Firefox is still fighting back. After dipping below 20 percent share in May, it looked like the browser was sure to relinquish its silver medal position to Chrome. June saw a surprise turnaround, and that has continued into July.

Internet Explorer stays in gold with a 53.90 percent share of the desktop market, down 0.10 points from June. Firefox is up 0.14 points to 20.2 percent. Chrome picks up the bronze with an 18.9 percent share, down 0.18 points from a month ago. Safari is up 0.17 points to 4.90 percent, and Opera is essentially unchanged, down 0.01 points to 1.59 percent.

So Chrome just missed out on overtaking Firefox again. In another near miss, Windows XP is still, for another month at least, the most widely used operating system. The last few months have seen Windows 7 make steady ground on its ancient predecessor. In May and June, Windows XP made substantial losses, down 1.23 and 1.24 points, respectively, for a June share of 43.61 percent. In those same months, Windows 7 made large gains, picking up 1.84 and 1.08 points, for a June share of 43.61 percent.

But July seemed to show a slowing down of these changes, allowing the old operating system to retain its lead. Windows XP still fell, down 0.75 points to 42.86 percent, and Windows 7 still gained, up 0.62 points to 42.21 percent. Still, it looks certain now that Windows 7 will become the plurality operating system by the time Windows 8 is released.

Mobile Safari continues to be the browser of choice when it comes to tablets and smartphones, buoyed by the iPad's substantial sales. With the release of the third generation "new iPad," the iPad family became the most widely used mobile devices.

Chrome's swift and reliable transitions between versions continue to be the gold standard.

While Mozilla has chosen a development model for Firefox that's similar to the one used by Google for Chrome, getting users to upgrade and switch is still posing the group significant difficulties. Optimistically, 30 percent of Firefox users have out-of-date versions that are susceptible to known security flaws.

With Windows 8 being released to manufacturing, and the first end-users able to start using it on August 16th, Internet Explorer 10 will start to become a feature of the Internet landscape this month.

Ars remains a bastion of Chrome and Safari-loving individuals.