Ars Staff Blogs

As 2011 winds to a close, let's look back at the stories that were the most popular with Ars Technica's readers. These are ranked one through ten in order of the number of pageviews; no other criteria were used to compile this list, which contains a bit of Apple, a bit of Anonymous, and a bit of Duke Nukem. Without further ado...

1. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica review

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is no shrinking violet. Unlike its predecessor, Snow Leopard, which concentrated on internal changes, Lion aims to remake the Mac desktop experience in the image of its mobile sibling, iOS. But is this a good thing? John Siracusa gives Apple's new OS his usual thorough consideration.

2. How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

Aaron Barr, CEO of security firm HBGary Federal, spent a month tracking down the real identities of the hacker collective Anonymous. But when he prepared to go to the FBI, Barr and his company were viciously attacked—in part by a 16-year old girl. Leaked e-mails reveal exactly how it happened.

3. 200GB to 25GB: Canada gets first, bitter dose of metered Internet

Usage Based Billing (UBB) has come to Canada, and indie ISPs are starting to publish their new rate plans. Your 200GB monthly data cap? It's now 25GB. Enjoy.

4. Anonymous speaks: the inside story of the HBGary hack

After interviews with the hackers from Anonymous who invaded HBGary Federal, Ars brought you the inside story of how the attack went down—and what it means for the rest of us.

5. Duke Nukem Forever: barely playable, not funny, rampantly offensive

Duke Nukem Forever finally arrived—and we found it to be one of the worst games from a major studio in quite some time. The jokes border on hateful. The graphics are a blurry mess. The shooting is unsatisfying. The good news? It's short.

6. Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom

After spending over a week with the Motorola Xoom, Ars had plenty to say about not only the hardware, but Android 3.0 and the Android platform's potential as a tablet operating system.

7. iOS 5 reviewed: Notifications, iMessages, and iCloud, oh my!

The long-awaited public release of iOS 5 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch hit the streets in 2011. Thanks to better notifications, a new way to avoid texting, and a new focus on cloud sync, it's one of the best iOS updates yet.

8. Black ops: how HBGary wrote backdoors for the government

The attacks by Anonymous on security firm HBGary have yanked back the curtain on the dark world of government-sponsored malware. Where does the US military get its custom rootkits? It buys them—and the zero-day exploits that deliver them—from private security firms.

9. Accuracy takes power: one man's 3GHz quest to build a perfect SNES emulator

How can it take 3GHz to emulate a Super Nintendo? The man behind a major SNES emulator explores the difficulty of true hardware emulation—and what users get from such efforts.

10. Ultrabook: Intel's $300 million plan to beat Apple at its own game

In an effort to blunt the (ARM-based) tablet threat, Intel wants PC makers to crank out thin and light "Ultrabook" laptops with its chips inside—and it has a $300 million warchest set aside to make it happen. But this is going to be harder than it sounds.

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Thanks not only for reading the above and the rest of our content, but also for the intelligent comments you leave in the discussion, and the feedback you give us. Having a critical, well-informed readership goes a long way towards making Ars the site that it is. We're grateful for all you gave us in 2011 and wish you all the best in 2012.