I asked the developer of the stats service I liked if I could have a copy of the old version. He said he didn’t have a copy, but if someone else would give it to me I had his permission to use it. I was surprised that he doesn’t use source code control for a project of that size, but there wasn’t much I could do. I emailed a few services, asking for a copy of the old version, but no one replied. I imagine they didn’t want to worry about distributing it without permission.

With that dead end, I wrote up a list of requirements for a stats package, and resolved to begin writing one if I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Unlike U2 however, I found what I was looking for. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. That song’s playing on the radio right now).

I went to the AWstats site to get the latest release and discovered that I had been using an ancient version. AWStats was my fallback solution whenever a free stats service went under, using it until I found another free one. The version I used didn’t have all of the features I wanted, but the newest stable version (5.4) satisfies almost all of my requirements. It’s missing a way to see the search phrases from a particular search engine, but that’s a minor complaint. Plus, if I really want to see that information, I can always write a patch.

I was so pleased with my discovery that I bought Laurent a CD from his wish list.