
17 Windows browsers on your Mac.  Sort of. - jawngee
http://litmusapp.com/alkaline/screencast
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petercooper
Separate to how useful this is, this is an awesome marketing technique that
others should look into. That is, distributing a desktop app that's really
just a front-end for what your Web app already does.

I've noticed it in myself (and I'm sure it applies to others) that I sense
more "value" in downloading a "free app" versus using a free Web service. I
was familiar with Litmus's services before, but I hadn't really bothered to
give it a go until this. This desktop app makes it convenient (even though you
have to use the Web to setup an account!) and it "feels" better somehow. If
you have a Web app, think about whether a similar tactic could work for you
(I've seen a similar thing happening with free iPhone apps promoting Web
apps).

~~~
Hexstream
Pretty ironic, considering usually an argument for free websites over free
desktop apps is that it's easier and less dangerous to try out a free website
because you don't have to install anything.

~~~
petercooper
Quite! Good point :)

I think it taps in to old assumptions. "Software expensive, Web free." On
37signals Live yesterday David Heinemeier Hansson was talking about how people
take recommendations more seriously when someone is a paying customer of
something than just a free user. I think this sort of thinking ties in with
software being perceived as more valuable and why Alkaline could, perhaps, get
better buzz than the underlying service.

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dw0rm
I wouldn't be using this. Because static screenshots doesn't cover testing of
dynamic behavior. For example when testing liquid layout I should be able to
resize the window. Not mentioning testing hover effects on links or javascript
effects.

~~~
dmix
Another big drawback would be the load times for the screenshots.

When I make a change in Textmate, I can cmd-tab into VMWare and refresh the
browser in a couple seconds. I don't have to wait for the server to respond
and download the images.

~~~
dw0rm
I'm using RDC from my imac to an old pc running Windows XP.

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axod
Static pages are pretty rare these days. Quite a lot of the cross browser
issues are when it comes to dynamic content, so I'm not really sure how useful
a single screenshot is.

I'll stick with VirtualBox for now :) <http://axod.net/browserTesting.png>

You can download the XP images free from microsoft, ready installed with IE6
IE7 and IE8. You just have to jump a couple of hoops to get the images into a
format virtualbox/vmware etc understand.

~~~
Hexstream
"You can download the XP images free from microsoft, ready installed with IE6
IE7 and IE8."

Where??

~~~
jeroen
Here:
[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21e...](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en)

Currently time-limited to april 30, but so far MS continues to provide new
versions. I guess they're just trying to prevent any other use of these
images.

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rscott
Similarly, <http://browsershots.org/> will do this sans native OSX app.

~~~
eli
litmusapp doesn't require an app either. In fact, I think the app is just a
gimmick

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DLWormwood
Was it really necessary to explain this with a video, with no apparent text
FAQ or documentation page? Not everybody's work LAN permits video traffic...

~~~
adamhowell
<http://litmusapp.com/blog/introducing-alkaline> ?

~~~
DLWormwood
Blog? Isn't that a little rude on their part? It's just happenstance that the
"elevator statement" article is the current. If this like any other start-up
blog in the future, later users who visit this page will be faced with
marketing or development minutia. (It's why it didn't occur to me to even
follow said link.)

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Watts
I like the idea as far as checking for visual inconsistencies goes, but after
trying out the free account I think it's just too slow to use on a day-to-day
basis. Rendering takes too long, and switching between the different browser
views even takes around 5 seconds. And as someone else pointed out, it isn't
useful for any real testing of Javascript etc.

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jack7890
Anyone know a good what to test on multiple browsers on a PC? Are virtual
machines the only answer?

~~~
toddml
<http://crossbrowsertesting.com/> gives you VNC sessions on a raft of
preconfigured Windows instances.

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philfreo
IETester is good for testing different versions of IE, but is Windows only:
<http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage>

