[Techtalk] cross-platform, cross-browser testing

[Emma Jane Hogbin]

Hey all:

The topic has been bouncing around a bit on the debian-user list, but I
wanted to ask some folks here as well.

In about a month I'll be starting a contract which is focused around
cross-browser testing. My client is a Mac-based office so they'll be able
to help with that part. I have a dual boot Debian/Windows laptop -- the
Windows partition exists for (1) Acrobat (the creation tool), (2) modem 
support. I hate having to boot into windows to do anything.

At this point I'm considering my options for creating a testing platform.
Most of the articles that have been written on this topic assume that
you're starting with either Windows or a Mac and want to test Mac or
Windows. If I don't want to have to dual boot I see myself having three
options:
	- windows emulation (wine, crossover, plex86)
	- virtual machine (not sure what this is really called, but think VMWare)
	- buy a second, cheapo windows machine for the same $$ I'd spend on
	  VMWare

The important part for me is to see how something really does look in
another browser on another platform. This makes me think that the
emulation tools won't be enough. Does anyone know if wine+IE really is the
same as windows+IE? Of course I'd prefer not to spend gads of money
(VMWare is about a month's rent after it gets translated into Canadian
funds. I can do it because of this contract, but I'd prefer not to.)

Someone told me that with the emulation option I'm still limited to one
version of IE. With the virtual machine I /could/ have multiple IEs, but I
don't have the disk space to have several operating system installs.

Thoughts or comments on this?

emma :)

-- 
Emma Jane Hogbin
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