Please Note: The following information is for people using graphical web browsers that do not support web standards who wish to upgrade, or for people who are interested in learning more about web standards in general. If you're using a screen reader or a text-only browser such as Lynx, the browser upgrade information does not apply to you, although you may be interested in learning more about how our use of web standards increases the overall accessibility of this site.
How did I get here?
The folks who built the site you were trying to visit have directed you to this page because your browser does not support accepted web standards. Or you may have followed a link to this page in order to learn more about upgrading your browser.
What “web standards?”
The ones created by the World Wide Web Consortium — the people who invented the Web itself. The W3C created these standards so the Web would work better for everyone. New browsers, mainly, support these standards; old browsers, mainly, don’t.What can I do?
You might consider upgrading to any of the following browsers. Doing so will improve your web experience, enabling you to use and view sites as their creators intended.
Simmons Users
Please visit the Help Desk's website, which describes our software standards (among other helpful information).
As always, feel free to contact
the Help Desk with your questions at 617-521-2222
Recommended Browsers
The following is a list of modern, standards-compliant web browsers. Those with a green checkmark next to them are recommended by the Simmons web team. Please be aware that Technology makes every effort to provide a safe and secure computing environment at the College. Computer labs, classrooms and faculty & staff computers are all configured with modern, standards-compliant browsers. The information presented below is intended to help members of the Simmons community and visitors to Simmons' websites make informed choices about upgrading their browsers for their personal needs. The information on this page has been reproduced (in edited form) from the original "Browser Uprgade Campaign" (which is no longer available online). Follow this link to view the current page and read more about webstandards.org.
Key:
= Available for Windows
= Available for Macintosh
= Available for Linux
= Simmons Web Team
Recommended
Firefox
Firefox is an extremely fast and capable browser which offers excellent support for web standards. It includes such features as pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and much better security and privacy features than Internet Explorer. Firefox is C|Net Editor's Choice of 2004 for best browser, Best Browser 2003 from PC World Magazine, Best Browser for 2003 from LinuxWorld magazine, and consistently receives high praise from the media (Forbes, Time, USA Today, etc). Highly recommended. If you also need a mail client, the folks who developed Firefox have also created a mail client called Thunderbird, which has also received very positive reviews.
Mozilla
Mozilla 1.6 is the browser built by the people who build Gecko, the rendering core of modern Netscape browsers and several others. No browser does a better job of standards compliance, and Mozilla also includes all the usual add-ons like mail, news and chat. Mozilla is available as a free download.
Internet Explorer 6 for Windows
IE6 for Windows delivers fine support for HTML 4, XHTML 1, CSS1, and other important standards including the W3C DOM. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means; the people who build your websites know. The browser is available free of charge. Earlier versions of IE for Windows including 5.0 and 5.5 are good, but their standards support is not as complete as that offered by IE6. IE6/Win is available as a free download.
Safari
Safari is a fast, full-featured, modern browser for Mac OS X developed by Apple and based on the open-source KHTML project (see Konqueror below). The latest version of Safari is one of the very best when it comes to standards support. Safari is available as a free download.
Netscape 6/7
Based on the Gecko rendering engine in Mozilla (see above), Netscape 6/7 complies with important web standards such as CSS and XHTML, and includes full support for XML and the DOM. These technologies can help web builders create powerful sites. Netscape is available as a free download.
Other Standards-Compliant Browsers
AOL
America Online, Inc., based in Virginia, originally began as a closed network content provider (meaning only AOL subscribers had access to AOL content). Today, this popular service provider continues to offer their own content (available only to AOL subscribers) as well as e-mail and Internet access that can be parentally controlled. The latest version of AOL is AOL Version 9.0, and is based on Internet Explorer 6 technology. If you are using an older version, you should upgrade to 9.0 to ensure your AOL can display standards-based web sites.
OmniWeb 5
OmniWeb, has been praised for its elegant interface and superb antialiasing of text, and its support for Unicode and international character sets is unparalleled — only Mozilla comes close. The latest version of Omniweb (5) uses the WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks from Apple, the same technology used in Safari for rendering web pages. As a result, it has excellent support for web standards. OmniWeb costs $29.95.
NOTE: Previous versions of Omniweb cannot be recommended because of their incomplete and incorrect handling of essential web standards. If you're using an older version of Omniweb, please update it to version 5.
Internet Explorer 5 Mac Edition
IE5 Macintosh Edition, released in March 2000, provides support for key web standards (CSS, HTML, XHTML, PNG, ECMA-262, DOM1HTML). IE5.1 for Mac OS X and Mac Classic, released December 2001, improves on its predecessor’s standards support. The browser introduced an innovative feature (“Text Zoom”) that greatly improves the accessibility of any text published on the Web. Safari, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape 6/7 also offer Text Zoom. IE5/Mac is available as a free download.
NOTE: Microsoft announced in late 2003 that they have ceased development of a standalone version of Internet Explorer for Mac and Windows. The only way to get the next version of Internet Explorer will be either to purchase the upcoming version of Windows ("Longhorn") or to subscribe to MSN. Mac users (who don't subscribe to MSN) should strongly consider switching to Safari or a similar browser as IE/Mac will no longer receive updates in the future.
Opera 6/7
Opera supports many key web standards and a variety of computing platforms beyond Windows, Mac and Linux. There is a free version with ads and a paid version for $39.
IMPORTANT: Unlike the Mozilla, IE, Safari and Netscape browsers mentioned above, Opera does not yet offer full support for the W3C DOM. Without getting too technical, what that means is that some standards-based web page behaviors that work well in Mozilla, Safari, IE, and Netscape, may not work at all in Opera. We have every reason to believe that Opera Software is working hard to improve its browser’s DOM support. Until they succeed, however, the browser is an excellent choice for reading news and informational sites, but may not be the best choice for viewing advanced transactional sites that make use of the W3C DOM.
Konqueror
Konqueror is a full-featured, modern graphical browser for Unix/Linux, with strong support for web standards including HTML 4, CSS1, ECMAScript, and the DOM Level 1, and partial support for XML and CSS2. The current version is not at the same level of compliance, however, as Mozilla, Netscape 6+, MSIE, and Opera, and some sites may display incorrectly in Konqueror as a result. Konqueror is available as a free download.
Questions about this page? Contact webmaster@simmons.edu
The link below to the "Browse Happy" website is provided by the web team for informational purposes only and is intended to help you make informed choices about which browser you use on your personal computer. Please be aware that Technology makes every effort to provide a safe and secure computing environment at the College. At home, however, you need to be an educated consumer in order to make the best choices that meet your needs. With this spirit in mind, we would like to share this resource with you:
