Not my favorite thing in the world to do, but necessary. Which browsers should you test in? And if you want to test in more obscure or older browsers, where can you get them?

Over the years, the browser wars have raged and a lot has changed. But you know the old saying: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Microsoft has dominated the browser field with Internet Explorer for some time now (since IE4). And although Netscape lost, Firefox emerged and has taken a firm foothold, especially among Web developers and designers. And then there is Safari, the Macintosh browser that has dethroned Internet Explorer on the Mac. On Linux, there is Konqueror among others. So the browser wars continue, which means testing in multiple browsers and on multiple platforms.

Apart from personal opinion, conducted in a business environment (where someone with an eye on a budget is paying for it) any browser testing needs to be justified in terms of market share -- which browsers are most popular?

Web Browser Stats

Any serious browser testing should account for the particular audience of a given Web site or industry. If the site in question has been public for awhile, then gleaning data from that site's server logs will give the best answers. Also of great value would be experienced individual who can give insight into which browser(s) the site's audience probably uses, for example, a site with a Linux audience should definitely test on popular Linux browsers. In general, though, and for most commercial sites, browser stats provided by a third party can also help.

Here are two sites offering browser stats to help you based your decisions on real numbers.

• http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2006/February/browser.php
• http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat.htm

As you can see, IE 6 dominates, but IE 5 is almost gone. And the Mozilla family of browsers listed as Firefox, Mozilla, and Gecko are growing stronger. Also, just to note, Safari is really low but is the default Mac browser, so it should also be supported. Basically, for CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, I support:

• IE6
• Firefox 1.0 and up
• Safari 1.2 and up

Web Browser Archive

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to install old Web browsers? Hmmm ... maybe, maybe not. Personally, I do enough testing as it is with Internet Explorer 6, Safari 1.3, and the newest version of Firefox. But, if you're really a masochist, you might just want to install Netscape 4 to make sure your layer tags work. If so, I found just the site for you.

Evolt.org is a great site. I've read it for years now. They are definitely worth a visit. If you need a really old or arcane browser, then you should check out their browser archive.

Evolt Browser Archive