Q4 2007 Site Stats Review
As promised back in October, I'm reviewing the browser and operating system statistics for this site again. All data is from the period 2007-10-04/2007-12-31.
So, on to business. First up is the overall browser chart. Firefox leads with 57%, followed by Internet Explorer at 29% and Safari at 10%. I also got some negligible visits (less than 2%) from Mozilla, Opera, Camino, Netscape, and Konqueror, plus a very few hits from what appear to have been mobile browsers, such as HTC_TyTN_II Mozilla and Palm680.
Drilling into per-browser version information, Firefox had a pretty good spread of versions, even getting about 80 hits from Firefox 3.0, though 2.0.0.11 (the latest update to the 2.x series) was on top with 40% of Firefox visits. Some people were still using FF1.5 or even version 1.0 -- to you Luddites, I say, "Upgrade already!" You know who you are.
Internet Explorer 7 led the IE sector, with 58.34% to IE6's 41.54%. Those numbers don't add up to 100% for a reason: I had one Internet Explorer 4.01 visitor. Whoever you are, my note to the Firefox 1.0 and 1.5 Luddites above goes for you, too.
Safari's version spread is pretty much indecipherable to me, because the version numbers appear to actually be build numbers. All I can say is that 43% of Safari visits were using version 523.10, with 20% using v419.3 and 11% using v523.12. I have no idea what the corresponding version numbers are; sorry!
For Opera and Mozilla, the most popular versions were 9 and 1.9, respectively (Opera only had the one version, plus a few "not set" values). I won't get into detail about browsers under 1%.
Onward to operating systems, then. Windows was 73% of visits, followed by Macintosh at 20% and Linux at 5.5%. Windows Vista again bit the dust in the Windows version spread, trailing behind XP at 14.7%, while Windows XP had a whopping 81% of the chart. Versions below Vista all held less than 3% each, led by Windows 2000 at 2.7%.
Macintosh only reported the chipset (Intel or PPC), so I can't do a version comparison there. That is a little annoying; I've been getting so many visits to Leopard-related posts, I was kind of wondering how many of those were actual Leopard users. Intel had 75% and PPC 25%, with a trace 68K visit (0.17%). That's all I can say.
There were no Linux version values set, so that's unfortunately going to remain a mystery to everyone.
So the answers to the questions I posed in October are:
Will Vista catch up to and/or surpass XP?
- Nope, not even close.
Will IE take over Firefox?
- Nuh-uh. Thank goodness it didn't!
It's interesting that the statistics' indications mirror my feelings so closely. I'm actually starting to like IE7 better than IE6, at least from a coding perspective; but I don't know anyone -- including myself -- who likes Windows Vista. Perhaps I'm attracting a like-minded readership, or perhaps my statistics are indicative of a real Vista-hating trend in the world. Who knows? Can that judgment really be made with a 3,000-visit sample?
In closing, I'd just like to say that I'm really happy about these statistics. If other sites are showing similar stats (at least about Vista vs. XP), that makes me even happier. May Vista die a painful death, and may Internet Explorer 8 improve even more on version 7's CSS enhancements. (It's already passed the Acid2 test from the Web Standards Project, which is very cool. Not even Firefox 2 passes it, though I haven't tested Firefox 3 yet.)
Apple Discontinuing Boot Camp
If you use Apple Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) with or without Boot Camp, be warned. Apple will be discontinuing support, updates, and new downloads of the dual-boot software on December 31. The installation software will no longer function, though existing users will continue to be able to use their Windows partitions.
Apple made the announcement yesterday, saying that they "hope you've enjoyed the opportunity to preview an exciting new feature of Mac OS X Leopard." The announcement comes as an apparent marketing move to push users to the OS X 10.5 upgrade, which offers built-in Boot Camp.
I call foul on this one. Not supporting previous generations of its products is a major factor in my dad's dislike for Apple, and I agree with him. Discontinuing support for an older operating system mere months after releasing the upgrade is, to me, reprehensible. Look at Microsoft's Windows life-cycle. Users have years to update when a new version is produced. Sure, take the old version off of sales floors, but continue supporting it, please. Is it too much to ask for companies to be customer-friendly? I'm no Microsoft fan, but I have to say they've covered older product versions a lot better than Apple.
Leopard Mail Another Security Risk
A Mail bug patched in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) has been rediscovered in Leopard's Mail program. The bug allows malicious code to be executed when opening certain types of email attachments, and was thought to be fixed until now.
The problem arises from improper handling of additional file-handling instructions included with file types such as JPEG. Malicious code can be inserted into the information slot, and will be executed when the file is opened. Fortunately, not all file types are affected, and the researchers at Heise Security had difficulties consistently reproducing the problem.
Does this mean the end of Macs-are-better-because-they-can't-be-attacked fights?
Businesses Could Skip Vista; XP Remains Biggest Competitor
The largest opponent to Windows Vista in the business market is not Leopard. Nor does its name contain "Hat." There is no "U" nor "K" in its name. The name is Windows XP, and it is a large force in the enterprise market.
