Comments on: Browser Version Market Share for September 2007

By: David Ross

David Ross — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:58:24 +0000

And yes, how could I not have mentioned firebug, love it, use it all day long.

By: David Ross

David Ross — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:57:42 +0000

Check out the Acid 2 test here, pretty neat:
http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2
Be sure to do the actual test in both firefox and safari. (or any browser)

As far as javascript, off topic, but have you checked out jquery yet? Amazing javascript library, really easy to use and already debugged to work in ALL browsers. Really can’t say how much I recommend it.

http://jquery.com/

By: Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan Kemp — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:46:44 +0000

I love the web developer toolbar too. IE has something similar but it’s not as good. Firebug is good too.

I don’t know what the Acid 2 test is. I guess, rather than standards, I meant to say Javascript. Safari lacks support for certain Javascript and scriptaculous type effects. That is supposed to improve with Safari 3 though.

I have encountered issues were Safari displays some elements differently than Firefox and IE using CSS. You are right though, I usually don’t have to worry about it.

By: David Ross

David Ross — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:15:56 +0000

Actually yea, the non-designer/non-web Apple people mostly use Safari, most of them don’t know about Firefox and/or don’t think they need it…but of course, all the web people use Firefox..as do I as well…I like Safari too (faster and cleaner) but like you said, I like my FF extensions…couldnt live without the web developer toolbar..but 5% for safari is probably correct…2-4 years from now I can see it being more like 15-20%, possibly higher. And, as far as I know and can tell when building sites, Safari has great standards support…I think it’s the only browser to pass the Acid 2 test.

By: Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan Kemp — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:55:57 +0000

Firefox has gotten bloated though. It actually crashes a lot on my Mac and can be very slow at times. Safari has them beat as far as that goes.

By: Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan Kemp — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:54:37 +0000

You’re right about Mac gaining market share, but are all those people using Safari? I like Safari and use it a lot at work. I develop primarily in Firefox on the Mac though. Safari 2 just doesn’t have the standards support that Firefox does. It seems that Safari 3 will be an improvement. I hope that it is. It will also be available on Windows so that is also a win for Mac. It’s also what they are using on the iPhone and iPod touch.

By: David Ross

David Ross — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:46:15 +0000

Ahh, cool, you answered my question…so I guess W3C’s would be higher with firefox as more web people are going there…

Safari seems quite low…here in NYC I’d say 75% of the people I have met are Mac users…and less than half of those people are designers/web people…Apple is definitely gaining “market share.”

By: David Ross

David Ross — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:43:56 +0000

Not sure where either is getting their numbers from but I’d personally rely more on the W3C’s numbers a little more…

But, would be nice to know where each gets their data.

By: Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan Kemp — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:43:52 +0000

Okay, if you read further down, W3C is getting those numbers from their own stats. That is why their numbers on Firefox are higher. That makes sense. I thought that was high for Firefox.

If you look at Market Share’s site, they are owned by a stats company. It says their stats are coming from their customers stats, which represents 40,000 url’s.

By: Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan Kemp — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:36:31 +0000

Thanks.

Yeah, that’s the funny thing about stat companies, they all have different numbers. W3C also has Safari lower than Market Share, but the Safari developers are going by Market Share, of course, which has them at 5%. I know they are both reputable. I would ask where W3c is getting their numbers from?