OS/Linux Distributions using Apache

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You are viewing an outdated report. The latest version of this report was published on October 1st, 2024

May 1st, 2008

Report Description

The Apache server has in virtually any unbiased metric available (either from us or elsewhere) a majority market share in the web server market. Couple this with the fact that Apache will often provide hints as to the nature of the host OS it is running on, and one can view trends of linux distributions, how specialty OS' are performing in the server market and so on.

Methodology

The principal is simple: when issuing a request for a page to an Apache web server, the response received consists of HTTP Response Headers as well as the body of the web page being requested. For example, consider if we connect to a host on port 80 and request the root document. Our transaction might look something like this:


$ telnet 192.168.1.1 80
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:24:24 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Debian) DAV/2 PHP/4.4.4-8+etch4 mod_perl/2.0.2 Perl/v5.8.8
Last-Modified: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:01:07 GMT
ETag: "62c786-15eb-43c23eac2cec0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 5611
MS-Author-Via: DAV
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd">

<html>
...<snip>
</html>

The above response headers show the Server: header indicating the version of Apache, various add-on modules, as well as the fact that this platform is running the Debian linux distribution.

Reporting by Hostname (Sample size: 6,132,559 web sites)

It should be noted that not all web servers will report back the Host OS signature. In an Apache configuration file, the ServerTokens directive can be used to to disable the disclosure of this information. Only configurations that do not specify the ServerTokens directive, or set it to Full may reveal sufficient information to allow disclosure of the OS and distribution hosting the server.

In this month's survey, 20,862,449 Apache servers were detected, but only 6,132,559 (29.40%) revealed sufficient information to detect the host OS. The remainder of the survey by host information shown below is based on this subset of Apache servers that revealed the host OS.

OS/Distribution April 2008
Hostname Count April 2008
% March 2008
Hostname Count March 2008
% Growth
%

