[BlueCat]

If there's one thing that will make me switch back to the dark side is the constant stream of web browsing issues I encounter

I actually have FOUR browsers installed: Safari, IE, Camino and Firebird (Mozilla)! It's really annoying how some sites work on one browser and not the next! To make things worst, in my job, I have to usually access administration clients that are now web interface and again, some work on one brower and not the other! Even IE in OSX is not the most compatible!

Finally, it is annoying how quite a number of sites look better in Windows than in OSX (due to the browser)!

I would love to have the ability to have just ONE brower that I'm confident will work on all sites (like I did when I was in Windows with IE)!

But having said this, there's way too much good things in Macs and OSX that will prevent me from switching back!!!

[DVD Plaza]

The problem is the other way around - Internet Explorer for Windows ALLOWS people to write house HTML, it can be absolutely rooted, and IE will fix it up and display correctly.

This makes people even more sloppy, plus people will write their sites to use IE specific features, and thus such sites break under all other browsers.

Generally you'll find sites that don't work properly under other browsers are the site's fault - not the web browser.

Internet Explorer itself is THE most dated, featureless, slowest, and bastardised browser that exists - furthermore it's not even being developed anymore, it's now only going to be an embedded part of future versions of Windows not a seperate product.

[Macola]

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
The problem is the other way around - Internet Explorer for Windows ALLOWS people to write house HTML, it can be absolutely rooted, and IE will fix it up and display correctly.

Well said. A case in point: one website I tried to access recently had used backslashes in the pathnames to files for download, instead of forward slashes. When I contacted the author, he said it worked fine in IE...

[King Bob On The Cob]

I use IE 5 at school, and I actually run into more problems on that than on Safari.

[sushiism]

im a web designer, i use camino and love it i have no problems in anything ive written for it and i rarely run in to any problems even with unusual stuff, its always the web designers fault when something doesnt work in mozilla

[Millennium]

Originally posted by BlueCat:
I would love to have the ability to have just ONE brower that I'm confident will work on all sites (like I did when I was in Windows with IE)!

Then lobby Microsoft to support real standards, rather than their proprietary crap. And lobby the people who make your favorite sites to support real standards, rather than Microsoft crap.

But in the end, I suppose, the blame can only go to Netscape, the first browser to not insist that people use proper HTML. It can be argued that Microsoft only copied them (and poorly, at that), with the resulting incompatibilities leading to the crap what we now see in a large number of Websites.

[dialo]

On what planet do people live that there is one browser that just works in windows? IE certainly doesn't. It doesn't have pop-up blocking (necessity), it doesn't have tabs (almost necessity) and there certainly are websites I frequent that it doesn't display properly.

I use Mozilla, and sometimes I have some issues with the scrollbars, but that's NOTHING compared to the pain in the ass that is Internet Explorer on windows. The only time I find myself going to IE is when I need to use a plug in I'm too lazy to install for mozilla. Then again, I rarely stick around on websites that are coded poorly since they tend to be pretty useless all around.

On the mac side, use camino. It works fine.

[Catfish_Man]

Go to www.w3.org/Style in IE6. Go to the same page in Mozilla/Camino/Firebird/Safari/etc...

hmmmmmm......

looks like IE6 doesn't display things correctly (and yes, that page is standards compliant).

[Ludovic Hirlimann]

Originally posted by Macola:
Well said. A case in point: one website I tried to access recently had used backslashes in the pathnames to files for download, instead of forward slashes. When I contacted the author, he said it worked fine in IE...

Make hime get some pressure : if the site does not work in Mozilla/Camino/Firebird, you can open an evangelism bug in bugzilla.

[KidRed]

Originally posted by BlueCat:


Finally, it is annoying how quite a number of sites look better in Windows than in OSX (due to the browser)!

I would love to have the ability to have just ONE brower that I'm confident will work on all sites (like I did when I was in Windows with IE)!

They look better in Windows because the incompetent designers only test their designs in Windows. They don't test in mac. Also, because of these grade school lazy designers, the better code standard browsers Safari, Camino, OW will show the flaws of those idiots' ways.

Go to ESPN.com to see the most glaring example of WHAT NOT TO DO if you are a designer who codes.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by KidRed:
They look better in Windows because the incompetent designers only test their designs in Windows. They don't test in mac.

For many companies, it is not worth the time nor the effort to worry about Netscape, Safari, Linux, or Mac. When you are checking your server logs and finding 99.3% Windows/IE, why bother with the other 0.3%? The real problem here is that it really is a Windows world. Within that, it really is an IE world. This will have to change before websites will start to care about other browsers.

I used to do all of the web programmer at my former employer. I would make sure that the site would work in Mozilla/Netscape, but some features were notably better in IE. Part of the discrepancy comes from the difference in the DOM between the two browsers. According to the logs, no one visited our site with anything other than IE. You might get someone with Netscape every couple of days (we were small - only around 5,000 unique visitors per day). Not worth the time to make Netscape work better. Definitely not worth buying a Macintosh for testing.

Originally posted by KidRed:
Go to ESPN.com to see the most glaring example of WHAT NOT TO DO if you are a designer who codes.

Site works fine for me in Firebird and Safari on OS X. Gets fouled up in Linux.

[ryaxnb]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Then lobby Microsoft to support real standards, rather than their proprietary crap. And lobby the people who make your favorite sites to support real standards, rather than Microsoft crap.

But in the end, I suppose, the blame can only go to Netscape, the first browser to not insist that people use proper HTML. It can be argued that Microsoft only copied them (and poorly, at that), with the resulting incompatibilities leading to the crap what we now see in a large number of Websites.

Actually, it's a mixed bag. Netscape is less forgiving of errors (like backslashes and improperly laid out tags,) but had (now they're strongly encouraging standards) more proprietary tags then IE.

[Macola]

Originally posted by Ludovic Hirlimann:
Make hime get some pressure : if the site does not work in Mozilla/Camino/Firebird, you can open an evangelism bug in bugzilla.

Don't worry I did. He was nice enough to apologize and fix the links

[bmedina]

Here's how web design flow should go: Build and design using Mozilla, test occasionally in IE to make sure it's lack of standards compliance isn't biting you in the ass. Follow that and you'll see almost 100 percent compatibility across modern browsers.

[Goldie]

Firebird is the fastest browser I have used in OSX. It is almost as fast as running ie in windows, for me. Also it renders just about every web page I frequent including my bank, which no other browser will work. Well, except for ie but it is 10 times slower than Firebird.