Browsers used for testing

Major changes to Mnsu.edu website template are tested thoroughly in latest available stable releases of current mainstream browsers on major operating systems. We also test in some legacy browsers and pre-release versions.

Table: List of browsers used for testing Mnsu.edu websites.

Browser	Stable Version	Operating System	Layout Engine	Preview Version	Legacy Versions
Firefox	10		Gecko		7, 8, 9
Chrome	16.0		WebKit	17.0, 18.0
Internet Explorer	9.0		Trident		8.0, 7.0
Konqueror	4.6.2		KHTML
Opera	11.61		Presto
Safari	5.1.2		WebKit

Browsers no longer used for testing

• Firefox 3.5.xx and older
• Chrome 4.xx and older
• Internet Explorer 6 and older
• Konqueror 4.2.xx and older
• Netscape
• Opera 9.xx and older
• Safari 4.xx and older

A bit about web browsers and standards

The browser wars of the 1990s forced web developers to produce browser-specific websites. Such websites were optimized to work with a particular browser and often had diminished functionality when viewed in other browsers. As the Web evolved, browser support for W3C web standards improved and it became feasible to build websites using standard (X)HTML and CSS. Mnsu.edu website was one of the earliest on the Web to become (X)HTML and CSS standards-compliant.

The majority of contemporary browsers have good or excellent support for web standards. Unfortunately, this does not automatically translate into trouble-free website development. A browser could claim to support a given standard, but the implementation could be buggy or incomplete and vary between browser makers. As new browser versions are released old ones become obsolete, but linger in use for years afterwards. So, even though our website is build according to web standards and the majority of modern browsers support those standards, cross-browser and cross-platform testing remains as important today as ever.