Usually the news from the Netcraft Web Server Survey is upbeat for Linux folks, but the March 2002 report isn't. Look at the main graphs, and you'll see a tug of war between Apache and Microsoft IIS web servers that's been going on since 1998. In 2001 IIS made some significant gains on Apache, which held shares upwards of 60%, but those finally seemed to reverse in February 2002. But in March, IIS gained 4.89%, while Apache dropped 4.67%, to percentages among Top Developers of 57.36% for Apache and 34.02% for IIS.

Netcraft says this represents a shift of about two million sites, "primarily as a result of Register.com and Network Solutions migrating their domain parking facilities to a Windows front end. Register.com had been serving from Apache on Linux and is in the midst of migrating to Windows", Netcraft reports.

Of course, parked domains are a lot less functional than active ones, so this probably doesn't say much about the real and practical uses of the Web from the server side. But it's still annoying to lose even a few bragging rights share points.

Perhaps when these big registrars finish migrating to the Dark Side, the Apache share erosion will cease, or even turn around.

Doc Searls is senior editor of Linux Journal.