We've known for years that upwards of 70% of web sites use Apache to power their sites. We also know that much of MySQL's thriving business comes from "Web 2.0" companies - the web runs MySQL (and a heck of a lot of Linux). What has been less clear is how much of the web that we see is managed by open source web content management systems.
Dries Buytaert, lead on the Drupal Project (a leading web content management system), sent me the results of an interesting, 5000-web developer survey that sheds light on the question. The survey was conducted from June 2006 to July 2006, and released by as the "2006 State of Web Development" report by SitePoint Pty Ltd. and Ektron, Inc. This is must-read material for anyone in the WCM space, but also interesting for those tracking the rise of open source.
The results? A huge swath of the web is managed by open source, with the vast majority of the remainder well-positioned to be consumed by open source.
Also in the report: LAMP and Microsoft own the web. They account for the vast majority of server platforms that web developers use. 
This is one reason that Alfresco has a web scripting language interface to a Java backbone - we can be coded quite easily in Ruby, Python, PHP, or Perl, which is a requirement if you want to help power the web. The "P" (and now Ruby) is clearly A Very Big Deal. It's why Zend has such a bright future, for example.
Also of note in the report is how pervasive collaboration-type functionality is becoming. Ajax is being planned by ~47% of web developers, with blogs (38%), podcasts (25%), wikis (20%), syndication (36%), and other features increasingly incorporated into websites.
Much of this functionality will be driven by open source (and/or open standards) -based software. Given how much of our lives is moving to the web, it's just one more indication that open source, not proprietary software, will dominate the next millenium. Sorry, proprietary guys! At least you had a fun ride while it lasted.
Many thanks, Dries, for sharing the link to the report with me!
Posted by Matt Asay on September 16, 2006 04:57 AM
