Question: The OpenSourceParking.com announcement cites a Netcraft report, which found that GoDaddy.com’s migration from Linux to Windows caused Apache to lose server share. Was this event the sole impetus for OpenSourceParking.com?

[Bruce] Perens: Not the first. It’s part of a continuing behavior pattern by Microsoft that I think it’s fair to call “dirty fighting.” GoDaddy was using Apache (I assume on Linux) because it was a great technical solution. They didn’t switch to IIS on Windows Server 2003 for any technical reason. The switch was accompanied by a press release by GoDaddy, containing Microsoft promotional language. Now, I’ve changed many servers from one thing to another, but I’ve never made a press release about it. GoDaddy wouldn’t be doing that unless Microsoft had offered them something valuable in return. There has been talk in the domain business that Microsoft has been offering the large domain registries a wad of cash to switch their parked sites. There is no other reason to do this than to influence the Netcraft figures.

My bet it was sponsored by MS in the hope of getting windows in the top-50 list (from what I can tell, windows’ highest is 106 in the current top 500).