Comments on: Cross Browser Testing on Linux

By: Gibbs

Gibbs — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:35:24 +0000

If that’s the case then there’s absolutely no way to test cross browsers WITHOUT Linux as, like you said, they run somewhat differently. Firefox renders elements the same its just that things at the system level, such as font rendering, are different. Once the differences are understood its easy to predict how things will appear without even testing them.

The idea is to develop websites correctly as it will appear fine to the end-user. A Windows or Linux Firefox user won’t know any difference as it will more then likely look normal to them. The aim isn’t to make designs look exactly the same across different platforms, that isn’t possible practically, but to make sure your website looks and functions correctly across different browsers.

I’ve been using Linux in a professional environment at work for years without the need for Windows. Granted I have experience with IE hacks and take advantage of browser shots etc but for true testing you would need to use Windows for IE, Mac for Safari etc etc regardless.

By: Gavin Dibley

Gavin Dibley — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:39:23 +0000

As much as I’d love to be able to solely use a Linux desktop for website design and development, I cant.

There is no substitute to testing cross browsers WITHOUT using a Windows machine (virtual or host) as e.g. a Windows Firefox looks and runs somewhat differently to a Linux Firefox, making the two totally unreliable in terms of main steam cross browser testing.

By: Gibbs

Gibbs — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:37:40 +0000

@Nick

Of course it’s for testing purposes. Sometimes I have to support it for clients. Nobody in there right mind would install any IE on Linux to actually use it .

Personally I like Chrome (well Chromium) but still prefer Firefox. I think Firefox still has a better development framework and Chrome needs quite a bit of improving to come anywhere near Firefox in that regard. It is a solid browser nonetheless though.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:27:49 +0000

I never thought I’d see someone who wanted to put IE on a linux box.

Firefox is a great browser and I imagine its market share will only increase. Google Chrome wasn’t as good as I thought it’d be.

By: Gibbs

Gibbs — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:16:29 +0000

Hi Somchart. I don’t think you can do much to improve the performance. It also eats a lot of memory in the process. IEs 4 Linux uses Wine so it isn’t a native application.

As pointed out by David a lot of “features” such as filters don’t work either. However, with that being said, it should still be a good enough method purely for testing layout quirks.

By: somchart

somchart — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:09:19 +0000

Now my company use UBUNTU, it make I tried start to learn about cross browser with ubuntu.

I installed IEs 4 Linux on my OS, but IE is very slowly, how can I config it for better.

Thank

By: Gibbs

Gibbs — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:31:03 +0000

I noticed that about IE too. It’s good in terms of other quirks such as positioning but a lot of the filters don’t work like the alpha filter you mentioned.

Using VMWare does kind of defeat the point as some people may not have Windows. In that case I would suggest using Browsershots, not a brilliant solution but one nonetheless. Thanks for the feedback.

By: David Hopkins

David Hopkins — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:40:10 +0000

Hi,

I am also a Linux user. I didn’t know that you could test Chrome or Safari in Linux. Will have to get those setup.

In the case of IEs for Linux, I find those to be very poor. They don’t have features like the alpha image loader. So I do IE debuging in VMWare.