Software titan Microsoft is taking a significant step toward appeasing the open source community by integrating its .NET Framework into the Apache Web server, the world’s most popular back-end software for serving up Web pages.Although Microsoft isn’t working directly with the Apache Software Foundation, the Redmond, Wash., company has announced a deal with Covalent Technologies, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that specializes in Apache implementations throughout the enterprise. Under the deal, the companies announced that Apache 2.0, as available in Covalent’s Enterprise Ready Server, is now compatible with Microsoft ASP.NET — a server-side, object-oriented programming tool that is an integral part of Microsoft’s .NET
