There are many different types of computers (PC, Macs, etc.), operating systems (Windows 98, XP, and Vista, Mac OS/X, Linux, etc.), and Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.) All of these characteristics put together are called the computing platform, and as you can imagine there is virtually an unlimited number of computing platforms, due to infinite combinations of these characteristics.
This incredible variety of Web-browsing choices is a double-edged sword: on one hand it allows anyone to have a computer that works precisely as they desire, but on the other hand it presents tremendous difficulty for Web sites, as they try to build features that work on as many computing platforms as possible. Each computing platform that does not work on a Web site directly translates into fewer people visiting the site, so no Web site owner wants to exclude computing platforms.
Most of the time, the more advanced a feature is, the fewer types of computing platforms it will work on. That's because companies like Microsoft, Mozilla, and Apple are continuing to add new abilities to their Web browsers, and oftentimes a Web page that uses a new browser feature will "break" (not function) on an older Web browser.
Also, there are some features that will only work on certain brand of Web browser. For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) has the ability to show text with a glowing effect, but no other Web browser can do that. If a Web site uses the glowing text feature, only IE users will see it.
Should the Web site use the glowing text feature or not? A Web site developer has to ask themselves that type question literally thousands of times when developing a site. Do I take advantage of the feature that only certain people can use, or do I drop the feature so that everybody sees exactly the same thing?
Answering that question can be challenging at times, such as when it is a compelling feature, or when the feature would only exclude a small number of people — perhaps 2% of the site's visitors.
The browser test results you see below are the culmination of these exact same types of design decisions made in the development of Lottery Post.
To use all the features at Lottery Post, the rule of thumb is that you should be using a mainstream, modern operating system ("OS") and Web browser, and you should be using versions of the OS and browser that are currently supported by the manufacturer. For example, if you're still using Windows 95 or 98 — operating systems that are not supported by Microsoft anymore — you will likely have problems using Lottery Post. Using an antiquated OS is like trying to use 8-track tapes instead switching to CDs. There comes a point where you need to upgrade, or else you'll be stuck in the past.
Another common type of problem we've seen is the use of very old, proprietary Web browsers, such as old versions of AOL. From some people's perspective, AOL is the Internet, because everything they do on the Web happens inside AOL's propreitary Web browser. Fortunately, it is easy to remedy this problem by merely installing another Web browser on the computer, such as IE7 or Firefox. To browse the Web using IE7 or Firefox, an AOL user starts their AOL session as usual, and once they are connected, switch over to IE7 or Firefox and start using it.
When dealing with the problem of an outdated Web browser, it is fortunately fairly easy to solve with a simple upgrade. Even upgrading an OS can be fairly straightforward, such as moving from Windows 98 to Windows XP.
The choices we made when building Lottery Post are an attempt to get as many awesome features as we can into the hands of as many people as possible. When making a choice that excludes certain computing platforms, we used actual visitor statistics to ensure the vast majority of visitors would not be affected. Typically, we don't want to exclude more than about 1%-2% of site visitors.
We constantly test Lottery Post to be sure it works well using the following four different Web browsers, which are used by most of the people who visit Lottery Post. We recommend using the latest release one of these four Web browsers. (Click for download page.)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) (Windows)
- Mozilla Firefox (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Apple Safari (Windows, Mac)
- Opera (Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX, BeOS, OS/2)
We hope this look into computing platforms and Web site compatibility has been informative and helpful!
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