Docs: update browser support info

[patrickhlauke]

• Remove Opera from the Android/iOS listing - it was not clear if this referred to Opera Mobile or Opera Mini. If the former, it's only available on Android, and uses Blink the same way that Chrome does, so it's supported. If the latter, it's worth expanding that in general we don't support proxy browsers
• Add proxy browser note
• Change Firefox/iOS from N/A to Supported (as it uses standard iOS web view) - closes "Browsers and devices" doc lists iOS Firefox as N/A #18602
• Remove Win/Safari, as there's not been any viable version since 2012

[patrickhlauke]

/cc @mdo @cvrebert for comment/review

[patrickhlauke]

Good catches, thanks @Quy

[cvrebert]

I'd prefer to leave Win Safari as "Not supported", per #17104.

[cvrebert]

it was not clear if this referred to Opera Mobile or Opera Mini. If the former, it's only available on Android, and uses Blink the same way that Chrome does, so it's supported. If the latter, it's worth expanding that in general we don't support proxy browsers

AIUI, the primary factor is that we don't officially support Presto.

• If we call out Opera Mini, perhaps call out Opera Turbo and Amazon Silk too?
• I agree that we ought to support Blink-based Opera Mobile.

[patrickhlauke]

I'd prefer to leave Win Safari as "Not supported", per #17104.

Urgh, ok, fair point (though maybe it needs a slight extra clarification in there)

If we call out Opera Mini, perhaps call out Opera Turbo and Amazon Silk too?

Yup, that'd make sense. Also, UC Browser Mini, as UC Browser in general (according to http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile+tablet-browser-ww-monthly-201411-201511-bar) seems to rank highly worldwide (though it doesn't give a UC Browser/UC Browser Mini breakdown, same for Opera Mobile/Mini)

I agree that we ought to support Blink-based Opera Mobile.

Question is do we want to explicitly list it? Or leave it out, as it's only one of many Blink-/Webkit-based browsers (which usually identify themselves as Android or Chrome, hence their lack of presence in stats) ?

[patrickhlauke]

Additional thought: do we not want to officially support Windows Phone 8.1 / IE11 and (upcoming) Windows 10 Mobile / Edge?

[cvrebert]

Win Phone 8(.1) IE11's viewport bug is rather annoying... http://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/getting-started/browsers-devices/#internet-explorer-10-in-windows-phone-8
And the apparent miscommuniques about it from MS didn't help things.

Non-mobile Edge is evergreen. Do we know whether Mobile Edge will be evergreen? Will the updates be separate from OS-level updates?

[patrickhlauke]

As I understand it, there will be constant updates to Windows 10 Mobile in general. However, as I don't think there's any of the vendor/carrier customisation stuff similar to Android (which is what holds back a lot of the updates, depending on what device or cellular network you're on), this means that users will get the latest version as an update, similar to iOS.

Incidentally, from what I understand, even Edge on desktop isn't really decoupled from the OS...just that updates to Windows 10 - including the browser engine - will happen more frequently instead of waiting for months/years.

[patrickhlauke]

@cvrebert good to merge this one in the meantime, you think? /cc @mdo

[cvrebert]

Sounds reasonable to support Mobile Edge then.

I agree that we ought to support Blink-based Opera Mobile.

Question is do we want to explicitly list it? Or leave it out, as it's only one of many Blink-/Webkit-based browsers (which usually identify themselves as Android or Chrome, hence their lack of presence in stats) ?

Hmm. Good point. I suppose we could say "Evergreen Blink", but dealing with several random, unpopular, potentially-poorly-configured Blink shells doesn't sound very appealing.

[patrickhlauke]

As it's not just "evergreen blink", but presumably also webkit/gecko (no EdgeHTML, as it's not open source and not used anywhere else, though I understand it may be called as a web view in Win10Mob), suggest a more generic bit of prose right at the start of the section (see latest commit)

[cvrebert]

which use the latest version of Webkit, Blink, Gecko or the platform's own rendering engine / web view are not explicitly supported –

Sounds a bit too open-ended to me. E.g. What if some new low-end mobile OS decided to use Presto for its web view?
How about:

which use the latest version of WebKit, Blink, or Gecko, whether directly or via the platform's web view API, are not officially supported –

[Studio384]

I'd prefer to leave Win Safari as "Not supported", per #17104.

Sure, but the examples provide there are 1 year old, or older, are there still developers out there that don't realize that Safari is no longer on Windows and version 5.1 is outdated? Also, wouldn't make N/A it even more clear that Bootstrap couldn't care less about Safari on Windows?

Incidentally, from what I understand, even Edge on desktop isn't really decoupled from the OS...just that updates to Windows 10 - including the browser engine - will happen more frequently instead of waiting for months/years.

Actually, Edge on the desktop is decoupled from the OS. Microsoft just doesn't like to mess around with the WebView in Windows after a version has been released. They say that they are trying to solve that problem, so in the near future, they might start updating it separatly from the Store. On the other hand, as Windows itself is given updates now quiet often, no real reason to not call it ever green.

As it's not just "evergreen blink", but presumably also webkit/gecko (no EdgeHTML, as it's not open source and not used anywhere else, though I understand it may be called as a web view in Win10Mob), suggest a more generic bit of prose right at the start of the section (see latest commit)

UWA browsers can use the EdgeHTML engine as their engine, similar to... well... iOS, Android and every other platform.

[patrickhlauke]

Sounds a bit too open-ended to me. E.g. What if some new low-end mobile OS decided to use Presto for its web view?

Well, in my mind "platforms" in my text referred to platforms in the sense of the preceding sentence.

Bootstrap supports the latest, stable releases of all major browsers and platforms.

which would preclude outlier platforms that decide to use Presto or whatever. However, your proposed change is good as well. I'll add that in.

[patrickhlauke]

UWA browsers can use the EdgeHTML engine as their engine, similar to... well... iOS, Android and every other platform.

which is pretty much what i said with "it may be called as a web view in Win10Mob", no?

[patrickhlauke]

So in principle are we happy to also list Windows 10 Mobile as a platform and Edge on there as supported? Currently doing some initial testing of v4 on Win10Mob/Edge to see if there are any major problems at the moment...apart from a few minor things, it seems to work quite well and consistent with desktop Edge

[cvrebert]

Also, wouldn't make N/A it even more clear that Bootstrap couldn't care less about Safari on Windows?

It makes it slightly ambiguous, IMHO. Windows Safari does/did technically exist. "N/A" makes it sound like we've never heard of it before. "Not supported" unambiguously communicates our policy.
We could perhaps add a note explaining why nobody in their right mind should care about Windows Safari; I'm meh on that.

[patrickhlauke]

Initial suggestion for adding Win10Mob/Edge - thoughts?

[cvrebert]

LGTM.

[Studio384]

It makes it slightly ambiguous, IMHO. Windows Safari does/did technically exist. "N/A" makes it sound like we've never heard of it before. "Not supported" unambiguously communicates our policy.

Well, IE also existed for OS X, yet it's also N/A.

[patrickhlauke]

Well, IE also existed for OS X, yet it's also N/A.

true, but the last version of IE for Mac was in 2003 (vs 2012 in the case of Safari/Win) and we've not had any issues raised about this in the last few years (compared to some issues regarding Safari/Win).

[patrickhlauke]

Will squash and merge now...unless we think we should wait for @mdo's blessing?

[cvrebert]

Probably good to wait for his blessing.

[mdo]

Can you move the added text here to a new paragraph and break it into two separate sentences instead of using a dash there?

[patrickhlauke]

Done

[mdo]