficiantly complex configuration but I haven't figured out how yet. In my case I just worked arround it by using subdomains.
      2: Some more specialist stuff may rely on specific apache modules that afaict don't have an nginx equivilent. For example mod_dav_svn or mod_mirrorbrain.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    10. Re: why not? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "I don't know if Microsoft paid them, but GoDaddy did move all of their parked sites to IIS by default instead of Apache, which caused a major percentage change for Microsoft."

      And why not, especially if Microsoft is paying them to do it? Those parked sites only represent a miniscule fraction of bandwidth, but as you say, make a big percentage difference in perceived market share.

      Smooth move, Microsoft. You bring "lying with statistics" to a whole new level.

  2. large hosting company using IIS != IIS popularity by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Netcraft says, "Microsoft gained a staggering 48 million sites this month, increasing its total by 19% â" most of this growth is attributable to new sites hosted by Nobis Technology Group." I have no idea WFT Nobis Technology Group is, but that suggests that what is essentially one large installation swings Netcraft's idea of "the most common web server."

    And that's a broken way of counting. If ten servers using Server A serve ten sites each, and one server with Server B serves 1,000 sites,Server A is still the most common web server, with ten times the installation base of Server B.

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  3. Re:Probably by asmkm22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds more like you just hate the industry you work in. It's probably best that you're leaving.

  4. Re:I'm switching to IIS! by tripleevenfall · · Score: 4, Funny

    The MS shills are out in force posting as AC, you mean?

  5. Very different when ... by Martin+S. · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The results look very different when you look where the traffic is going:

    Developer January 2014 Percent February 2014 Percent Change

    Apache 98,129,017 54.50% 94,741,928 52.68% -1.81

    nginx 21,548,550 11.97% 24,206,737 13.46% 1.49

    Microsoft 20,901,626 11.61% 21,196,966 11.79% 0.18

    Google 15,386,518 8.54% 15,245,912 8.48% -0.07

    1. Re:Very different when ... by tgd · · Score: 5, Funny

      It also looks very different if you sort them by name:

      Apache
      Google
      Microsoft
      nginx

    2. Re:Very different when ... by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Much more different if you sort the words by letter.

      aacehp
      eggloo
      cfimoorst
      inngx

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  6. Sensationalist summary :( by janoc · · Score: 5, Informative

    One needs to look beyond the first graph that shows all sites surveyed to look at the actually active sites - there Apache appears to have more *active* deployments than the rest combined. Counting inactive, parked domains is not really indicative of particular server popularity.

  7. Re:It was bound to happen by geminidomino · · Score: 5, Funny

    IIS also is hardly the crippled pile of steaming crap which it used to be.

    This is very true. It's made a lot of progress in the past few years, and is now an almost unrecognizable, completely new pile of steaming crap.

  8. Gee, look at how full that parking lot is by daboochmeister · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Parked domains are a pretty poor measure.

    --
    "Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh ... never mind." Dave Bucci
  9. Re:large hosting company using IIS != IIS populari by mtippett · · Score: 5, Informative

    Exactly. A bit of sensationalism in the story.

    All Sites (included millions of parked) are in 38%/%32 mix. Looking 600 pixels down and you see the active (non parked sites). The percentage is 52% vs 11%. The big drop in for MS in 2009 was probably a nail in the coffin...

  10. From TFA by furbyhater · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since I've unexpectedly RTFA, just a heads up, the headline is even more biased than usual. On the total number of active websites, there are still about 10x as many apache websites than IIS. Same picture for the top million busiest sites. There's almost no yearly change, and the server gaining the most marketshare is NGINX.

    I'm starting to believe the hearsay: Slashdot has really been totally overrun by astroturfers (in this case paid by Microsoft). Maybe dice sells a number of "promotional posts" on a biased article to various companies, one of them being Microsoft?

  11. Re:IIS better in almost every way. by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This kind of thing happens on a regular basis and is usually due to Microsoft making backroom deals with operators of parked domains, probably not paying in cash but in Windows license discounts for servers or hosting. Borderline illegal and classic Microsoft - don't ever be fooled into thinking that Microsoft has gotten itself a corporate personality transplant. The active sites graph tells the real story: Microsoft continues to languish. It is beyond me why Microsoft is so fixated on manipulating Netcraft stats.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  12. Re:Probably by afidel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Banks, they're extremely conservative and NDS's ability to replicate a sub-portion of the directory to each branch location helps keep bandwidth usage down, which can be important if you have hundreds or thousands of locations in podunk towns. I can also see using it if you're a anti-MS shop as it's the best directory server other than AD.

    --
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  13. Re:IIS better in almost every way. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative
    The last part of your post is the important one:

    you most likely are going to be using Apache/Nginx.

