Which browsers to test these days?

[Tonearm]

Which browsers should be used to test a new site design these days? I have a Windows machine and a Linux machine, and I can easily test Firefox 2.0 Linux, Firefox 2.0 Windows, and IE6 Windows. Which other browsers should be tested?

[Demaestro]

I would start testing with Safari... They are releasing 3.0 which is to compete with FireFox as it can be installed on a Windows box now.

So I would add to your list.

Safari on Mac
Safari on Windows
Safari on '?nix' (not sure about this but I think it will be supported on 'nix as well)

FireFox on Mac

Also there is Opera but in my experience Opera works so good that if you are ok in the other ones then you are ok in Opera.

[edited by: Demaestro at 8:59 pm (utc) on June 14, 2007]

[g1smd]

I have some "box model" type issues in Opera from time to time when using CSS.

Not recently though.

I use Mozilla Seamonkey 1.1.2, Opera 9.21, and Safari 3 - all on Vista.

I rarely use IE but have access to 6 and 7.

[londrum]

the only problem that i ever encounter with opera are to do with font sizes.
i size everything in ems, and opera seems to make stuff smaller than firefox and IE if you include decimal places. sometimes you have to fiddle around and turn 10.5 into 10.6, or 10.4, or whatever, to make it match the other browers.
but it is a big enough difference to be annoying though.

so if you size stuff in ems with decimal places, then check out opera as well

[borntobeweb]

One cool thing with Opera is that you can turn styling/images off/on very quickly, shift-g for styling and shift-i for images, so you get a better idea of how your pages look to search engines, screen readers and browsers like lynx. Same for printing, shift-p goes into/out of print preview mode.

One trick i use with my local web server, i've added an entry to my hosts file: "127.0.0.1 nojs" and configured Firefox/Opera to disable Javascript for that host, then when i look at my site using //nojs/index.html, i can see how it works without Javascript.

In my experience, Firefox always renders the same on both my XP and Mac, has anyone found any differences between Firefoxes on different operating systems?

[g1smd]

Cool tips. I like those last ideas.

[penders]

I would have thought that if you have a Linux machine, you should also test on konqueur, as the rendering is very similar/same to Safari (same engine) - apparently.

[Tonearm]

Has anyone else heard that konqueror renders about the same as Safari? I'm not sure how I could test Safari otherwise.

What about IE versions? Is 6 and 7 sufficient? Can both be installed on the same machine at the same time?

[phranque]

i just checked with my "konquerer expert" and he verified that safari is the same rendering engine.

[vincevincevince]

Safari is now a free download for Windows, go to the Apple site and pick it up. Unfortunately I can't manage to run it under Wine.

[Xapti]

Safari uses the same rendering as Konquerer?

If so, doesn't it Konquerer render HTML 4.01 transitional with DTD link in quirksmode?
I think that was the browser.

and would you guys really say that Opera tends to work fine if firefox (and/or others) render fine?
I could see that no MAJOR problems would happen. but I have heard of Opera rendering bugs; I think they are just fewer than they were before.

[edited by: Xapti at 8:02 am (utc) on June 17, 2007]

[antidote45]

Which browsers should be used to test a new site design these days?

Here are the browsers that by our stats have more than a 1% market share and therefore worth testing and bug fixing:

IE7
IE6
FF2
FF1.5
Safari2

If your stats say otherwise, code for those browsers.

Design your site for FF2 first since that's the least buggy, then test your site in the other browsers. It will save you a lot of time.

[g1smd]

Safari 3 will figure more and more - starting last week.

[PowerUp]

I have a problem. My site works fine in IE7, IE6, FF2 and Opera9. So i know my code is correct. But when I view in Safari, my page breaks down. How do I solve this problem? Thank you.

[g1smd]

Run the pages through the W3C HTML and CSS Validator and correct all errors found.

If the site still fails in Safari you have likely found a bug with the browser.

[Tonearm]

What do you guys do about testing multiple versions of the same browser? It sounds like IE6, IE7, FF1.5, and FF2 would all be smart to test.

[Datm]

Have just downloaded & installed multiple versions of IE from here: [tredosoft.com...]

Seems to be working fine & will be good for testing..

You can get archived versions of firefox from:
[releases.mozilla.org...]

& multiple versions of opera from: [opera.com...]

[bill]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Datm.

Multiple versions of IE should be installed in Virtual Machines. MS has released a free solution for this: IE6 and IE7 on one computer - Microsoft releases a solution [webmasterworld.com].

[Datm]

Thanks Bill.

The link I pointed at in my previous post has a download that installs IE3.0, IE4.01, IE5.01, IE5.55 & IE6.0 without the need for virtual machines which saves some setup hassle. It has some hack to the DLLs or something, I don't remember what exactly. It all seems to be working fine (I've tested a couple of my websites on the various browsers). Should this not work then, or am I going to experience problems with this setup at some point? IE7 which I already had installed is still working fine - although I only use it for testing (I use firefox instead).

I'm on Windows XP SP2.