Debian 1,548,286 25.25 1,514,506 25.04 0.82

Red Hat 1,227,689 20.02 1,246,733 20.61 -2.89

CentOS 914,788 14.92 870,353 14.39 3.65

Fedora 911,197 14.86 929,324 15.37 -3.31

SuSE 499,091 8.14 510,013 8.43 -3.49

FreeBSD 339,759 5.54 316,198 5.23 5.97

Windows 194,923 3.18 180,606 2.99 6.43

Ubuntu 179,162 2.92 150,846 2.49 17.13

Trustix 84,532 1.38 82,171 1.36 1.45

Darwin 65,749 1.07 71,963 1.19 -9.90

Sun Cobalt 54,573 0.89 56,913 0.94 -5.44

Gentoo 35,410 0.58 33,397 0.55 4.56

Mandriva 22,940 0.37 26,981 0.45 -16.15

Turbolinux 10,977 0.18 10,742 0.18 0.77

IBM 9,485 0.15 9,725 0.16 -3.82

Netware 6,518 0.11 6,581 0.11 -2.33

BlueQuartz 5,645 0.09 6,090 0.10 -8.59

Mac OS X 3,551 0.06 3,523 0.06 -0.60

White Box 2,833 0.05 5,693 0.09 -50.93

ASPLinux 2,315 0.04 2,238 0.04 2.01

UnitedLinux 2,272 0.04 2,334 0.04 -4.00

ALT Linux 1,926 0.03 1,971 0.03 -3.63

Oracle 1,674 0.03 1,639 0.03 0.72

Scientific Linux 1,671 0.03 1,679 0.03 -1.85

OpenPKG 1,114 0.02 1,106 0.02 -0.67

APMServ 977 0.02 845 0.01 14.02

Asianux 834 0.01 846 0.01 -2.78

OpenVMS 393 0.01 393 0.01 -1.38

OS/2 277 0.00 294 0.00 -7.09

Miracle 211 0.00 220 0.00 -5.42

rPath 197 0.00 190 0.00 2.25

OpenNA 183 0.00 189 0.00 -4.51

Aurox 167 0.00 172 0.00 -4.25

PCLinuxOS 135 0.00 132 0.00 0.86

iSeries 120 0.00 123 0.00 -3.79

EasiLiX 115 0.00 113 0.00 0.36

Yellow Dog 114 0.00 119 0.00 -5.53

ClarkConnect 104 0.00 109 0.00 -5.91

Tao 94 0.00 92 0.00 0.76

Lineox 87 0.00 84 0.00 2.14

cAos 84 0.00 85 0.00 -2.54

Solaris 69 0.00 92 0.00 -26.04

Haansoft 60 0.00 64 0.00 -7.55

StartCom 59 0.00 58 0.00 0.32

Novell 51 0.00 48 0.00 4.78

RedFlag 46 0.00 45 0.00 0.81

Rogue Penguin 26 0.00 22 0.00 16.55

Momonga 23 0.00 24 0.00 -5.49

Cygwin 23 0.00 22 0.00 3.10

OpenBSD 20 0.00 19 0.00 3.81

Ark 9 0.00 9 0.00 -1.38

Slackware 1 0.00 6 0.00 -83.56

Reporting by Installation (Sample size: 725,760 IP Addresses)

The following graph and table are based on the same underlying data set as in the previous graphs and table, but with the distinction that we count unique IP addresses instead of unique hostnames, thus getting a more accurate representation of the number of actual web servers installed. (See Web Survey by IP for more details).

In this month's survey, 2,036,701 distinct IP Addresses hosted Apache servers, but only 725,760 (35.63%) revealed sufficient information to detect the host OS. The data below is based on this subset of servers that revealed the host OS.

OS/Distribution April 2008
IP Address Count April 2008
% March 2008
IP Address Count March 2008
% Growth
%

