Comparison of look and feel of Moodle 1.9+ in the browsers Firefox, Konqueror and Opera

Moodle Environment Review No. 1: Browsers

I have compared the look of the current stable Moodle 1.9+ in the browsers Firefox, Konqueror and Opera running in Ubuntu Intrepid. The installation is set to the default theme.

Site Frontpage


Fig. 1: Moodle site front page in Firefox 3.0.7


Fig. 2: Moodle site front page in Konqueror 4.1.2


Fig. 3: Moodle site front page in Opera 9.5

Course Page


Fig 4: Course front page in Firefox


Fig. 5: Course front page in Konqueror



Fig. 6: Course front page in Opera

I don't see much difference. Perhaps if they were running under a different operating system with different default fonts, the difference in look will be more pronounced.

What we don't see is the difference in behavior due to JavaScript support. JS is supposed to be a cross platform scripting language but each browser implements the script differently at times and causes certain scripts in Moodle not to work in certain browsers especially when AJAX is turned on. Next post will review enabling of JS and cookies in the three browsers.

You can install Firefox and Konqueror in Ubuntu by using synaptic or opening a terminal and typing:

apt-get install firefox konqueror

For Opera, get the .deb file here: http://www.opera.com/download/?custom=yes. Install with Gdebi or go to the folder where you have the deb file and type:

sudo dpkg -i opera_9.64.2480.gcc4.qt3_amd64.deb

The latest is version 9.64 opera_9.64.2480.gcc4.qt3_amd64.deb but I have yet to install this version. Replace the filename of the deb file with what you have. Remember that Opera is not a "free software". It is copyrighted by Opera Software ASA so read the license for terms of use.