Forum Moderators: open
It seems to me that if I get Netscape 4, IE 6, IE 5, Opera, and Mozilla, I should have the important PC browsers covered, right? Which specific versions of each should I get? If I get Mozilla 1.0 will all the important recent versions of Netscape be covered? Also, I seem to remember significant changes from Opera 6 to 7, which should I go for? How about Netscape 4.x, is there a major difference between say, 4.03 and 4.08?
just ignore Netscape 4.
I, at least for the most part, disagree. While I don't think you should be too concerned about NS4, it's best, if it doesn't cause too much trouble, that it shouldn't break NS4, and the CSS degrade gracefully. I wouldn't suggest loosing any sleep over it, though.
For IE, I would recommend both 5.0 and 5.5. There's a way to run all three (inc. IE6) simultaniesly.
Where possible, Mac brwsers should also be tested. In general, the more, the better. There is a caveat, it largly depends on the application. If you can't afford to overlook anyone, then you might even need to use <shudder>tables for layout</shudder>. (I think you can guess where I stand on that issue. :) )
Other people with the same mac os and the same browser have said otherwise and given full reports on my site with a handful of browsers.
I think it's not worth worrying about too much....Just aim to please the biggest markets without forgetting the others.
just ignore Netscape 4
If you're a web hobbyist, then you might not be willing to take the extra trouble. But if you're going for income in any way - selling your services to others or building your own online income stream - then the Mac test is an often overlooked boost to your site.
The thing is, Mac users are usually much more aware of what a browser is - compared to a PC. I've noticed that my friends with Macs normally have a choice of browsers close at hand because they never know when they might need this one or that one to get a Windows designed website to work for them.
Still, giving Mac users a website that works the first time can help a site.
I'm just wondering if the people that are still using Netscape 4 have any money...My hunch is that you might be very surprised. Many times those who are willing to make do with less have a lot of money for that very reason.
I'm just wondering if the people that are still using Netscape 4 have any money to spend on computers or anything else.
People still using Netscape 4 don't understand anything about computers anyway.
What browser are most schools, universities, colleges, corporations, government insitutions, military bases, libraries and so forth currently running on most of computers? Netscape 4. Because they have (perhaps "lazy") IT departments with very restricted "standards". This is supposedly for security reasons (although I find it hard to imagine how Netscape 7 could have more security holes than Netscape 4).
If you put together all the people using the internet those types of insitutions, you end up with about 1% of internet users. This is where most of the Netscape 4 users are comming from. They're not necessarily "poor" or "stupid". They have no choice other than to use Netscape 4 whilst they are online in the institution which they are a member of.
For example, is there any reason I should install Netscape 7 if I had Mozilla 1 installed?One would think not, but I remember reading a question (either here or on the css-d list) about someone getting different results.
It should also be noted that the same browser under different OS's can sometimes yeild different results. I'm not just talking about Win vs Mac, but even Win98 vs Win98SE.
I'm assuming you know how to install multiple versions of IE on one computer. Microsoft will have you believe otherwise, although it actually is possible.
Internet Explorer 6.0
Internet Explorer 5.0
Mozilla Firebird
Netscape 6.0 (don't worry if your site has some unexpected bugs in this)
Netscape 4 (it doesn't matter which version)
Opera 7
Opera 6
But anyway, how do you know the N4 user isn't a rich powerful billionaire using a friend's computer? It's just closed-minded to assume something wild like that, and to discard those users.
If you get Mozilla 1.0 then Netscape 7.0 & 7.1 will be covered, as well as all more recent versions of Mozilla and most other Gecko-based browsers. Although there may be some very slight differences, it would be unlikely.
Netscape 6.1 & 6.2 should also be covered by Mozilla 1.0, since they're both based on Mozilla 0.9. However, Netscape 6.0 is a slightly different story, since it's full of very unexpected bugs. Thankfully, very few people actually use Netscape 6.0, since it was so horrendous. At that time, most Netscape loyalists either went back to Netscape 4.7 (and unfortunately stayed put), gritted their teeth and waited for Netscape 6.1 (which was a major improvement), or switched to IE or Opera.
Opera 6 and Opera 7 actually use different rendering engines, so you can't really afford to assume that everything that works in Opera 6 will also work in Opera 7, although you do have a fairly good chance. If you really can't have both Opera 6 & 7 installed on your computer, then I suggest you install Opera 7, since that's what most Opera users use.
