Also in today’s open source roundup: Why Linux users should worry about malware, and DistroWatch reviews Zorin OS 12 “Core.”
Nicolas Rougier
Linux use on Pornhub increased 14% in 2016
Pornhub is one of the preeminent porn sites on the web. Each year Pornhub releases a year in review post with anonymous details about the site’s users. More and more Linux users are visiting Pornhub, Linux saw an impressive 14% increase in traffic share in 2016.
Pornhub shared many anonymous details about its users in 2016 in a very long post on its site:
It may have seemed like 2016 was never going to end, but here we are at the beginning of what we’re hoping will be a happy and healthy 2017. Overall it’s been a pretty steady ride, but boy are we excited to kick off a new chapter! We’ve had a great year at Pornhub, and our Insights blog has delivered tons of awesome data over the course of 2016. Throughout the year we’ve covered interesting search trends analyzing the cultural intersection between Pornhub and the likes of Clowns, Pokemon, Politicians, and even Super Heroes.
We’ve also looked at how certain events can affect traffic to Pornhub including the Olympic Games, Major League Baseball, Snow Storms and of course the Presidential Election. As we’ve done for the past three years and counting, we’re wrapping it all up with a pretty bow and delivering you all of 2016’s top stats for Pornhub’s 4th annual Year in Review.
When it comes to porn…increasingly more important question when it comes to porn consumption is Apple or Android? And Pornhub never misses a chance to report on the different behavior between different OS users. So looking back at 2016, we (of course) dug into the difference in traffic and tastes by operating systems.
Let’s start with desktop. While Windows continues to dominate when it comes to which operating system users count on to watch Pornhub (about 80% of desktop users), Mac OS and Linux are on the rise, with Mac OS up 8% in traffic share and Linux up an impressive 14%.
Moving onto mobile. The playing field is pretty even here, with Android and Apple iOS almost at par with one another. Android leading with 3% more users on Pornhub than Apple iOS (47% of Pornhub’s mobile users). Android’s mobile market share has increase by 5% over the last year.
Pornhub readers shared their thoughts about the year in review post:
Hiyun: “Haha who…was searching up Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on pornhub?”
Mike_pornhub: “Rule #34 of the internet. If something exists, there IS porn for it. Point in case, if you dare to search Trump and/or Clinton on Pornhub, you will find numerous porn parodies -- both professional and amateur produced. Some of the pornstars do a decent job getting into their roles.”
BlaBlaBla: “Do you gather this data (especially gender) from the accounts that people make or some other way?”
Mike_pornhub: “While Pornhub has over 10 million registered users, most of our daily traffic comes from non logged in visitors. Our anonymized data used on the Insights blog comes from Google Analytics so we can sample traffic from our full 65 million daily visitors. Geographic data is based on IP, so we see accurate data for nearly 100% of visitors. Additionally, about 30% of visitors have some demographics data attached, mostly by using cookie files saved by Google.
So depending on the type of websites you visit and terms you search on Google, they try to determine over time what demographic category you are most likely to fit into - age, gender, interests, etc. This data is most often used for targeted advertising, but it also allows our statisticians to accurately see who is visiting Pornhub and tie that into what type of porn they search for and view while maintaining their anonymity. ”
Adam: “Nice work on the research. It's imperative to have this kind of large sample size of data that shows the taboo subject of sex. Having data now, and in the future- will show how human beings are changing psychologically with regards to sexual preference and shifting standards of beauty. The porn industry makes a very interesting case studies with regard to the human condition.”
Bob: “Must be interesting to be working on the programming side of a porn company.”
Chun ye: “How do you determine the country? E.g. China, which is blocking any porn websites. Most vpn services should hide the country of origin, or at last make it unreliable, and using something like the preferred language reported by the browser sounds just as unreliable.”
Mike_pornhub: “Our Insights data is fully anonymous and based on traffic rather than the preferences of logged in users. So all traffic data based on geography and demographics comes entirely from Google Analytics and the IP based calculations they have stored. 65 million daily visitors gives us one of the largest pools of visitors to sample for any single website, so our data is quite reliable even when we get into very specific segments of visitors. But you are correct, Analytics are more challenging for some countries such as China and those who regulate pornography.”
David Negreira: “Is there any place where we can have an insight on the technology stack that you are using for several parts of the platform? Crunching/storing these values and delivering so much content must be so much fun and bring tons of interesting challenges :)”
Linux has a better reputation than Windows when it comes to things like malware, but that doesn’t mean you should take malware lightly either. A writer at PCWorld has some tips on how you can protect your Linux computer from becoming infected with malware.
Alex Campbell reports for PCWorld:
Preventing the spread of malware and/or dealing with the consequences of infection are a fact of life when using computers. If you’ve migrated to Linux or Mac seeking refuge from the never-ending stream of threats that seems to target Windows, you can breath a lungful of fresh air—just don’t let your guard down.
Though UNIX-like systems such as Mac OS X and Linux can claim fewer threats due to their smaller user bases, threats do still exist. Viruses can be the least of your problem too. Ransomware, like the recent version of KillDisk, attacks your data and asks you to pay, well, a king’s ransom to save your files. (In the case of KillDisk, even paying the ransom can’t save you if you’re running Linux.)
Zorin OS is yet another distro based on Ubuntu that offers a welcoming experience to new users. Those coming from Windows might find it particularly helpful as they learn about Linux. A writer at DistroWatch has a full review of Zorin OS 12 “Core.”
Jesse Smith reports for DistroWatch:
I like what Zorin is trying to do - making Linux more accessible for people transitioning from Windows. The general design of the distribution, from the system installer to desktop theme, should make it relatively easy for new users to settle into Linux. The WINE and PlayOnLinux software helps a lot with setting up applications which would otherwise only work on Windows and I think this is a nice touch.
While I appreciated the design of Zorin OS 12, there were a few issues I ran into. One was that for some reason Flash did not work properly out of the box on my system and attempts to install Flash (while successful in getting the plugin recognized by my browsers) ultimately failed to properly display Flash content. A second problem I had was that, in both test environments, GNOME Shell tended to either stop responding or display crash reports. This was frustrating for me and I suspect it would be similarly off putting to newcomers.
A third thing which concerned me, though I do not think it could be considered a bug, was the lack of notifications about available security updates when I logged in. Windows users tend to either assume updates happen automatically (which does not appear to be the case on Zorin) or they are accustomed to seeing a notification telling them whether the system is up to date in the system tray. I think having a similar status indicator on Zorin would be helpful for newcomers.
All in all, I like the concepts and look of Zorin. I like the work done to create and polish Zorin Appearance, I think it's a well put together configuration tool. There were a few rough patches in my experience, but I suspect those will get sorted out in future updates.
Jim Lynch is a technology analyst and online community manager who has also written for many leading industry publications over the years, including ITworld, InfoWorld, CIO, PCMag, ExtremeTech, and numerous others.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Jim Lynch and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.