Red Hat 178,162 24.55 179,507 25.10 -2.18

Debian 128,190 17.66 124,958 17.47 1.11

Fedora 123,322 16.99 122,642 17.15 -0.90

CentOS 85,226 11.74 80,812 11.30 3.94

SuSE 57,831 7.97 57,609 8.05 -1.06

Windows 47,189 6.50 46,203 6.46 0.66

FreeBSD 29,172 4.02 27,786 3.88 3.47

Ubuntu 27,919 3.85 26,056 3.64 5.60

Darwin 17,185 2.37 17,430 2.44 -2.83

Sun Cobalt 8,753 1.21 9,136 1.28 -5.58

Mandriva 4,814 0.66 4,938 0.69 -3.92

Netware 4,216 0.58 4,243 0.59 -2.07

Gentoo 2,584 0.36 2,663 0.37 -4.37

Turbolinux 2,398 0.33 2,413 0.34 -2.06

IBM 1,595 0.22 1,586 0.22 -0.88

Trustix 977 0.13 990 0.14 -2.74

BlueQuartz 804 0.11 848 0.12 -6.56

Oracle 752 0.10 746 0.10 -0.65

White Box 674 0.09 694 0.10 -4.28

Mac OS X 553 0.08 564 0.08 -3.37

Scientific Linux 535 0.07 520 0.07 1.40

ASPLinux 505 0.07 509 0.07 -2.22

UnitedLinux 427 0.06 454 0.06 -7.30

ALT Linux 294 0.04 304 0.04 -4.69

Asianux 274 0.04 277 0.04 -2.51

APMServ 226 0.03 206 0.03 8.13

OpenVMS 182 0.03 183 0.03 -1.98

OpenPKG 142 0.02 139 0.02 0.68

Miracle 126 0.02 130 0.02 -4.48

iSeries 96 0.01 99 0.01 -4.43

rPath 86 0.01 79 0.01 7.29

OS/2 69 0.01 77 0.01 -11.68

Aurox 68 0.01 70 0.01 -4.26

OpenNA 46 0.01 47 0.01 -3.54

Novell 43 0.01 42 0.01 0.90

ClarkConnect 42 0.01 42 0.01 -1.44

Haansoft 34 0.00 37 0.01 -9.43

PCLinuxOS 30 0.00 29 0.00 1.96

Lineox 29 0.00 30 0.00 -4.73

Yellow Dog 29 0.00 30 0.00 -4.73

Tao 28 0.00 28 0.00 -1.44

StartCom 23 0.00 21 0.00 7.94

Solaris 21 0.00 18 0.00 14.98

EasiLiX 18 0.00 17 0.00 4.35

cAos 15 0.00 17 0.00 -13.04

RedFlag 14 0.00 14 0.00 -1.44

Momonga 13 0.00 13 0.00 -1.44

Cygwin 10 0.00 10 0.00 -1.44

OpenBSD 9 0.00 9 0.00 -1.44

Rogue Penguin 8 0.00 6 0.00 31.41

Ark 1 0.00 1 0.00 -1.44

Slackware 1 0.00 2 0.00 -50.72

Note: Readers are cautioned that the Growth percentages are based on a server's market share penetration rather than the absolute number of servers we detected. Thus, it is possible for the number of servers to increase, while the growth is actually a negative value.

OS/Distribution	April 2008 Hostname Count	April 2008 %	March 2008 Hostname Count	March 2008 %	Growth %
Debian	1,548,286	25.25	1,514,506	25.04	0.82
Red Hat	1,227,689	20.02	1,246,733	20.61	-2.89
CentOS	914,788	14.92	870,353	14.39	3.65
Fedora	911,197	14.86	929,324	15.37	-3.31
SuSE	499,091	8.14	510,013	8.43	-3.49
FreeBSD	339,759	5.54	316,198	5.23	5.97
Windows	194,923	3.18	180,606	2.99	6.43
Ubuntu	179,162	2.92	150,846	2.49	17.13
Trustix	84,532	1.38	82,171	1.36	1.45
Darwin	65,749	1.07	71,963	1.19	-9.90
Sun Cobalt	54,573	0.89	56,913	0.94	-5.44
Gentoo	35,410	0.58	33,397	0.55	4.56
Mandriva	22,940	0.37	26,981	0.45	-16.15
Turbolinux	10,977	0.18	10,742	0.18	0.77
IBM	9,485	0.15	9,725	0.16	-3.82
Netware	6,518	0.11	6,581	0.11	-2.33
BlueQuartz	5,645	0.09	6,090	0.10	-8.59
Mac OS X	3,551	0.06	3,523	0.06	-0.60
White Box	2,833	0.05	5,693	0.09	-50.93
ASPLinux	2,315	0.04	2,238	0.04	2.01
UnitedLinux	2,272	0.04	2,334	0.04	-4.00
ALT Linux	1,926	0.03	1,971	0.03	-3.63
Oracle	1,674	0.03	1,639	0.03	0.72
Scientific Linux	1,671	0.03	1,679	0.03	-1.85
OpenPKG	1,114	0.02	1,106	0.02	-0.67
APMServ	977	0.02	845	0.01	14.02
Asianux	834	0.01	846	0.01	-2.78
OpenVMS	393	0.01	393	0.01	-1.38
OS/2	277	0.00	294	0.00	-7.09
Miracle	211	0.00	220	0.00	-5.42
rPath	197	0.00	190	0.00	2.25
OpenNA	183	0.00	189	0.00	-4.51
Aurox	167	0.00	172	0.00	-4.25
PCLinuxOS	135	0.00	132	0.00	0.86
iSeries	120	0.00	123	0.00	-3.79
EasiLiX	115	0.00	113	0.00	0.36
Yellow Dog	114	0.00	119	0.00	-5.53
ClarkConnect	104	0.00	109	0.00	-5.91
Tao	94	0.00	92	0.00	0.76
Lineox	87	0.00	84	0.00	2.14
cAos	84	0.00	85	0.00	-2.54
Solaris	69	0.00	92	0.00	-26.04
Haansoft	60	0.00	64	0.00	-7.55
StartCom	59	0.00	58	0.00	0.32
Novell	51	0.00	48	0.00	4.78
RedFlag	46	0.00	45	0.00	0.81
Rogue Penguin	26	0.00	22	0.00	16.55
Momonga	23	0.00	24	0.00	-5.49
Cygwin	23	0.00	22	0.00	3.10
OpenBSD	20	0.00	19	0.00	3.81
Ark	9	0.00	9	0.00	-1.38
Slackware	1	0.00	6	0.00	-83.56

