The greatest open source software of all time

Last but certainly not least, the Apache Web server rounds out our open source hall of fame. Sure, you can find Web servers that are more lightweight or more specialized, but few can match Apache's flexibility or wide variety of add-on modules. Apache has virtually owned the Web since the late 1990s, and it still runs half of the world's Web sites. No wonder the Apache Web server is a standard part of every major Linux distribution and all of the *BSD operating systems.

From Linux and GNU to Asterisk and Apache, these are our 36 original inductees into the InfoWorld Open Source Hall of Fame. We grant you that no hall of fame is ever complete, and no doubt ours suffers from a number of boneheaded omissions. We expect many of our Bossie winners will become hall of fame material in the coming years. As for the inevitable lapses, we're counting on you to draw our attention to the great open source software that we've missed.

InfoWorld Test Center contributing editors Brian Chee, Curtis Franklin Jr., Martin Heller, Neil McAllister, and Paul Venezia contributed to this article.

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