Help for Other Desktop Users

If you are using a major distribution of Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, or OpenSolaris, you most likely have everything you need. You're experience with my website will be optimum.

Mac OS X Users

For Mac OS X 10.4 (released in April 2005) or higher, you should have Safari 3.0 or higher (which comes with OS X 10.4.11 or higher) for web pages and Preview (which come with OS X) should work right with my PDFs. Quicktime 7 (which comes with OS X 10.3.9 or higher) should work for the Apple/iPod/iTunes/Quicktime formats of video and MP3 audio.

To upgrade from 10.4.x to 10.4.11, first, click on the desktop to get the Finder menus. Then click on Software Update from the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen under Finder. It is totally free.

This version of Safari will also work great on any site designed for multiple browsers which is 90% of websites. For the other 10% and for users of older versions of Mac OS X, keep a version of Firefox or Camino on hand. For Internet Explorer only sites, just ignore them as the main purpose is generally to put spyware and viruses on your computer. You are lucky you don't have to use Internet Explorer.

Ubuntu Users

For Ubuntu 7.10 (released in October 2007) or higher, you should have Firefox (which comes with Ubuntu) for web pages and Evince (which comes with Ubuntu) should work right for viewing my PDFs. Flash Player 9 will play the flash animations and Flash Paper versions of texts as well as the Flash navigation widgets. Flash can be downloaded under Add/Remove programs.

PC-BSD Users

For PC-BSD 1.4 (released in September 2007) or higher, you should have Konqueror (which comes with PC-BSD) for web pages and KPDF (which comes with PC-BSD) should work right with my PDFs. Flash Player 7 (which comes with PC-BSD) will play the Flash animations and Flash Paper versions of texts and Kaffeine (which comes with PC-BSD) should work for the OGG formatted audio and video.

Open Source Users

For recent versions of Linux (Intel, 64 bit Intel, PowerPC; open source and commercial) FreeBSD, and OpenSolaris (x86 and Sparc), you should have Firefox, Seamonkey, Konqueror, or Opera for viewing web pages and my PDFs should work with Evince (or Document Viewer) under Gnome or XFCE and KPDF under KDE, one of which should come with your desktop environment. xpdf should also work too for others without a desktop environment on an open source platform.

Testing

I have tested my website under the latest update of Mac OS 10.4 with Safari and Preview, Ubuntu Linux under XFCE, PC-BSD FreeBSD under KDE, and Nexenta OpenSolaris under Gnome with default install (all on standard Intel 32 bit).

Other Formats

There are viewers for other file formats that can be installed under Ubuntu by clicking on Add/Remove software and under PC-BSD by downloading and double clicking on PBIs from the link on the desktop.

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