The Easiest Way to Test IE6 with Firefox
Hard to believe, but it's almost been a decade since the original release of Internet Explorer 6. What's even harder to believe is that we still have to maintain cross browser compatibility with it!
Still holding a 20% share on everyday browser use, it's an annoying but justified procedure to make sure website code renders correctly in IE6. That means implementing the workarounds, the hacking, or whatever it takes to get it behaving the same way as a modern browser.
That said, I wanted to share the easiest possible way on earth anyone could possibly test IE6 with Firefox. Just in case someone hasn't already heard of the awesome project known as Spoon.
Web based virtualization
The team at Spoon has created a web based virtualization technology that allows you to run thousands of apps, across any platform, natively on any system right from the browser.
So not only a great way to test IE6, but you can test other browsers too. Windows user? Check out what your site looks like in Apple's Safari.
For cross browser compatibility testing I previously was using Virtual Machines. I promptly ditched the VMs given the ridiculously easy route to test any browser using Spoon.
Browsers aside, some of the top apps people are using on Spoon are Skype, TweetDeck, and even games like World of Goo.
For software publishers, the Spoon technology makes for a compelling solution in making your apps available via the browser. Easy as buying a license and downloading the server edition.
While this is a cool proposition, and certainly useful to certain businesses - but I believe the Spoon team is really going to achieve notable success when they get their software working on multiple platforms. Ie- when you can run a Windows program from your Mac. THAT will make things interesting - and provide software developers a viable route to ensuring their product runs on both Windows & Mac (Linux someday too?) without the huge development challenge of coding it to run natively.
Really cool software tech! Just recently, the Spoon team attended TechEd 2010. Mastermaq has the video report.
Schwabe is an Android app designer and business nerd with a passion for technology, startups, and free market capitalism.
I like this idea! I often have to test IE6 but usually I use only Firefox
Spoon seems promising to use. I always check my blog for cross browser compatibility. I'll give a shot to Spoon. Also your blog has good articles and human touch to technology.
Very pertinent in view of our recent conversations! Too bad there isn't a Google chrome plugin just yet.
I don't know how my websites works in IE6, windows 7 don't support the standalone version, this is a great hint!
Thanks for sharing this great tip, I also dislike internet explorer hehe
Generally, I use ipinfo.info/netrenderer/ which only gives a screengrab, though Spoon looks far more handy for heavier testing. One point, though, I'm sure that I've read that the 20% share is slightly misleading, as a lot of that comes from China:
http://blog.mozilla.com/ligong/2010/01/22/china’s-strange-fixation-on-ie6/
If you are building a website aimed at the Chinese, then it's important to test ie6, but I suspect it is probably no longer important for anywhere else. A good approach is perhaps to explain about ie6 to clients, and if it's important to them, then charge extra to make it work, as it's a large proportion of dev time, which many will feel as unnecessary. Obviously, it would be possible to sniff for how many browsers are using IE6 on a new site, and if there were too many to ignore, then update for it.
Update: apparently Spoon.net no longer has IE6 (or any IE browser) available on their platform. No official announcements, just this reply on their twitter feed when asked about it: "We are working on a way to bring IE browsers back to Spoon. One of many changes this year. Stay tuned."
I'm assuming MS gave them some licensing trouble, but could be wrong.
nice
Add a comment