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You are viewing an outdated report.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

November 1st, 2021

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: 3,525,778 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, 20,780,338 Apache servers were detected, but only 3,525,778 (16.97%) 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 October 2021
Hostname Count October 2021
% September 2021
Hostname Count September 2021
% Growth
%

CentOS 1,098,673 31.16 1,085,220 30.64 1.69

Debian 1,097,653 31.13 1,101,206 31.09 0.12

Ubuntu 1,005,601 28.52 1,018,916 28.77 -0.86

Windows 105,709 3.00 106,603 3.01 -0.39

FreeBSD 85,371 2.42 92,877 2.62 -7.67

Red Hat 54,528 1.55 55,986 1.58 -2.17

Fedora 41,802 1.19 43,332 1.22 -3.10

SuSE 24,822 0.70 25,321 0.71 -1.53

Scientific Linux 4,100 0.12 4,206 0.12 -2.08

Oracle 2,026 0.06 2,033 0.06 0.10

Gentoo 1,831 0.05 1,840 0.05 -0.04

Turbolinux 1,364 0.04 1,374 0.04 -0.28

Darwin 553 0.02 562 0.02 -1.16

Mandriva 348 0.01 363 0.01 -3.70

Sun Cobalt 283 0.01 289 0.01 -1.64

Trustix 227 0.01 227 0.01 0.45

APMServ 167 0.00 506 0.01 -66.85

OS/2 115 0.00 117 0.00 -1.27

Mac OS X 108 0.00 108 0.00 0.45

ASPLinux 97 0.00 90 0.00 8.26

OpenVMS 89 0.00 87 0.00 2.76

Netware 81 0.00 83 0.00 -1.97

OpenPKG 46 0.00 71 0.00 -34.92

ALT Linux 40 0.00 40 0.00 0.45

IBM 39 0.00 38 0.00 3.09

BlueQuartz 38 0.00 38 0.00 0.45

Asianux 20 0.00 22 0.00 -8.68

UnitedLinux 20 0.00 20 0.00 0.45

White Box 13 0.00 13 0.00 0.45

OpenNA 6 0.00 6 0.00 0.45

Lineox 3 0.00 3 0.00 0.45

ClarkConnect 2 0.00 2 0.00 0.45

iSeries 2 0.00 2 0.00 0.45

rPath 1 0.00 1 0.00 0.45

Reporting by Installation (Sample size: 456,933 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, 1,803,529 distinct IP Addresses hosted Apache servers, but only 456,933 (25.34%) 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 October 2021
IP Address Count October 2021
% September 2021
IP Address Count September 2021
% Growth
%

