According to the Apache Software Foundation, Version 2.0 is now ready for general availability. This means Apache distributors, such as Linux specialist Red Hat, can now offer Apache to customers along with support and product enhancements.

The Foundation says the new version runs faster and works better on computers running Microsoft’s Windows server operating system, whereas before it was mostly deployed on Unix and Linux-based machines. In addition, it also sports integrated support for secure, encrypted communications and supports more sophisticated publishing systems for creating web pages.

Alongside Linux, Apache is one of the highest profile projects to come out of the open source community. According to market research company Netcraft, it is used on 65% of the world’s web server systems, far outstripping rivals Microsoft, with its Internet Information Server, and Sun Microsystems’ iPlanet web server.