Like most web professionals we make our web sites using the Firefox browser, then circle back just before release and make sure everything works in other browsers. An unusual choice given that somewhere between 70% and 80% of web users still use Internet Explorer. It makes more sense to work on the platform most people are using, then tweak the result for the minority browser market.
At least, that's what I've heard from non-developers who get frustrated at hearing things like "we're still working on it, but it might not work in IE yet."
So why do we choose to work in a browser most people don't use? At first it was part of a general revolt among web professionals. But we still use Firefox now because Firefox gives us tools the other browsers don't.
The Firefox Tool Box
Firefox with the Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug active
The one thing Firefox has that IE, Opera, Safari, and Chrome lack is a large tool box focused on helping the working web developer / designer design web sites, write code, and debug code. The other browsers display web sites well enough, but only Firefox serves as a testing platform.
With the Web Developer Toolbar we can reconfigure how our browser operates with just a few mouse clicks. When we want to know what the site looks like without certain features we can simply turn them off. The Toolbar also has a number of important tools we can use to measure items on a page, validate our code, try out new designs and stylesheets, test in common monitor sizes, highlight specific markup features, and more. All tools that make our coding more efficient and debugging possible.
Firebug expands this test environment significantly. It lets us see the requests the browser makes, the structure of pages, detailed error messages that normally aren't reported to the web visitor. We can see how long each part of the page is taking. We can see what each element on the page is called, and how our stylesheets are affecting those elements. In short, using Firebug we can see how just about everything on the page is working behind the scenes.
Trying to fix a web site without these tools is like trying to repair a car blindfolded. So we, as developers, gravitate to the browser that lets us see.
None of that would really matter though, if it weren't for the…
Impact of Web Standards on development
Remember the revolt I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? The purpose of that revolt was to force browser manufacturers to adhere to certain standards. We simply refused to use features that weren't standard. For the most part, we still do. IE has had the hardest time playing catchup, but IE6 was much closer to standard than IE5, and IE7 only as a few strange behaviors. And the workarounds now are so simple that making a functioning, standards-based web site work in IE takes far less time.
Now if something is broken it's most likely to be broken in both browsers. Since it's easier to fix problems in Firefox, we stay in Firefox for most of the development process. Once we are close to done, then we start worrying about IE. Saving IE testing for last ensures that we fix most of the problems in the environment that's the easiest to use. And it also ensures that we're not fixing IE bugs that would be fixed by other changes in the code later anyway.
Why you should use Firefox
If you're a developer and you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer you should use Firefox instead. I say that out of a desire to make your life happier and your work more productive. Nothing political and nothing against IE. I'm just saying it's really better to drive a nail with a hammer instead of your own forehead.
If you work with developers — you are a client or a manager — you should use Firefox so you are not frustrated with bugs your developers are not yet ready to look at and which may never even be a problem in the final product. Using Firefox will help you see what your development team is seeing and give you a more full understanding of what progress is occurring.
For everyone else: I don't know. IE 7 is actually a pretty decent browser now. Safari is much faster on a Mac and more pleasant to use. Opera has some nice features, too, and Chrome may one day come into its own. Experiment and see which one you like the best.
The whole point of the web standards project, after all, was to fix it so people could use whatever browser they wanted — and we wouldn't have to develop for each browser individually. We're very close to that now. So take advantage of it.
When I used Windows, Firefox was my browser of choice, mainly because the alternatives were not that good. When I switched to Mac, I had a hard time deciding between Firefox and Safari. Firefox was the browser I knew by heart, but Safari was much faster and sleeker.
What I ended up doing was using Firefox exclusively for development work and Safari for browsing and reading. At first it was tough to get used to using two browsers, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Posted by Wes on 01/21/09 at 9:55AM
I only use IE for sites (like Netflix’s Watch Instantly) that don’t work in Firefox. Or I will occasionally use it when I want to open two separate GMail accounts at the same time. But, beyond that, I find it very limited and much less user-friendly than Firefox, my default browser choice. That disproportionate usage share for IE surprises me a little. I suspect it has more to do with people using whatever comes pre-loaded onto new computers, and offices favoring IE because it comes pre-loaded. IE isn’t terrible, but it’s rare to meet someone who’s tried and alternative and not preferred it.
Posted by Fred on 01/21/09 at 11:05AM
Fred is exactly right – many large corporations have a standard suite of software and they do not allow you to install browsers other than IE. The enterprise market represents a large percentage of overall computers on the internet.
Posted by David Poteet on 01/21/09 at 11:57AM
Hi John,
Have you tried IE8 and the built-in developer tools? I’m curious to hear your ideas on how they improve development in IE.
And also, what do you think of tools in other browsers like Opera’s Dragonfly and the built-in Web Inspector in Safari and Chrome?
Thanks!
John Hrvatin [MSFT]
Posted by John Hrvatin on 03/25/09 at 1:28PM
I guess it is time to update this post; at the moment, because Firefox is becoming less central to our workflow.
I’ll fire up Parallels in the next few days and look at IE8’s development tools, too. Thanks for suggesting a new post!
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Posted by John Williams on 03/26/09 at 2:10AM