Mac users: favorite method for IE testing?

I am a loyal Mac guy. My current setup is the recent Mac Pro with VMWare Fusion running Windows XP Home. I have IE6 installed for site testing.

If I upgrade to IE7 I lose IE6. There are several options for IE testing these days...

* Multiple IE’s
* IETester
* NetRenderer
* BrowserShots
* ies4osx

All of these seem to have their strengths and weaknesses. IETester looks promising. Before getting an Intel machine I tried ies4osx and found it lacking.  I really don’t surf the web with IE, I just use it to test my stuff.

I was just wondering what others found when it came it to testing both popular versions of IE, namely IE6 and IE7, on an Intel Mac at the SAME TIME

Thanks!

Max

My mac method for IE testing: pray, pray a lot.

Quote from: dev_cw at Jan 14, 2009, 12:23 PM

My mac method for IE testing: pray, pray a lot.

Mine is similar, except I just ignore that IE exists. Maybe if enough of us believe that it doesn’t exist, it will go away...

I find that nothing is as accurate as looking at IE6 and IE7 on an actual Windows system, but I suppose you could get two different VM’s running, upgrade one and leave the other. Then it’s just a matter of having enough resources to run both VM’s.

Personally, I switch between two different XP boxes, one with IE6 and one with IE7, for my IE testing. In my experience, I haven’t found any of the methods of multiple IE installation into a single Windows instance of any use, and a Windows box costs pennies these days (compared to these Macs that we love so much).

I recently stumbled across this utterance:

"Internet Explorer is the greatest internet browser ever designed. It single-handedly allowed the internet to expand into the glorious universe it is today.
Other browsers like firef*ck should get down on its knees and strive to be more like IE. EVERY browser should be more like IE.
All this talk about standards is from a bunch of godless, America-hating communists who fail to understand that IE always has been and always will be THE STANDARD.
God Bless America, Microsoft, and the right to bear arms!"

Wow, If this guy does not have 100% of his tongue firmly smashed against the inside of his cheek, well, I dunno...

Quote from: OpenGeek at Jan 14, 2009, 12:32 PM

Quote from: dev_cw at Jan 14, 2009, 12:23 PM

My mac method for IE testing: pray, pray a lot. 

Personally, I switch between two different XP boxes, one with IE6 and one with IE7, for my IE testing.  In my experience, I haven’t found any of the methods of multiple IE installation into a single Windows instance of any use, and a Windows box costs pennies these days (compared to these Macs that we love so much).

I used to have a decent home built Windows machine. The start up & spin down time and fan noise drove me crazy. I sold it when I got my Mac Pro. The nice thing about Fusion is that it returns your previous session so quickly. Its also great sharing folders and files. Some pluses for sure.

I am thinking about buying a cheap Windows laptop via Craigslist though...

As a recent convert to a mac I have two VMWare Virtual Machines set up.
One runs XP SP3 & IE7, the other runs XP SP2 & IE6.
Comparing them against two Windows boxes with the same specs hasn’t shown any differences I can see.
I’m with you on the noise front, my office is now so quiet and calm

While I have windows running on Fusion and you can have snapshots of the same VM (not a new install) and use the snapshots with each version of IE I am leaving IE6 in the dust.

Clients who want it will have to pay extra for it. That kind of backward compatibility will have to be factored into scope. I can’t be bothered to give away all the extra work required to do workarounds for browser whose vendor has discontinued supporting actively and have replaced as a matter of security.

How about this?

!--[if lte IE 6]
SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript"
alert("Tip: For the love of God, please consider upgrading your browser!");
/SCRIPT
![endif]--

I know a designer who allocates very limited time to IE6 bugfixes and then uses conditional IE6 statements :

Seems fair enough to me

Quote from: bunk58 at Jan 14, 2009, 12:55 PM

As a recent convert to a mac I have two VMWare Virtual Machines set up.
One runs XP SP3 & IE7, the other runs XP SP2 & IE6.
Comparing them against two Windows boxes with the same specs hasn’t shown any differences I can see.
I’m with you on the noise front, my office is now so quiet and calm 

Interesting.

So am I correct in that you are using one install of Fusion and then two separate installs of XP from different licensed discs? You can then bounce from one VM to the other?