Okay, I'm not seriously suggesting Microsoft is paying off Netcraft to produce positive survey results (although this is certainly a standard operating procedure for Microsoft). But something is odd, if not rotten, in the state of Netcraft.

In a February report from Web site tracking and analysis firm Netcraft, the Apache Web server dipped below 60% market share for the first time since September 2002. Subsequent monthly reports indicated that the downward trend had continued unabated.

There's been discussion in the open source world about a decline in the popularity of the dominant Apache web server. These concerned are fueled largely by the Netcraft survey of the internet, which shows a 20% decline in Apache's market share over the last three years, from a high near 70% to the 50% or so it enjoys today.

Web statistics specialist Netcraft measured over 230 million websites in its webserver survey for October 2009. Apache comprises about 60% of the 4.3 million or so new sites gained since September, corresponding to 2.6 million sites, according to Netcraft.

Once upon a time, the monthly Netcraft Web server survey was nice and boring. Regular as clockwork, it showed the complete dominance of Apache in this sector.

Global web server usage: The Apache server leads by some 55 percent share serving 112,663,533 web sites. Also the newer free software web servers nginx and lighttpd are in the top 5.

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers are more than twice as likely to deliver malware to unsuspecting users than the open source Apache Web server, according to a recent security survey performed by Internet search giant Google. That's quite an allegation, coming as it does from one of Microsoft's chief competitors.

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More evidence is emerging that Apache is suffering against Redmond, after a survey revealed that Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web server is outserving Apache on Fortune 1000 websites.

According to the survey, in the last two years, 66% of new Linux deployments have been green-field deployments, while 36.6% have been migrations from Microsoft Windows.