CSS: Is Helvetica the default 'sans-serif' font on Mac and Arial the default sans-serif font on Windows?

Question

I have a lot of CSS that does the following:

font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

It my understanding that Helvetica is the default sans-

Answer 1

The default font really depends on the browser. For example, in Firefox on Mac, I have Lucida Grande as the default sans-serif font. I don't think I changed it, but I'm not entirely sure. You can't really depend on the defaults being specific fonts, as users can change them in the preferences. If you want a specific font, specify it.