Ubuntu 179,455 39.27 180,756 39.05 0.58

CentOS 116,719 25.54 118,500 25.60 -0.22

Debian 111,766 24.46 113,324 24.48 -0.09

Windows 18,128 3.97 18,719 4.04 -1.89

FreeBSD 11,777 2.58 11,980 2.59 -0.41

Red Hat 7,348 1.61 7,815 1.69 -4.75

Fedora 5,857 1.28 5,828 1.26 1.81

SuSE 3,554 0.78 3,612 0.78 -0.32

Scientific Linux 915 0.20 930 0.20 -0.33

Oracle 514 0.11 519 0.11 0.33

Turbolinux 217 0.05 218 0.05 0.84

Darwin 147 0.03 146 0.03 2.00

Mandriva 127 0.03 127 0.03 1.31

Sun Cobalt 80 0.02 83 0.02 -2.36

Gentoo 77 0.02 79 0.02 -1.26

OpenVMS 46 0.01 47 0.01 -0.85

Netware 37 0.01 39 0.01 -3.89

APMServ 22 0.00 28 0.01 -20.40

OpenPKG 20 0.00 23 0.00 -11.91

ASPLinux 20 0.00 19 0.00 6.64

Trustix 17 0.00 17 0.00 1.31

IBM 15 0.00 14 0.00 8.54

OS/2 15 0.00 16 0.00 -5.03

Mac OS X 12 0.00 12 0.00 1.31

Asianux 9 0.00 10 0.00 -8.82

ALT Linux 9 0.00 9 0.00 1.31

BlueQuartz 9 0.00 9 0.00 1.31

White Box 8 0.00 8 0.00 1.31

UnitedLinux 4 0.00 4 0.00 1.31

OpenNA 3 0.00 3 0.00 1.31

Lineox 2 0.00 2 0.00 1.31

ClarkConnect 2 0.00 2 0.00 1.31

iSeries 1 0.00 1 0.00 1.31

rPath 1 0.00 1 0.00 1.31

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	October 2021 Hostname Count	October 2021 %	September 2021 Hostname Count	September 2021 %	Growth %
CentOS	1,098,673	31.16	1,085,220	30.64	1.69
Debian	1,097,653	31.13	1,101,206	31.09	0.12
Ubuntu	1,005,601	28.52	1,018,916	28.77	-0.86
Windows	105,709	3.00	106,603	3.01	-0.39
FreeBSD	85,371	2.42	92,877	2.62	-7.67
Red Hat	54,528	1.55	55,986	1.58	-2.17
Fedora	41,802	1.19	43,332	1.22	-3.10
SuSE	24,822	0.70	25,321	0.71	-1.53
Scientific Linux	4,100	0.12	4,206	0.12	-2.08
Oracle	2,026	0.06	2,033	0.06	0.10
Gentoo	1,831	0.05	1,840	0.05	-0.04
Turbolinux	1,364	0.04	1,374	0.04	-0.28
Darwin	553	0.02	562	0.02	-1.16
Mandriva	348	0.01	363	0.01	-3.70
Sun Cobalt	283	0.01	289	0.01	-1.64
Trustix	227	0.01	227	0.01	0.45
APMServ	167	0.00	506	0.01	-66.85
OS/2	115	0.00	117	0.00	-1.27
Mac OS X	108	0.00	108	0.00	0.45
ASPLinux	97	0.00	90	0.00	8.26
OpenVMS	89	0.00	87	0.00	2.76
Netware	81	0.00	83	0.00	-1.97
OpenPKG	46	0.00	71	0.00	-34.92
ALT Linux	40	0.00	40	0.00	0.45
IBM	39	0.00	38	0.00	3.09
BlueQuartz	38	0.00	38	0.00	0.45
Asianux	20	0.00	22	0.00	-8.68
UnitedLinux	20	0.00	20	0.00	0.45
White Box	13	0.00	13	0.00	0.45
OpenNA	6	0.00	6	0.00	0.45
Lineox	3	0.00	3	0.00	0.45
ClarkConnect	2	0.00	2	0.00	0.45
iSeries	2	0.00	2	0.00	0.45
rPath	1	0.00	1	0.00	0.45

OS/Distribution	October 2021 IP Address Count	October 2021 %	September 2021 IP Address Count	September 2021 %	Growth %
Ubuntu	179,455	39.27	180,756	39.05	0.58
CentOS	116,719	25.54	118,500	25.60	-0.22
Debian	111,766	24.46	113,324	24.48	-0.09
Windows	18,128	3.97	18,719	4.04	-1.89
FreeBSD	11,777	2.58	11,980	2.59	-0.41
Red Hat	7,348	1.61	7,815	1.69	-4.75
Fedora	5,857	1.28	5,828	1.26	1.81
SuSE	3,554	0.78	3,612	0.78	-0.32
Scientific Linux	915	0.20	930	0.20	-0.33
Oracle	514	0.11	519	0.11	0.33
Turbolinux	217	0.05	218	0.05	0.84
Darwin	147	0.03	146	0.03	2.00
Mandriva	127	0.03	127	0.03	1.31
Sun Cobalt	80	0.02	83	0.02	-2.36
Gentoo	77	0.02	79	0.02	-1.26
OpenVMS	46	0.01	47	0.01	-0.85
Netware	37	0.01	39	0.01	-3.89
APMServ	22	0.00	28	0.01	-20.40
OpenPKG	20	0.00	23	0.00	-11.91
ASPLinux	20	0.00	19	0.00	6.64
Trustix	17	0.00	17	0.00	1.31
IBM	15	0.00	14	0.00	8.54
OS/2	15	0.00	16	0.00	-5.03
Mac OS X	12	0.00	12	0.00	1.31
Asianux	9	0.00	10	0.00	-8.82
ALT Linux	9	0.00	9	0.00	1.31
BlueQuartz	9	0.00	9	0.00	1.31
White Box	8	0.00	8	0.00	1.31
UnitedLinux	4	0.00	4	0.00	1.31
OpenNA	3	0.00	3	0.00	1.31
Lineox	2	0.00	2	0.00	1.31
ClarkConnect	2	0.00	2	0.00	1.31
iSeries	1	0.00	1	0.00	1.31
rPath	1	0.00	1	0.00	1.31