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That is almost certainly a retcon - their FAQ used to say otherwise, back in the late 1990s:

> Why the name "Apache"?

> A cute name which stuck. Apache is "A PAtCHy server". It was based on some existing code and a series of "patch files".

https://web.archive.org/web/19970106233141/http://www.apache...

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Hm, interesting. I guess they both could be true, like I could totally see myself sitting around trying to come up with a fun name for my software project and being influenced by a film I saw the previous weekend. But given that the documentary where the quote originated smells more like marketing than anything else, I would not be surprised at all if this were indeed a retcon. I wish the docu was still up.

When Microsoft started getting into the web server business with the gift that keeps on giving that’s IIS, they were using that “patchy server” as a dig on Apache and how more professional IIS is. The Apache project then scrubbed it from all their docs.

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