Spring is Here! Browser and OS Stats.

Spring is here and this blog's not quite dead yet. One advantage of only looking at things after a longer time is that you sometimes notice quite stark changes and developments. Last time I looked at the stats in more detail they were all dominated by Chrome/Chromium and Firefox, with a couple of generic tablet browser identifications thrown in and with Windows and Linux and a few Unix identifiers in the OS department. iPad and iPhone came to between 1-2%. Not so now.

Pageviews by Browsers

Entry Pageviews Safari 1573 (38%) Firefox 1410 (34%) Chrome 943 (23%) Internet Explorer 117 (2%) Opera 15 (<1%) Maxthon 6 (<1%) FxiOS 5 (<1%) Mobile Safari 4 (<1%) CriOS 3 (<1%) Dragon 3 (<1%)

Pageviews by Operating Systems

Entry Pageviews Android 1072 (26%) Windows 698 (17%) Linux 601 (14%) Macintosh 577 (14%) iPhone 522 (12%) iPad 502 (12%) Unix 96 (2%) Android 4.4 4 (<1%) Android 4.4.2 3 (<1%) Android 5.1.1 3 (<1%)

The winds of change are blowing and I suspect have been for some time, given that I hadn't looked at my little corner of the nets for almost one year- and at the audience statistics even longer. Android is the leading OS by far, 9% ahead of any and all versions of Windows used to look at this site. Linux is only 3% behind it (if we forget that Android is also Linux). MacOS, iPhone and iPad together make up 38% of the readership of this particular snapshot of the last week. Other Unix, which probably means BSD these days, also make up a not unimportant 2%, but that's always been the case here if I remember correctly. It's not that different if we look at the stats for a longer period over the last month, so there definitely seems to be a trend here and not just a one-off spike in favor of Android and Apple's products although general Linux gains a few percentage points. Pageviews by Browsers Entry Pageviews Firefox 5522 (40%) Safari 4599 (33%) Chrome 3008 (22%) Internet Explorer 330 (2%) Opera 58 (<1%) QupZilla 24 (<1%) Mobile Safari 13 (<1%) Maxthon 11 (<1%) Dragon 8 (<1%) Iron 8 (<1%) Pageviews by Operating Systems Entry Pageviews Android 3192 (23%) Linux 2630 (19%) Windows 2445 (18%) Macintosh 1877 (13%) iPad 1567 (11%) iPhone 1470 (10%) Unix 378 (2%) Android 5.1.1 12 (<1%) Android 4.4.4 7 (<1%) Android 4.4 4 (<1%)

Somehow all this is not so surprising. Although it's anecdotal evidence, my main device is now a Chromebook. I've got several hard drives with Linux installations I rescued from laptops but Chrome OS does everything I need it to with the right extensions and it keeps itself up to date without constantly interrupting me. There's Android on the phone, Android on the tablet and Android on the Droid Player Kodi box. It just got updated with a new ROM, like the Chromebook without much interaction, and it's good to know I could always install CyanogenMod 12.1 for something more current. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the planned unification of Chrome OS and Android because ad-blocking works so well with the traditional browser but is near non-existent in Android.

I know, this is all terrible for somebody who likes to write about privacy, anonymous network traffic and encrypted email, but a self-maintaining OS that can be reset with a power wash button at any time if something goes wrong is pretty appealing. I guess I got old and fat, or perhaps technology is just maturing and it's not the same any more. Nobody needs to compile their kernel any more if they don't want to for education's sake or geek credentials and surely, earning a crust and having family are tiring me out enough these days than wanting to spend my evenings on compiling software. Google seems to have all the right answers at the moment. Hell, we may even use Apple one day if the Macbook or Airbook or whatever it's called would get a bit cheaper.

But do not worry, I'll always check back with Slackware and we may even have a review here eventually once the new version is out.

Until then~ Salud.