Browser and OS compatability testing

[J.Barringer]

I am looking for a way to test sites on all 4.0+ browsers on all OSs. Anyone know of a program or site that that is this extensive? Or any other way thats less expensive than setting up computers with all browsers and operating systems?

[randem]

There are a lot of "4.0+ Browsers".

You may find some good listings -if you really dig- showing feature comparisons and W3C support by browser for the main players: Netscape, IE, and Opera. However, I doubt that you'll find any indications about OS, outside of Mac and Windows... and then, usually only for IE.

Linux is free, why not set it up and test Netscape/Mozilla, Opera, Galeon, and Konqueror... you'll kill five+ birds with one stone.

Mac isn't free, so I can understand not wanting to spend the money, but the Mac versions of Netscape and IE are well documented on the web.

And Windows... well, I'd bet dollars against donuts that you're using Windows right now, so you wouldn't have to spend any money to test for Windows. Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, Internet Explorer... they're all free downloads.

[redux]

have a look at http://browsers.evolt.org/ for vintage browsers...

[blufive]

Netscape 4.x and 6.x will happily co-exist on the same machine.

Netscape 6.x and Mozilla can get a bit cranky about sharing a machine, unless you treat them nicely.

Opera seems to co-exist quite happily with other browsers, but I haven't tested multiple versions of Opera on the same machine.

You CAN NOT install more than one Windows IE on a single machine unless you faff around with multi-booting between different installations of windows.

[randem]

Originally posted by blufive
You CAN NOT install more than one Windows IE on a single machine unless you faff around with multi-booting between different installations of windows.

Not entirely true. I don't remember what I did, but I know that at one time, I had IE3 and IE5 installed at the same time.

[MarcusJT]

Do a search for "vmware" or "virtual" in this forum to find threads which have discussed running the VMWare & Virtual PC emulation apps!