When designing a website, it's important to know how it's going to look on your audience's computers. Enter the world of cross-platform compatibility. A good design is only as good as it looks on your user's computer. We'll be looking at the most popular browsers below.
Firefox (Cross-platform)
In the mid-90s, Netscape was king. Then it got fat and slow, and was usurped by the trim IE. A kid started working on slimming things down, and soon Netscape begat Phoenix, which begat Firebird, which begat Firefox. Now Firefox is widely used and perhaps best loved by web designers & developers.
Because it's open source, any time a bug is found anybody who knows how can go in and fix things. For this reason and others, Firefox is very standards-compliant, and follows the rules of coding very well.
There are also many extensions available for making web design easier, such as Web Developer and Firebug. These tools make it possible to edit any web page in the browser, among other things. Very cool.
Latest version: Firefox 3.5 (About 5% of web users)
Standards support:
Standards support:
Noteworthy: Was the first browser to popularize tabbed browsing, extensions, and theming. Responsible for a massive reduction in IE market share. Set a Guinness World Record for most downloads in one day (8 million, Firefox 3.0).
Internet Explorer (Windows)
However, not all is peaches and giggles with Internet Explorer. IE6 had horrible standards support, meaning it doesn't follow all the rules for what HTML & CSS should do. This makes coding a website for difficult, because code will work everywhere but break in IE, which leads to some clever, if ugly, hacks. Things have gotten (slightly) better with IE7 and better with IE8.
Latest version: Internet Explorer 8 (About 13% of web users)
Standards support:
Standards support:
Noteworthy: Versions of IE before 8 do not support alpha transparency on PNGs natively. No native SVG support. Won the first of the Browser Wars. Known for being buggy and non-compliant. The butt of most web design jokes.
WebKit [a.k.a. Safari, Google Chrome] (Cross-platform)
Webkit is the rendering engine for Safari, the browser included on all Macs & the iPhone, and newcomer Google Chrome. Like Firefox, it is an open source engine, so any improvements made by Apple or Google can be picked up by anyone else. Also like Firefox, it has very good standards support.
It has enjoyed a nice bump in market share after Apple released Safari for Windows and Google Chrome was released, but currently has only a small fraction of the total market share.
Latest version: Chrome 2/Safari 4 (All versions of Chrome & Safari - about 6-7% of web users)
Standards support:
Noteworthy: Safari 4 is the only public release of a desktop browser that passes the ACID 3 test; Chrome is very close. First browser to pass the ACID 2 test. Its use in the most popular mobile browser (Safari on the iPhone), the Palm Pre and Google Android make it much easier to design for mobile devices.
Opera (Cross-platform)
Opera is the most awesome browser nobody has heard of. Developed in Norway, it was one of the earliest web browsers ever built. Opera was strictly a paid browser until 2000, and had an ad-supported version until 2005 (it is now free). Because of this, it was never a major player in terms of market share and largely sat out of the First Browser War.
Despite having limited market share, it has long been an innovator in the field. Opera was the first browser to have tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, full-page zoom, SVG support, saved sessions, Speed Dial, BitTorrent downloading, mouse gestures, and many more. Perhaps more importantly, it has a fantastic track record of standards support.
Latest version: Opera 10 (All versions - about 2% of web users)
Standards support:
Standards support:
Noteworthy: Standards fanatics. Used in a wide range of devices including cell phones, Nintendo DS & Wii. First browser to have tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, full-page zoom, SVG support, saved sessions, Speed Dial, BitTorrent downloading, mouse gestures, and many more.
Firefox (Cross-platform)
In the mid-90s, Netscape was king. Then it got fat and slow, and was usurped by the trim IE. A kid started working on slimming things down, and soon Netscape begat Phoenix, which begat Firebird, which begat Firefox. Now Firefox is widely used and perhaps best loved by web designers & developers.Because it's open source, any time a bug is found anybody who knows how can go in and fix things. For this reason and others, Firefox is very standards-compliant, and follows the rules of coding very well.
There are also many extensions available for making web design easier, such as Web Developer and Firebug. These tools make it possible to edit any web page in the browser, among other things. Very cool.
