Off on a Tangent is powered by an open-source publishing platform. The custom Tangent theme and plugin were designed and written by Scott Bradford. Off on a Tangent is designed for a minimum viewport width of 360 display pixels (dp) and should work properly in most modern browsers on most modern operating systems.
Designed with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Built with JetBrains PhpStorm. Source control with Git SCM. Bugs tracked with Mantis. Hosting and domain registration services by DreamHost and Infomaniak. Accurate timekeeping courtesy of Time and Date AS and the NTP Pool Project.
When possible, Off on a Tangent complies with the most recent HTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), JSON, and XML standards. Validation tools include Nu (X)HTML5 Checker, StyleLint, ESLint, JSONLint, and XML Validation. Off on a Tangent intends to comply with the most recent Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Accessibility is checked periodically with AInspector. Please report any accessibility problems.
Refer to the Credits and Attribution page for a complete list of libraries, fonts, plugins, artwork, optimization tools, and other components in use on this website.
Web Browser Support
Off on a Tangent should work properly in any browser that uses a recent version of the Blink, Gecko, Goanna, or WebKit display engines.
I currently recommend browsing with Firefox by the Mozilla Corporation. It strikes the best (but still imperfect) balance between wide availability, compatibility and standards support, and insulation from control by governments and advertising businesses.
Fully Supported and Tested Browsers
The website is fully supported and regularly tested in the browsers listed below. Please report any problems. Bugs affecting these browsers will be investigated and fixed as quickly as possible.
- Blink-based:
- Gecko-based:
- Firefox by the Mozilla Corporation
- Tor Browser by the Tor Project
- Goanna-based:
- Pale Moon by Moonchild Productions
- WebKit-based:
- Safari by Apple Inc.
Note: On iOS and iPadOS operating systems, Apple prohibits browser developers from using their own display engines. On these platforms, browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox will use the Apple-provided WebKit engine instead of the engines they use on other platforms.
Secondary Supported Browsers
Browsers in this section use display engines that are the same or closely related to those used by supported browsers. They should work properly but are not actively tested. Please report any problems. Bugs affecting these browsers will be investigated and fixed at a lower priority.
- Multi-engine:
- DuckDuckGo Browser by DuckDuckGo
- Blink on Android and Windows; WebKit on iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS
- DuckDuckGo Browser by DuckDuckGo
- Blink-based:
- Gecko-based:
- Goanna-based:
- WebKit-based:
- Web (Epiphany) by the GNOME Project
Note: On iOS and iPadOS operating systems, Apple prohibits browser developers from using their own display engines. On these platforms, browsers like Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi will use the Apple-provided WebKit engine instead of the engines they use on other platforms.
Text and Lo-Fi Browsers
The site should be functionally usable in numerous text-only and lo-fi browsers that have unique, independent display engines. You should be able to navigate around and view content in these browsers, but the site might look really bad. I test in these browsers during major release development, but only rarely between releases. Functional bugs affecting these browsers will be investigated and fixed.
- Arachne by glennmcc.org
- Dillo by the Dillo Project
- Links by Twibright Labs
- Lynx by Thomas Dickey
- Netsurf by the NetSurf Developers
Prerelease Browsers
I support the development of new and independent browsers (and operating systems). Competition is good. I particularly want viable browser options from organizations that are not beholden—even indirectly—to governments and advertising businesses.
I am monitoring several prerelease browsers. Functional bugs affecting these browsers will be investigated and fixed. I hope to more fully support these browsers when they begin making public production releases.
- Ladybird by the Ladybird Browser Initiative
- Servo Tech Demo by the Linux Foundation
- WebPositive by Haiku, Inc.
Operating System Support
Off on a Tangent should work properly on any modern desktop, tablet, or smartphone operating system for which browsers based on recent versions of the supported display engines are available.
Fully Supported and Tested Systems
The website is fully supported and regularly tested in the supported browsers on any of the following operating systems for which they are available. Please report any problems. Bugs affecting these systems will be investigated and fixed as quickly as possible.
- Desktop
- Chrome OS by Google LLC
- MacOS by Apple Inc.
- Tangential DE (Debian by the Debian Project)
- Tangential EOS (EndeavourOS by the EndeavourOS Team)
- Windows by the Microsoft Corporation
- Tablet
- Smartphone
Secondary Supported Systems
Systems in this section are closely related to the supported systems or are only capable of running text and lo-fi browsers. Supported browsers should work properly on any of the following operating systems where they are available. Please report any problems. Bugs affecting these systems will be investigated and fixed at a lower priority.
- Desktop
- Chromium OS by the Chromium Project
- Fedora Workstation by the Fedora Project
- FreeDOS by the FreeDOS Project (text & lo-fi only)
- Linux Mint by the Linux Mint Team
- Pop!_OS by System76, Inc.
- Tails by the Tails Project
- Ubuntu Desktop (and Flavors) by Canonical Ltd.
- Tablet
- CalyxOS by the Calyx Institute
- Chromium OS by the Chromium Project
- FireOS by Amazon LLC
- GrapheneOS by the GrapheneOS Team
- LineageOS by the LineageOS Project
- Smartphone
- CalyxOS by the Calyx Institute
- GrapheneOS by the GrapheneOS Team
- LineageOS by the LineageOS Project
Notes on Other Systems
There are a lot of other operating systems. Ideally, I want the site to be accessible and usable with anything that is able to access the Internet . . . but there’s no way I could proactively test the thousands of current and legacy systems that exist out there.
Bugs affecting supported browsers on other systems will be investigated and fixed if I am able to reproduce the issue. Functional bugs on other systems, including legacy and prerelease systems, will be investigated and fixed if I am able to run the system with the hardware, virtualizers, and emulators I have available.
I am aware of, and am open to fixing bugs affecting, operating systems in these categories:
- Other GNU/Linux distributions like Elementary OS, Manjaro, MX Linux, and Zorin OS
- Other Android forks like ColorOS, HarmonyOS, HyperOS, and OxygenOS
- Unix-like systems like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OpenIndiana
- Prerelease systems like Haiku, HelenOS, KolibriOS, ReactOS, Redox OS, and SerenityOS
- Niche and lesser-used systems like AmigaOS, ArcaOS, OpenVMS, and RISC OS Open
- Modern DOS systems like DOSBox and DOSBox-X; legacy DOS systems like DR-DOS, MS-DOS, and PC-DOS; and GNU/Linux and Unix-like console-based systems
- Other legacy operating systems like BeOS, BlackBerry OS, CP/M, GEOS (8-bit and 16-bit), GS/OS, Mac OS (Classic), Newton OS, OS/2, Palm OS, ProDOS, Symbian, WebOS, Windows (1-3.1, 9x, CE, Pocket PC, Mobile, and Phone), and more
Matrix
| Browser | Engine | Chr. | Lin. | Mac | Win. | And. | iOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Blink | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟡2 |
| Edge | Blink | 🟡1 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟡2 |
| Falkon | Blink | 🟡1 | 🟢 | 🟡3 | 🟡3 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Firefox | Gecko | 🟡1 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟡2 |
| Pale Moon | Goanna | 🟡1 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Safari | WebKit | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 |
| Tor Browser | Gecko | 🟡1 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
🟢 = available & supported; 🟡 = see notes; 🔴 = not available
1 On Chrome OS, alternate browsers are available through Android and Linux compatibility layers.
2 On iOS and iPadOS, these browsers use the Apple-provided WebKit display engine.
3 Outdated Falkon builds are available for MacOS and Windows, but are not currently supported.
Screenshot Gallery
