Browser differences Mac. vs. Windows.

[Alan S]

How different is Safari running on the Mac vs. Safari running on PC?

I'll soon be doing some UI work with GWT (Google Web Toolkit) and want to know if anyone thinks it is worth having a Mac available to test the browser on the different operating systems.

For example, if I'm testing with Safari on a Windows machine is that similar enough to Safari on a Mac that I wouldn't need to worry about testing that the same browser on Mac vs. PC.

We do plan on using the new HTML 5 standard - specifically the canvas tag- so some things will be cutting edge.

Thoughts?

 

[robbieduncan]

It should be the same: Apple even ship their own font renderer with Safari for Windows to make the output look the same as the Mac version.

 

[Alan S]

OK thanks.

Would that same be true for Google's Chrome browser?

 

[GFLPraxis]

Yes, the same will be true of Chrome. Chrome's rendering engine (WebKit) should appear the same on both platforms.

The only thing that may be different is third party plugins (for example, if one uses WMP to play back a video file, while another uses QuickTime. Or, Flash, which performs much more sluggishly on the Mac).

 

[mofunk]

It's not the same. On PC it crashes more. lol I did a twitter page and it looks different on PC Safari vs Mac. It's smaller on PC even though I'm viewing on the same LCD screen dimensions.


(side note) PC Safari doesn't do PDF well. That whole downloading of documents from the web/email goes through too many steps.

 

[jigme]

in my experience, there ARE some rendering differences, albeit subtle ones. i'm currently trying to pin down a 1 pixel positioning shift that occurs in Safari/Chrome on the PC but not on the Mac - and it's straightforward html/css, nothing fancy.

 

[7on]

Don't forget fonts. Macs and Windows vary with the same fonts. And even installing the Adobe suit will replace certain fonts and make them vary. My preference is using virtual machines to go through the idiosyncrasies.

Though honestly with the right zeroing techniques most browser differences will be nil. I generally test in the latest gecko, webkit, and then ie8 and 7.