Question

Does a browser download JS files if the user has JS disabled?

I’m wondering if the browser downloads the JS files and ignores them or ignores the download all together.

Do different browsers act differently in this case?

Edit:

I asked a follow up question to this question here.

Answer 1

Some testing (on Ubuntu 10.04) so far yields

• Opera: doesn’t download (disabled JS in preferences)
• Firefox: doesn’t download (disabled JS in preferences or with NoScript)
• Google Chrome/Chromium: downloads (disabled JS via -disable-javascript parameter)
• SRWare Iron (Chrome without the nonsense): doesn’t download (disabled JS via “Options” – “Under The Hood” – “Content Settings” – “JavaScript” – “Content Settings” – “Do not allow any site to run JavaScript”)
• IE 8: doesn’t download
• IE 7: downloads

Edit: Made this a community wiki, so feel free to add your results.