2.2. Browser Roll-CallIt is critical that professional web developers be familiar with the most popular browsers in current use and not just the ones on their own desktops. This section provides basic information about the browsers that web developers care about most, whether because of total share of web usage (Internet Explorer 6 for Windows) or because its technology and standards support is important to the development community (Opera). The browsers listed here make up more than 99% of total usage as of this writing.
Table 2-1 lists the browsers and their release dates, platforms, rendering engines, and level of standards support, while the following sections describe each browser in more detail.
2.2.1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6Internet Explorer 6 is the browser that comes with Windows XP, although it is also available for older Windows versions. As this book goes to press, Version 6 alone currently accounts for more than half of all web usage. Unfortunately, it is also notorious for inconsistent standards support. Microsoft has plans to release IE 7, which promises better security (the Achilles' heel of previous versions) and better standards support, with special attention to Cascading Style Sheets Level 2.1. For information on designing for Internet Explorer, visit Microsoft's Internet Explorer Developer Center (part of its MSDN online developer's network) at msdn.microsoft.com/ie/default.aspx. Additional information is available on the Microsoft product pages at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/. 2.2.2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5 (Windows)Released in early 1999, IE 5 was the first major browser with XML support. Because it is tied to several older Windows versions, it still accounts for 5 to 10% of browser usage as of this writing. 2.2.3. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (Macintosh)Internet Explorer 5 for the Macintosh was released in 2000 and offered never before seen high levels of standards compliance and features that even IE 6 for Windows has yet to match. Microsoft stopped development with Version 5.2.3 but still offers free downloads of the latest versions of IE 5/Mac for OS X (5.2.3) and OS 9 (5.1.7). 2.2.4. Netscape Navigator 7This latest version of Navigator was released in 2002, with additional 7.x releases in 2003 and 2004. It is essentially the Mozilla browser wrapped in the Netscape brand. It accounts for a startlingly small share of web traffic (less than 1%). Netscape's previous meaningful release was Version 6, which was years in the making, had numerous problems with standards and failed to gain back the market share gobbled up by Internet Explorer during its overlong development. A beta of Version 8 is available as of this writing. For information about the Netscape browser, go to browser.netscape.com. Starting in October 2004, Netscape shut down its online developer resources. Mozilla.org is trying to gain rights to archive and publish those documents. 2.2.5. Netscape Navigator 4Netscape Navigator and Communicator 4 was once the king of the browser world. Now its user base has dwindled to a fraction of a percent. Even so, web developers may consider a site's performance in Navigator 4 because it is typical of browsers with minimal support for current standards such as Cascading Style Sheets. Also, web developers can assume that users who still use Netscape 4 really have no alternative, for instance, because it is installed by their organization or is built into an application. While designers generally don't worry about matching layouts exactly in Netscape 4, it is critical that no content gets lost and that advanced CSS or scripting techniques don't crash the browser. 2.2.6. Firefox 1.0Firefox (previously Firebird) is an open source browser based on Mozilla code. Its popularity exploded in the development community for being small, fast, and highly standards compliant. It also offers features such as tabbed browsing, pop-up blockers, integrated Google search, and better security than Internet Explorer, enabling Firefox to be the first browser to take a bite out of IE's market share. Because it is open source, many useful extensions have been created for it (see the sidebar, "Web Developer Extension for Firefox"). Download and find out more about Firefox at the Mozilla web site, www.mozilla.org.
2.2.7. Opera 8.5Opera is a lean and mean browser created by Opera Software in Oslo, Norway. Opera is respected for its exact compliance with HTML and CSS standards, extremely quick download times, and a small minimum disk requirement. It is free if you don't mind ad banners as part of the interface. To register the browser and get rid of the ads, the price is $29. The general public is not likely to flock to Opera, and it never so much as blips in the browser statistic charts; however, many developers continue to test their sites in Opera to make sure their code is clean. The Opera browser is also an important player in the handheld device market. For more information about Opera, see www.opera.com. 2.2.8. SafariSafari is the browser that comes with Mac OS X. It uses the KHTML rendering engine originally developed for the Konqueror desktop environment. It is very fast and offers fairly solid support of standards, although it does have its own bugs. For more information and downloads, go to www.apple.com/safari/. 2.2.9. America OnlineBeginning with Windows AOL 3.0 (32 bit), the AOL client does not have a browser embedded, but instead uses the Internet Explorer browser users already have installed in their systems. Therefore, browser compatibility is mostly independent of a user's specific AOL version. The scant 1 to 2% of AOL subscribers with Macintoshes use an AOL browser that is built on Gecko. As of this writing, approximately 97% of AOL users view the Web on Windows machines using Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer's functionality is limited somewhat when used in conjunction with the AOL client. This is due to the way the specific AOL clients interact with the browser and AOL's reliance on proxy servers and image compression techniques. AOL publishes a site specifically for web developers who want their sites to be accessible and attractive to AOL users. AOL's web developer site can be found at webmaster.info.aol.com. 2.2.10. LynxLynx is the best-known text-only browser. It has been around since the beginning of the Web and has been updated to include support for tables, forms, and even JavaScript. Lynx is useful to developers for testing a site's basic functionality in a non-graphical environment. This is important to ensure accessibility for visitors with disabilities who may be using Lynx with a speech or Braille device. Lynx is not kept current for all platforms, so you may find only a beta or out-of-date version. Another alternative is to view your page in a Lynx emulator online at www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html. The Extremely Lynx page (www.subir.com/lynx.html) is a good starting point for finding developer information for Lynx.
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