Latest version: Firefox 3.5 (About 5% of web users)
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? YESMost used version: Firefox 3.0 (About 23% of web users)
Passes ACID 3 test? NO: 93/100
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? YES
Passes ACID 3 test? NO: 71/100
Noteworthy: Was the first browser to popularize tabbed browsing, extensions, and theming. Responsible for a massive reduction in IE market share. Set a Guinness World Record for most downloads in one day (8 million, Firefox 3.0).
Internet Explorer (Windows)
IE and the late Netscape were rivals in the First Browser War, and ultimately came out the victor. While Netscape Communicator bundled in a mail & newsgroup reader, HTML editor, etc., IE kept things simple. This, coupled with being tied in with the Windows OS (in lawsuit-inducing ways) meant the browser loaded faster and subsequently lead to massive market share. At the peak of its popularity in 2002, about 95% of web users used Internet Explorer.
Big ugly chart with big ugly data
However, not all is peaches and giggles with Internet Explorer. IE6 had horrible standards support, meaning it doesn't follow all the rules for what HTML & CSS should do. This makes coding a website for difficult, because code will work everywhere but break in IE, which leads to some clever, if ugly, hacks. Things have gotten (slightly) better with IE7 and better with IE8.
Latest version: Internet Explorer 8 (About 13% of web users)
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? YESMost used version: Internet Explorer 7 (About 28% of web users)
Passes ACID 3 test? NO: 20/100
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? NO: HECK NO
Passes ACID 3 test? NO: KILL ME NOW
Noteworthy: Versions of IE before 8 do not support alpha transparency on PNGs natively. No native SVG support. Won the first of the Browser Wars. Known for being buggy and non-compliant. The butt of most web design jokes.
WebKit [a.k.a. Safari, Google Chrome] (Cross-platform)
Webkit is the rendering engine for Safari, the browser included on all Macs & the iPhone, and newcomer Google Chrome. Like Firefox, it is an open source engine, so any improvements made by Apple or Google can be picked up by anyone else. Also like Firefox, it has very good standards support.It has enjoyed a nice bump in market share after Apple released Safari for Windows and Google Chrome was released, but currently has only a small fraction of the total market share.
Latest version: Chrome 2/Safari 4 (All versions of Chrome & Safari - about 6-7% of web users)
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? "YES" (one small artifact remains in Chrome)Most used version: Chrome 2
Passes ACID 3 test? "YES" (last bug fixed in preview release)
Noteworthy: Safari 4 is the only public release of a desktop browser that passes the ACID 3 test; Chrome is very close. First browser to pass the ACID 2 test. Its use in the most popular mobile browser (Safari on the iPhone), the Palm Pre and Google Android make it much easier to design for mobile devices.
Opera (Cross-platform)
Opera is the most awesome browser nobody has heard of. Developed in Norway, it was one of the earliest web browsers ever built. Opera was strictly a paid browser until 2000, and had an ad-supported version until 2005 (it is now free). Because of this, it was never a major player in terms of market share and largely sat out of the First Browser War.Despite having limited market share, it has long been an innovator in the field. Opera was the first browser to have tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, full-page zoom, SVG support, saved sessions, Speed Dial, BitTorrent downloading, mouse gestures, and many more. Perhaps more importantly, it has a fantastic track record of standards support.
Latest version: Opera 10 (All versions - about 2% of web users)
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? YESMost used version: Opera 9.5
Passes ACID 3 test? YES
Standards support:
Passes ACID 2 test? YES
Passes ACID 3 test? NO: 85/100
Noteworthy: Standards fanatics. Used in a wide range of devices including cell phones, Nintendo DS & Wii. First browser to have tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, full-page zoom, SVG support, saved sessions, Speed Dial, BitTorrent downloading, mouse gestures, and many more.
See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Just look at how much more you know than these people do:
Hans out.
IE not doing SVG is a problem that is being targeted by Google and others through the SVGWeb project. It's on the schedule of the Google-hosted SVG world conference, Oct.2-4: https://www.svgopen.org/2009/registration.php?section=conference_schedule
Opera (a sponsor of the same conference) has the best built-in SVG support.
Posted by: stelt | September 02, 2009 at 08:39 AM