So, today I downloaded Parallels and Windows 7 on my Mac. The reason I decided to pull the trigger and and get Windows installed on my mac is because I recenlty made a website that featured HTML5 video. www.adamsfarms.com/pat

HTML5 is a very cool addition to browsers. HTML5-enabled browsers are able to play videos in formats other than flash. Browser wars will determine which format will win out (hopefully, they will all be able to support multiple formats).

So when someone visits the aforementioned site, the code tells it to play a video in mp4 unless you’re using Firefox. If that is the case, it will play it in ogg. If you’re using IE 6 through 8, though, it will fall back to Flash.

Not having access to a PC I had to go and annoy several PC users in the office so I could see it in IE. The only browser I wasn’t able to test in, though, was IE9, which is only available on Win7. But since IE9 supports HTML5 video, I thought it would be fine.

It wasn’t.

I sent out the company-wide email in faith that it would work. The next day, when I was finally able to see it on IE9, it didn’t work. Thankfully, most people don’t use IE9 yet. (About 90% of the IE users who viewed the site, according to my statcounter, are using something other than IE9.)

So, now that I have Win7, I’ve downloaded IE9 and can now test it. Purchasing Win7 is a pretty hefty price to pay just to get 1 browser to work right. But since IE is still the market share leader (though, the trend continues down), as a web developer, you’ve got to do it.

If you’re still using IE, maybe you switch. 🙂 It’s not that I don’t like Microsoft…I actually do. Win7 is a great operating system and I’m looking forward to Win8. It’s simply because IE bucks against the standards compliant building that makes web development easier.