----------------------------------- Okapi Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:03 am Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Which OS do you guys design sites on? I think linux(Ubuntu in my case) was easier to set up a home server but the fact it can't have IE, Chrome, Safari and other browsers makes it stupid to design a site on. Plus Windows\Mac has photoshop ----------------------------------- jbking Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:39 am RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Windows XP is what I've been using for a few years now. Before that I was on Windows 2000 Server and before that Windows NT 4.0 Server. Course I've stuck with IIS for most of my work with various IE/Netscape/Firefox variations over the past decade in terms of browsers used. ----------------------------------- Clayton Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:57 pm Re: Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Which OS do you guys design sites on? I think linux(Ubuntu in my case) was easier to set up a home server but the fact it can't have IE, Chrome, Safari and other browsers makes it stupid to design a site on. Plus Windows\Mac has photoshop While perhaps not an optimal solution, all of those pieces of software can be run quite easily through Wine and/or Photoshop can be replaced by GIMP. ----------------------------------- md Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:58 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- I use my workstation and laptop both of which run linux exclusively. The fact that Chrom and IE don't run is neither here nor there. Standards exist for a reason, and that reason is consistency across browsers. Incidentally there are sites out there that will get a screenshot of your site in all sorts of different browser versions, so it's not like you can't find out how it renders for someone else easily. ----------------------------------- jernst Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:25 pm Re: Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- When I have the choice I usually use linux as well, although at work they only have windows xp Incidentally there are sites out there that will get a screenshot of your site in all sorts of different browser versions, so it's not like you can't find out how it renders for someone else easily An example on one of those is: http://browsershots.org/ if anyone is interested :P ----------------------------------- Unforgiven Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:35 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Linux. I mostly stay on the server side of webdev (although I'd consider myself entirely competent with HTML/CSS, fairly so with Javascript as well) so it's a no-brainer to develop on a system that more closely resembles the server as well. That and I (nearly) use Linux exclusively anyway. ----------------------------------- Dan Sat Nov 22, 2008 3:06 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- I dual boot Windows Vista and Gentoo Linux and end up doing almost all of my development work on the linux side. However for the most part i don't do html or css type work but the back end stuff. ----------------------------------- DemonWasp Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:43 am RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- I do all (any) web-development on my laptop, which now runs exclusively on Linux (including HTML / CSS / JS work, which is the majority of what I've done. This also holds for any other development I do - somehow I find the OS easier to get along with. This is from someone who has only started using Linux in the past year, and before then was in a 100% WinXP environment. To whoever said standards: yes, they exist, yes, the standards-compliant browsers always work fine, but then IE gets in there and decides that your tabbed box should be sideways and your content shouldn't be displayed...I hate IE, it needs to die a painful death as soon as possible. < / disenchanted webdev rant > ----------------------------------- Unforgiven Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:17 pm Re: RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- To whoever said standards: yes, they exist, yes, the standards-compliant browsers always work fine, but then IE gets in there and decides that your tabbed box should be sideways and your content shouldn't be displayed...I hate IE, it needs to die a painful death as soon as possible. < / disenchanted webdev rant > Are you joking? That's not a rant, I'm pretty sure that's the Oath of Office for anyone doing web development or design at all. :lol: ----------------------------------- gianni Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:21 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- I use OS X for unix goodness and Photoshop/Illustrator capabilities (not to mention the best editors are mac-only *flamebait*). I also use VMWare Fusion to boot Windows for IE testing. Whoever *doesn't* test their sites in IE should not be a professional web developer. It's true IE sucks, and is a terrible browser, however, that doesn't change the fact that people use it. A lot of people use it. And as a web dev *especially* – you should be committed to creating the best UX possible for *all* users. ----------------------------------- Unforgiven Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:41 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Yeah, in support of the "check on all major browsers" thing, I should mention that while it makes me weep to admit it, I do have Vista installed on my laptop, and I'll check my work periodically with IE on there, too. When I read the question "what do you design on", I interpreted that as "what platform do you use when writing code", so I didn't think to mention it. It should go without saying that the client side should work on all the major browsers. ----------------------------------- wtd Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:24 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Some relevant discussion on testing with IE. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/12/07/not-my-gorilla ----------------------------------- gianni Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:48 pm Re: RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Some relevant discussion on testing with IE. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/12/07/not-my-gorilla That may be the case for you and your personal site, but if you're developing for clients you can't just exclude the majority of internet users. You owe it to your client to create the best possible solution that will bring the most traffic/profit/etc... Your personal preferences become irrelevant in a situation like that. ----------------------------------- wtd Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:11 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Of course, one should also investigate one's audience. If you're developing for a site where IE is insignificant, then charging your client extra for the time required to test would be a bad idea. ----------------------------------- Unforgiven Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:50 pm Re: RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Of course, one should also investigate one's audience. If you're developing for a site where IE is insignificant, then charging your client extra for the time required to test would be a bad idea. I really find it hard to believe that any site would have "insignificant" numbers for IE. It's possible, but hard to imagine, and I'd personally just not even leave that sort of thing unadressed anyway. ----------------------------------- wtd Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:14 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Is it that inconceivable? IE has less than 80% of the desktop browser market, and is an also-ran when it comes to increasingly popular mobile platforms where WebKit is rapidly taking the crown. ----------------------------------- Okapi Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:44 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Still the majority of users use IE. I found xampp which is great ----------------------------------- wtd Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:33 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Design for where the market's going to be. IE users are a rapidly shrinking market. :-) ----------------------------------- gianni Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:35 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Optimistic, but I don't think we'll see IE disappear anytime soon. I'm more in favour of designing for what you need *now*, not X months down the road. ----------------------------------- Tony Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:46 pm Re: RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Still the majority of users use IE. Majority of who's users? compsci.ca/blog , for example, typically sees less than 30% IE users, 65% of which are IE7+. I've been told that such results are typical for technologically inclined websites. But then again maybe you are designing for a "how to clear my Internet Explorer history... Blog!"? That will likely see more than a typical amount of IE users. ----------------------------------- gianni Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:50 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Silly tony, Firefox is for kids! But SRSLY we are talking about Joe Internet-Surfer out there, not "I'm learning programming at age 5 on compsci.ca" users. ----------------------------------- wtd Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:13 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Surges in adoption of Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, etc. aren't coming from enthusiasts. They're coming from Joe Internet-Surfer. ----------------------------------- gianni Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:21 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Lets be real here wtd, there haven't been surges of converts for a while now. When Firefox 1 (and to some degree 2) were initially released there was mass exodus from IE to FF. But as of late FF/Mozilla haven't really been delivering in the quality department. Those who have been switching to Safari, Safari4Win, Chrome, &c... are mostly ex-Firefox users. From the various reports that have been compiled about site traffic, IE usage has remained more or less steady for the past year or so. I'm definitely not supporting IE here, I just think we should recognise that: it's there, people use it, and it can't be ignored. I've been toying with the idea of showing a message bar or graphic which encourages IE users to switch. Not that my site receives practically any traffic at all though. ----------------------------------- Okapi Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:30 am RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- Lets just wait until chrome ships with OSes next year :P ----------------------------------- Destroyer661 Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:16 pm RE:Platforn to design on? ----------------------------------- I run a complete test environment on my laptop on Debian. I use KDE's Quanta+ for development, and love it (Notepad++ on Windows is alright as well). To me the best tools you can get are Quanta+/GIMP/Inkscape/SSHFS(to update to your actual web server) and then locally host the exact setup that's on your web server. Usually a LAMP setup, Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP.