In 1995 a small group of webmasters created some open saucy server software which later became the Apache Group. The software can now be seen in more than 500 million websites, around half the internet.

Actually although it was developed in 1995, Apache was not really written about until 1999. That was when the Group started providing organizational, financial and legal support for Apache server. The group has 600 members and in addition to Apache has been behind a number of other products including the Hadoop big data tool and OpenOffice.org.

What is interesting about it is that at the time people in the know were fairly sure it would fail while the more techy types loved it.

It succeeded by sticking to its open source approach and using a modular API which allows members to experiment in a risk-free environment and perfect functionality before incorporating it into a project.

It seems after 20 years, it has no urge to buy a red-convertible and shack up with super model half its age.