Month: August 2009
August 27, 2009
Hi,
Once in a while, I use email questions sent to me as the subject of an article, this time the question is about whether someone should use a Mac or a PC if they want to get into web design.
… I’m thinking of becoming a web designer and I was wondering if I would be better off with a Mac or a PC? Is there any advantage to using one over the other when building websites?
Thanks,
Jason
Short answer: there is no real advantage on either PC (Windows) or Mac when it comes to web design. Here are the two reasons why:
- The technology’s behind websites (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc…) are universal.
- All the major software used in web design production can be found on both Mac and PC. The one exception maybe Web Expression from Microsoft.
Outside of web design, some would argue for Mac and others for PC. I use both, but I can see how some might prefer one or the other. That said, prior to the soon to be released Windows 7, Mac has had Windows beat hand-downs … all things considered.
With Windows 7 coming out though, I’ve heard from many reliable nerd sources, that Microsoft has really improved things a lot.
… I will almost certainly be upgrading my XP box when Windows 7 comes out.
Conclusion:
If you are looking to jump into web design, you are pretty much free with regards to which type of computer to get. I would be making my computer choice based on other things, for example:
- Stability of the operating system.
- Ease of use.
- Cost
- What looks nicer to you!
I hope that helps,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
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August 14, 2009
I just updated to Firefox 3.5.2 in hopes that it might fix some issues I have been having with it on Mac. I can’t say if it has fixed anything yet, but I did discover something new: Firefox now supports the free Open Video Format.
What? Don’t we have Flash already?
Yes, we have Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime and others to embed video into our web pages, but in all those cases, we need to use an outside plugin. With this new video format, you just use plain old HTML!
Some details from Wiki:
As originally recommended by HTML 5, these browsers support Theora when embedded by the video element:
* Mozilla Firefox 3.5
* Google Chrome as of version 3.0.182.2 [1]
* Opera video build
–
Theora is the name of this free video compression format/codec and it produces video quality that is about the same as h.264 – the video format Adobe has decided to use to replace their own FLV format. So it should be pretty good.
To encode your videos into Theora, you will need to find a video encoder that does this. There are already several out there and I am sure more will come out over time … since already several browsers can play Theora videos. For now, you may want to try a video encoder that you can install right into Firefox!
Learn more about Theora.
Final comment
This is cool except for the fact that until Internet Explorer allows us to embed Theora … it’s a no go. Internet Explorer still has the vast majority of browser market, so we as web designers have to build within its’ limitations.
Thanks for reading,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
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August 7, 2009
I’m a big fan of Firefox and it has been my primary browser for a few years now. That said, Firefox can never seem to get it right on the Mac – it always seems to have some problem somewhere.
At this time, I am using the latest release of Firefox for the Mac (3.0.13) and this release fixes some earlier bugs Firefox had that made it crash a lot. But in exchange, now the Flash player is not working to well .. it doesn’t seem to respond to mouse clicks and I have to use the keyboard to do things like play a Youtube video.
… The solution maybe to reinstall the Flash player, I still have to try.
The Larger Point
Maybe it’s me, but the consistent problems that Firefox on Mac has, is not something you see on Windows. Yes, Firefox on Windows seems to work just fine. The Firefox team should push a little more of that donated money towards Mac development.
Meanwhile, I’ll be using Safari on my Mac.
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
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