    IIS market share dipped a bit after 2008 and is now back to about where it was. Apache jumped a lot since 2008 and is now back a bit below where it was. Nginx has gone from 1% to 14% in the same time. IIS has hovered between 20-30% for a while. It's now closer to 30%. Apache has been in the 50-70% range for a long time, but is now dipping a lot. The only reason we're using Apache is that Nginx doesn't work as a reverse SSL proxy in front of Jenkins (apparently it can, with some magic incantations, but they didn't work for us). For everything else, Nginx is an obvious choice. It's somewhat sad to see that Nginx has completely displaced Lighttpd, as it would have been nice to have some more active competition.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  14. Oblig by Ubi_NL · · Score: 4, Funny

    At the time Elvis Presley died in 1977, he had 150 impersonators in the US. Now, according to calculations I spotted in a Sunday newspaper colour supplement recently, there are 85,000. Intriguingly, that means one in every 3,400 Americans is an Elvis impersonator. More disturbingly, if Elvis impersonators continue multiplying at the same rate, they will account for a third of the worldâ(TM)s population by 2019.

    http://crookedtimber.org/2005/...

    --

    If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
  15. Re:IIS better in almost every way. by dkman · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have used both, from working for a hosting provider as an administrator, to working for MS itself later, to my job now. Configuration of apache is only slightly more difficult in that you need to use a text editor instead of point and click hold handing, however IIS is no wear near as powerful in that you can do much more with apache because of the slightly more difficult configuration. In addition apache is more lightweight, and has better security.

    It got a little confusing about which it you were referring, so I FTFY. Why is it that after I've written the comment I get options to Submit - Continue Editing - Preview - Cancel , but not Login?

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    I refuse to sign
  16. Re:IIS better in almost every way. by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering that the grow was caused because some big parked domains (with static pages) moved to IIS, i'd say that by a very wide margin, the main use of IIS is to serve domains with just one static page.

    Regarding the "better in almost every way", is almost as funny as the article title.

  17. Re:NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Natalie Portman's agent just woke up in a cold sweat in fear that she is no longer held dear by ./ers

    But thankfully this post was made, so Natalie Portman's agent can roll over and go back to sleep.

    Just not with Natalie Portman.

    Because I'm doing that right now.

    Giggety.

  18. The report from Netcraft: by snarfies · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Apache is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Apache community when IDC confirmed that Apache market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Apache has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Apache is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Apache's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Apachefaces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Apache because Apache is dying. Things are looking very bad for Apache. As many of us are already aware, Apache continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    All major surveys show that Apache has steadily declined in market share. Apache is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Apache is to survive at all it will be among web server dilettante dabblers. Apache continues to decay. Nothing short of a cockeyed miracle could save Apache from its fate at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Apache is dead.

    Fact: Apache is dying

  19. This and more by s.petry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The "active" sites shows no such growth trend, in fact it shows IIS declining. NginX is the only web server showing growth, and even this is misleading. Most of our use for NginX is does not make Apache go away. We use NginX as a front end reverse proxy that talks to Apache back ends. NginX is good at a few things, but nowhere near as robust as Apache.

    This is just another case of pulling only the statistics you want to color a lie.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  20. Re:large hosting company using IIS != IIS populari by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If 10,000 Web sites are served from one server using Apache, and 100 Web sites are served from 100 servers using IIS, it would be reasonable to interpret that Apache is the more common choice for serving Web sites. It would be reasonable--not necessarily accurate, but in a vacuum decision there is a great chance of validity--to assume that Apache is the better choice for hosting Web sites in most cases, as it has been selected for more often. It would be very reasonable to assume that Apache is, in most cases, at least adequate--a satisfiser would find this palatable--while making no assumptions on whether it is more or less optimal than IIS.

    It's silly to assume that the number of servers has any real meaning, unless it can reflect resource use--at our resolution we can't even do that (are these 100 IIS servers run from Raspberry Pi, or 100 IIS servers run from ginormous Dell R620s? How much load?). Even then, that doesn't reflect all the other decisions put into it. On the other hand, there are very real questions like "Does my ASP.NET site run better on Apache?" and the answer is no; or like, "Does my Python/cherrypi site run better through WSGI/Apache or WSGI/IIS?" and the answer is no again.

    The raw number of Web sites run on Apache reflects a lot more than the number of discrete servers. But then you have questions like: are these Perl/PHP/Python, .NET, etc.? Essentially: are they Apache/IIS sites because of Apache/IIS, or because of the system that provides facilities for the site best also providing Apache/IIS support best?

  21. Re:IIS better in almost every way. by wagnerrp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IIS has been on a fairly steady decline since 2000. There was a spike beginning in 2006 that rapidly died off in 2009, following which IIS continued its slow downward decline. Nginx actually has a higher usage than IIS, and Apache is still around 50%. IIS is only the server of choice among inactive placeholder pages on disused hostnames.

  22. In part it's lies, here's a true story by goruka · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Someone I know runs a hosting provider in Latin America, they sell virtualization, dedicated servers and housing. I don't remember exactly how the deal was (this was about 2 years ago). Microsoft talks to everyone here to route their traffic through Window Server devices and IIS or fake server agents in exchange of money, hardware and licenses. I don't have proof and can't obviously point to specific providers, but i've seen the devices myself.

  23. Re:I'm switching to IIS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You lot remind me of my dad. All he listens to is Pink Floyd and other hippie music, he's convinced any music after 1980 is shit, so he doesn't even listen to any of it.

    You should listen to your dad.