[radioactive21]

Wouldn't all this depend on your target customers? If your target customer is big business that have fast computers you are okay.

If your customers are average joes, then yes I would say you should have a test environment in place that closely represents those customers.

Even after all that the question I have is which set of customers brings in the most money for you? Lets say you have a mix of big business that run fast machines, and average joes that run slow machines. If 90% of your money comes from big business, why bother trying to make software for the slow machines? Just slap on a system requirement and it should cover them, so-to-speak.

[qqqq2010]

Incidentally, as a webdev who targets big businesses, they in fact usually have -slow- computers. Javascript in IE 6 is pokey, and typical use-cases of Outlook and Excel don't need much firepower.

A joe-blow at home on the other hand is either at least at the "corporate" level, or even higher for gaming or media-centering.