Platforn to design on?

[Okapi]

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]

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]

Okapi @ Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:03 am wrote:

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]

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]

When I have the choice I usually use linux as well, although at work they only have windows xp

Quote:

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

[Unforgiven]

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]

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]

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]

DemonWasp @ Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:43 am wrote:

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.

[gianni]

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]

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]

Some relevant discussion on testing with IE.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/12/07/not-my-gorilla

[gianni]

wtd @ Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:24 pm wrote:

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]

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]

wtd @ Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:11 pm wrote:

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.