Barely 18 months ago, there were some rumors that Microsoft would give the IIS source code to one of their semi-open-source projects, hoping that by turning it loose with a sort-of open source license, it would gain some traction.  Now, IIS is within striking distance of Apache.

There is pretty of bawling out there, but this can be a good thing.

There are now three active branches of Apache: the 1.3.x line, the 2.0.x line, and the 2.2.x line.  All three are extremely versatile and fairly complex.  For a number of environments, a simpler and smaller alternative is better suited.  Those sites should consider Lighttpd or other lighter-weight Web servers. The open source way is to "let a hundred flowers bloom."

Depending on one single kind of anything, whether it be operating system, database, programming or scripting language, or Web server, is an invitation for someone to find the one flaw that takes it out. Just as we should not all use one office suite, we should not all use one Web server.  Now let's go out and build up a dozen FLOSS web servers and get them all on the list with an overall share that far exceeds closed-source proprietary products.