[Cross-posted to the Tucows Developer Blog]
In his 2005 essay What Business Can Learn from Open Source, Paul Graham wrote:
At this point, anyone proposing to run Windows on servers should be prepared to explain what they know about servers that Google, Yahoo, and Amazon don’t.
If VentureCake’s survey is any indication, it seems that many “Web 2.0” companies have taken this lesson to heart. Using a simple Unix script which in turn makes use of the nmap port-scanning utility, they scanned 17 popular sites deemed “Web 2.0” to see what server and operating systems they ran on. With one notable exception — MySpace — they all ran on an open-source server and operating system.
The table below shows the results they got from the scan:
| Site | Webserver | Operating System |
|---|---|---|
 |
Apache httpd | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd 1.3.33 | Linux |
 |
lighttpd 1.4.13 | Linux |
 |
lighttpd 1.4.11 | Linux |
 |
Unknown | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd 2.0.52 ((Red Hat)) | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd | Linux |
 |
Unknown | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd 2.0.52 | Linux |
 |
Microsoft IIS webserver 6.0 | Windows (although OS responding is Linux, this is a caching service). |
 |
lighttpd 1.4.15 | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd 2.0.55 ((Ubuntu) DAV/2 PHP/5.1.2) | Linux |
 |
Mongrel 201.0.1 | Linux |
 |
Apache httpd | Linux |
 |
Squid webproxy 2.6.STABLE12 | Unknown (while OS responding is Linux, this is likely a caching service). |