Comments on: Drawing the Line with Browser Compatibility http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:04:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Jake Smith http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Jake Smith Mon, 04 May 2009 15:32:47 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-7 I'm an avid FF fan, but by occupation I have to use all browsers. Sheer speed....Safari and Chrome are quite fast, but the plugins for firefox are amazing! I’m an avid FF fan, but by occupation I have to use all browsers. Sheer speed….Safari and Chrome are quite fast, but the plugins for firefox are amazing!

]]> By: nesot http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-6 nesot Sun, 03 May 2009 15:17:11 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-6 Hello I hate IE8. Its terrible, as all others IE. FF rules Hello I hate IE8. Its terrible, as all others IE. FF rules

]]> By: Jake Smith http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Jake Smith Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:37:35 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-5 @Chris You have to stop and compare your Firefox user to your IE user. A person physically went out and downloaded firefox, compared to a user who has Internet Explorer installed on their windows based system. IMO when comparing Firefox vs IE users it's almost apples and oranges, ALMOST. @Phillip Here is the problem, the waiting game. Even with new systems being pumped out with the new IE8 and Windows 7 you will still have residual users left over. I would say the average life of a computer for a internet/email user is around 4 - 6 years. @Chris
You have to stop and compare your Firefox user to your IE user. A person physically went out and downloaded firefox, compared to a user who has Internet Explorer installed on their windows based system. IMO when comparing Firefox vs IE users it’s almost apples and oranges, ALMOST.

@Phillip
Here is the problem, the waiting game. Even with new systems being pumped out with the new IE8 and Windows 7 you will still have residual users left over. I would say the average life of a computer for a internet/email user is around 4 - 6 years.

]]> By: Phillip Reed http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Phillip Reed Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:07:48 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-4 Very true what you say about cost/benefit ratio when determining whether to support it or not. One thing though, you should probably at least consider the target audience in the mix as well. If you're coding for a target audience that is retirement age and doesn't have a clue that IE7 and IE8 even exist or are too alarmed by "you must update" messages, then you have to figure IE6 must be supported. If your target is younger, techy, web devs, etc, then yeah, you can probably do away with much support for IE6. Be cautious of where you get your statistics though, making sure the type of site you're building is the same type of sites that you are comparing stats. The Market Share by Net Applications site seems to be a good one for general statistics overall. Also, now that IE8 is in full release and no longer beta, expect its numbers to rise as computer makers start shipping machines that are factory updated to IE8, even on Windows XP. And once Windows 7 comes out and gets shipped on new computers, IE6 will drop like a rock I hope. I have to honestly believe that even MS would love to see IE6 go the way of the dinosaur. Very true what you say about cost/benefit ratio when determining whether to support it or not. One thing though, you should probably at least consider the target audience in the mix as well. If you’re coding for a target audience that is retirement age and doesn’t have a clue that IE7 and IE8 even exist or are too alarmed by “you must update” messages, then you have to figure IE6 must be supported. If your target is younger, techy, web devs, etc, then yeah, you can probably do away with much support for IE6. Be cautious of where you get your statistics though, making sure the type of site you’re building is the same type of sites that you are comparing stats. The Market Share by Net Applications site seems to be a good one for general statistics overall.

Also, now that IE8 is in full release and no longer beta, expect its numbers to rise as computer makers start shipping machines that are factory updated to IE8, even on Windows XP. And once Windows 7 comes out and gets shipped on new computers, IE6 will drop like a rock I hope. I have to honestly believe that even MS would love to see IE6 go the way of the dinosaur.

]]> By: Chris http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Chris Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:50:34 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-3 How effective have the push updates worked with FF3? If they were reasonably effective in upgrading almost all FF users to FF3 from FF2 then I would like to think something similar would happen but to a lesser degree with an IE8 push update.At the end of the day I agree with you that it comes down to the type of audience you are targeting your project to. Microsoft will have to be more aggressive than a simple push update. I'm not quite sure what other options are available to them to force companies to upgrade to IE8. How effective have the push updates worked with FF3? If they were reasonably effective in upgrading almost all FF users to FF3 from FF2 then I would like to think something similar would happen but to a lesser degree with an IE8 push update.At the end of the day I agree with you that it comes down to the type of audience you are targeting your project to. Microsoft will have to be more aggressive than a simple push update. I’m not quite sure what other options are available to them to force companies to upgrade to IE8.

]]> By: brooks oakley http://www.jakefolio.com/2009/04/drawing-the-line-with-browser-compatibility/comment-page-1/#comment-2 brooks oakley Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:10:12 +0000 http://www.jakefolio.com/?p=35#comment-2 Nice links. Only somewhat related since it deals with IE7, but I thought I'd mention that the IE8 beta gives you a suite of firebug-like developer tools that you can actually use to debug IE7 javascript problems, since you can put IE8 into IE7 mode. It's sweet. Nice links. Only somewhat related since it deals with IE7, but I thought I’d mention that the IE8 beta gives you a suite of firebug-like developer tools that you can actually use to debug IE7 javascript problems, since you can put IE8 into IE7 mode. It’s sweet.

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