Businesses have spent years now standardizing on Windows XP (some places still even use Windows 2000). The hardware and software incompatibilities introduced in Windows Vista, coupled with its enormous hardware requirements (2 GB minimum recommended RAM and so forth) are hampering business adoption, and causing many companies to abandon deployment plans they made before Vista's release.
XP will eventually get pushed aside by Vista, but the question is when, and how, it will happen. From what I've seen of Vista, it's no great shakes over XP (in fact, I like XP's interface a lot better), and with 10% to 40% of business software inventories incompatible with the new OS, I don't see any way the switch can happen anytime soon.
There's also a chance that users will hold out with XP until the release of Windows 7 (codenamed "Blackcomb" and then "Vienna"). Some businesses follow an "every other release" upgrade schedule, which would leave Vista skipped over. Many business customers are so enamored with their XP setups that Microsoft might even feel obligated to extend mainstream support for XP past its current end date, in April 2009. I certainly wouldn't object; I like XP. Now getting developers to continue writing software the XP can run, that's another issue, but if the switch-over rate continues to be low, it should take care of itself.
The two articles I read (that inspired this post) were heartening to read, because I really have no great love for Vista at all. I've seen it, I've looked at the visual stylings and heard about the disaster that is UAC; and I've decided that it's just too ugly and bug-ridden to even consider using. Right now, if anyone tries to force Vista on me, they're getting nowhere; I'm sticking with XP, if I have to wipe the hard drive and install it myself. My dad has a copy I could use if it came to that, and by golly I would. If Windows 7 is any better than Vista, Microsoft will have reversed one of their worst design choices in history. If it retains the eye-hurting UI, I'm switching to Linux.
Apple’s OS X Leopard Wi-Fi Problems
Some users who upgraded their Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard (including users of all three upgrade options [upgrade, archive and install, wipe and install]) are reporting that their Wi-Fi connections degrade through use. One example given details the following chain of events: the connection starts at speed 54, then it falls through 11, 3, 1, and finally it drops out. Other users have suggested things ranging from installing a post-Leopard update that fixes some unidentified issues relating to IEEE 802.11 networks, deleting a configuration file, and toggling IPv6 support.
It is interesting that Apple's latest operating system upgrade has incompatibilities, just like Windows Vista did (and still does). If Apple can get this problem fixed before Microsoft fixes the compatibility issues in Vista, they might gain some credibility in the world of OSes. I look forward to another story detailing the fix Apple comes up with for this problem.
Leopard Has Other Problems, Too
Besides the stupidity of disabling the firewall by default and not updating included software, Apple's Leopard upgrade even has holes in its security measures -- an ironic concept by any other name. For example, the "Library Randomization" feature (similar to Windows Vista's Address Space Load Randomization) is supposed to keep code from predictably loading in the same memory spaces, making buffer overflow attacks much more difficult, but some parts of the operating system that should have been randomized are still in predictable locations, most notably the Dynamic Link Library. One of the security researchers putting Leopard through its paces notes that he's used that component in many exploits he's written before.
Sandboxing, the other major security feature, is also incompletely implemented, with the normal attack targets (such as browsers, IM clients, and email programs) not being run in sandboxes. Sandboxing is supposed to keep hacked applications from writing malicious files to disk and from installing programs. Since the usual targets are not sandboxed, however, these vulnerabilities are still quite present. Most of the applications sandboxed were network services, but most attacks come through email, IM, or the Web, not from the local network.
Apple’s Spotted Firewall: Tsk Tsk
Apple has been selling the new Leopard OS X upgrade on its improved security, but it's not as secure as you might think. By default, the firewall is set to off, the opposite of Windows Vista. (Why don't people talk about XP anymore?) Even with the firewall enabled, incoming connections targeted at certain system services can still succeed; researchers were able to access the NetBIOS Naming Service over a LAN with full blocking enabled. Not the most ideal setup. UDP can't even be turned off from within the OS controls.
Apple also doesn't include the latest versions of bundled open-source software. The Samba networking client, which provides interoperability with Windows networks, is a couple releases behind, and the latest version is known to contain bugfixes for security issues.
Perhaps the worst problem is the fact that (going back to the firewall) the Leopard installer will disable the firewall even if it was enabled under Tiger. Talk about a bad idea. Almost as bad as Microsoft's tampering with Automatic Updates settings with OneCare.
I'm getting my information from a CNET news story; I have no personal experience with Leopard as of yet. Just thought I'd mention that so nobody tries to get Mac tech support from me...
Leopard: 2,000,000 Copies Served
Just in the time since October 26, when Apple's Leopard OS X upgrade was released, over two million (yes, 2,000,000) copies have been sold, according to Apple. This number would put Tiger, the previous version, in second place when it comes to first-weekend sales. Steve Jobs says that the new upgrade is getting good reviews, and the innovative features are making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac.
Personally, I'm not too much of a Mac fan -- I find them pricey, and the interface is a little weird to me, a Windows user -- but the iTunes interface, at least, is nice, and I was running a Mac theme in Firefox for a while. I will probably stop by an Apple store and play with the new OS sometime. It's always good to get experience with various systems. Then I can go find a PC store and mess with Vista. I should write a comparison later this year... Ooh, post idea!
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