
Testing made easier in Internet Explorer - bahularora
http://www.modern.ie/virtualization-tools
======
nailer
Biggest announcement for me and most people I know is:

'VMs for Mac and Linux coming soon.*'

On this page: <http://www.modern.ie/virtualization-tools>

Ie, no more screwing around with IEVMS and conversion scripts etc when trying
to get a working copy of IE.

Alas latency makes Browserstack unusable for a lot of people.

~~~
dave1010uk
If you don't already, try this IE VM automated installation script:
<https://github.com/xdissent/ievms>

~~~
ph0rque
I've deleted it because 50 gigs for testing IE7 - 9 is a bit too much for my
120 gig SSD drive.

~~~
Groxx
In case you didn't know, it keeps the original download around after install
(and maybe other files - it has been a while since I used it). Deleting those
will free up quite a bit of room.

~~~
ph0rque
This was after I deleted the downloaded files, if I recall correctly.

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d0m
Wow, Microsoft clearly gained a couple of points back for me.

First, beautifully designed page.

Second, partnering with a cool company rather than staying Microsoft-only-
product.

Third, Agreeing that old browsers are a pain to deal with and providing
solutions for devs.

Fourth, Agreeing that there are other OS!

~~~
ozh
First, instead of fixing their stupid browser so it works like all the others,
they provide "tools" to ask that _you_ make your sites compliant with their
stuff

Second, my site uses jQuery UI 1.10 and they suggest I update to 1.9.

Regarding web browsers, Microsoft is still sucking balls, year after year.

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stephenr
They offer a 3 month trial of BrowserStack (who also have a free trial, but
presumably its less than 3 months?) but it requires Facebook login.

When I tweeted to @ie to ask why this is the case, @browserstack replied
saying "Just a way to manage sign-ups especially duplicate".

How is it possible that companies like Microsoft and Browserstack, both of
whom have existing "signup" functionality, and one of whom already operates an
"online profile" system, require Facebook for a trial like this?

~~~
eli
Because it's a pain to set up a new Facebook profile. Presumably enough of a
pain that people won't be willing to do it every 3 months to avoid paying for
BrowserStack.

~~~
dmethvin
I'd assume that as well. I have collected several Microsoft IDs by way of
Hotmail/live.com/outlook.com but I only have one Facebook account.

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slig
> VMs for Mac and Linux coming soon.

So you don't have to bother visiting that page.

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tokenizer
Soooo no new tools released. Just a marketing Web Site for IE10. I was so
excited for a great application to test with.

~~~
mxxx
Yep, all this stuff was already available. We've been using BrowserStack for
ages and the VMs have been available from MS for a long time. All they've done
here is package it up in a shiny looking website that's basically begging
developers not to forget about IE now that everybody writes for webkit &
mozilla.

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lowglow
It's almost as if microsoft has a 5 year lag on processing developer
complaints.

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thawt
Unless something has changed. Don't these VMs expire ... and require a
redownload / setup after a few months? Nothing to see here.

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robomartin
OK, maybe someone can explain. Have I been doing it wrong?

I have minimal Windows VMs built on VMWare to test with everything from ie6 to
ie9 and a Windows 8 VM to test ie10. Same for Windows Safari and Firefox. With
VMWare's workstation software you, effectively, get one browser per tab (well,
one vm per tab) and testing is dead simple.

This wasn't so hard to setup at all. I can even remote-desktop into the
machine hosting the VM's and test from another machine. The only cost were the
Windows licenses, but we use Windows already, so that wasn't too bad.

Why would one want to pay to use these services, particularly when, if I
understand it correctly, they offer static images of each browser as opposed
to a real-time interaction?

~~~
Groxx
Design teams that aren't techy enough for VMs, OSes that don't support
emulating X (ie, Windows users wanting to test their mobile site on an iOS
device), and testing a large number of variations come to mind.

For instance, how long (and how much HD space!) would it take you to set up
emulators for all these? <http://www.browserstack.com/list-of-browsers-and-
platforms> (note that these are in-your-browser remote desktop sessions,
essentially. some services are static images, like BrowserShots.org, some are
not)

For most people, I totally agree, especially with e.g. the IEVMS script.
Pretty simple, low cost, and it probably covers all the variety you need,
since it's not too hard to install multiple versions of Firefox and Chrome on
most OSes. But exceptions exist, and I'd be willing to bet they're relatively
large (absolute) numbers.

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tiredoffps
As a designer, I can't really use this. It misses some of the minor design
details that I can see in a real IE8 browser. It's like looking at your jpegs
at 40% compression in Photoshop.

~~~
sirius87
i felt this was a major issue. then i noticed the high quality setting in
BrowserStack. with high quality set, sites look great!

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shanelja
Just took a look at this in my lunch break, sent it to the QA team and we love
it!

Expecting it to get passed to the boss to check if it will be a purchase soon.

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unwind
Could someone please edit the title? It seems a bit on the overly redundant
side, with the domain two times (three with HN's mention). Thanks.

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xauronx
I connected my facebook, put in the URL for my site and hit "Test"... and it
took me to another registration page. Awesome.

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bartsitekcom
Personally I like the IETester: <http://www.my-
debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage>

Unfortunately, it runs just under Windows.

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systemtrigger
And now we learn the true reason MS ignored W3C all those years: To make
money. Step 1: get people to use obsolete software. Step 2: license support.

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zachinglis
Let's not forget Mogotest.com

I've used both Browserstack and Mogotest on and off the past few years and I
have to admit its invaluable.

~~~
smagch
Does anyone use testling.com? <http://testling.com/>

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abdophoto
Never thought I'd say this but thank you Microsoft.

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Johnyma22
Nope. Nice try, but doesn't work.

