Bruce McLeod recently posted on the topic of browser compatibility testing. This is an excellent post and I agree with Bruce’s analysis as to what to include and to why. It was also timely because Google’s Chrome had just gone out of beta which spurred me to reconsider what to include in my matrix.

What is lacking in Bruce’s post is an analysis of which operating systems should each browser be run on. This is especially important when considering Firefox which is often run on Windows, Linux and Mac. Taking Bruce’s list, I would modify it as follows:

  • Internet Explorer 7.x – Windows Vista
  • Internet Explorer 6.x – Windows XP
  • Firefox 3.0 – Windows XP or Windows Vista
  • Firefox 3.0 – Mac OS X
  • Safari 3.x – Mac OS X
  • Internet Explorer 8.x – Windows Vista
  • Google Chrome – Windows XP or Windows Vista

This is what I would put on my tier B list (after completing the list above):

  • Safari 3.x – Windows Vista
  • Firefox 3.0 – Linux