Open-source programs across the board - the Apache Web server, the Perl programming language and the GNU development tool set, to name a few - are gaining legitimacy as a business platform.

CNN: Celebrated freeware OS Linux grows up

Yet Linux and the similarly free Apache web server, as products of the fragmented open-source movement, will find it hard to create a tightly integrated and well-architected platform for developing applications something that Mr Gates understands better than anyone.

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Open source software such as Apache Web server and the Linux server operating system have become popular systems to run not only on network servers, but also on server appliances (servers dedicated to single tasks such as e-mail and Web site hosting).

CNN: Red Hat to support "all things open source"

Mr Behlendorf was a pioneer in the development of the well-known Apache open-source web server, so his views come as little surprise.

ECONOMIST: The software-development industry

Spencer based Asterisk on Apache , the freebie software that powers many a Web server.

FORBES: Dial D for Disruption

Apache, a software project of the open source movement, claims the majority of the Web server market.

FORBES: Let's Be Friends

He also oversaw the development of NCSA Mosaic--the Web browser that led to Netscape Navigator--as well as the popular open-source server software known as Apache.

FORBES: Totally Wired U.