Three years in the making, the internet's most popular web server software reached the next stage of its evolution following the release of Apache 2 last week.

The Apache development team signed off the 2.0.35 release of the open source web server software on Friday, recommending it for use on production sites.

"The Apache 2.0 project has been in the works for nearly three years. It has been a long and sometimes arduous process to reach this point. Many, many people have contributed their time and effort to bring us to this point," said the Apache organisation.

Version 2 claims higher performance over the previous 1.3 series, along with integrated SSL, improved HTTP proxy support and I/O layering and filtering.

Multiple operational models are available on the web server, including threaded and hybrid processes, and specific request processing for Windows, NetWare, BeOS, and OS/2.

Apache is currently used on 53 per cent of all web servers, making it the most popular platform. Microsoft's IIS offering is in second place with a 34 per cent slice of the market.

Apache has been the most popular web server on the internet since 1996, but Microsoft has steadily gained ground over the past few years, while Netscape's iPlanet has been knocked down to just two per cent.

More information on Apache, as well as download mirrors, can be found here.