OS/Distribution	April 2008 IP Address Count	April 2008 %	March 2008 IP Address Count	March 2008 %	Growth %
Red Hat	178,162	24.55	179,507	25.10	-2.18
Debian	128,190	17.66	124,958	17.47	1.11
Fedora	123,322	16.99	122,642	17.15	-0.90
CentOS	85,226	11.74	80,812	11.30	3.94
SuSE	57,831	7.97	57,609	8.05	-1.06
Windows	47,189	6.50	46,203	6.46	0.66
FreeBSD	29,172	4.02	27,786	3.88	3.47
Ubuntu	27,919	3.85	26,056	3.64	5.60
Darwin	17,185	2.37	17,430	2.44	-2.83
Sun Cobalt	8,753	1.21	9,136	1.28	-5.58
Mandriva	4,814	0.66	4,938	0.69	-3.92
Netware	4,216	0.58	4,243	0.59	-2.07
Gentoo	2,584	0.36	2,663	0.37	-4.37
Turbolinux	2,398	0.33	2,413	0.34	-2.06
IBM	1,595	0.22	1,586	0.22	-0.88
Trustix	977	0.13	990	0.14	-2.74
BlueQuartz	804	0.11	848	0.12	-6.56
Oracle	752	0.10	746	0.10	-0.65
White Box	674	0.09	694	0.10	-4.28
Mac OS X	553	0.08	564	0.08	-3.37
Scientific Linux	535	0.07	520	0.07	1.40
ASPLinux	505	0.07	509	0.07	-2.22
UnitedLinux	427	0.06	454	0.06	-7.30
ALT Linux	294	0.04	304	0.04	-4.69
Asianux	274	0.04	277	0.04	-2.51
APMServ	226	0.03	206	0.03	8.13
OpenVMS	182	0.03	183	0.03	-1.98
OpenPKG	142	0.02	139	0.02	0.68
Miracle	126	0.02	130	0.02	-4.48
iSeries	96	0.01	99	0.01	-4.43
rPath	86	0.01	79	0.01	7.29
OS/2	69	0.01	77	0.01	-11.68
Aurox	68	0.01	70	0.01	-4.26
OpenNA	46	0.01	47	0.01	-3.54
Novell	43	0.01	42	0.01	0.90
ClarkConnect	42	0.01	42	0.01	-1.44
Haansoft	34	0.00	37	0.01	-9.43
PCLinuxOS	30	0.00	29	0.00	1.96
Lineox	29	0.00	30	0.00	-4.73
Yellow Dog	29	0.00	30	0.00	-4.73
Tao	28	0.00	28	0.00	-1.44
StartCom	23	0.00	21	0.00	7.94
Solaris	21	0.00	18	0.00	14.98
EasiLiX	18	0.00	17	0.00	4.35
cAos	15	0.00	17	0.00	-13.04
RedFlag	14	0.00	14	0.00	-1.44
Momonga	13	0.00	13	0.00	-1.44
Cygwin	10	0.00	10	0.00	-1.44
OpenBSD	9	0.00	9	0.00	-1.44
Rogue Penguin	8	0.00	6	0.00	31.41
Ark	1	0.00	1	0.00	-1.44
Slackware	1	0.00	2	0.00	-50.72