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BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

browserstack.com

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Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#21

I used to be interested in this type of service, but then I got an SSD. With an SSD it takes about 5 seconds to boot windows through parallels, and now cross browser testing is no longer a chore. I am willing to admit that I pirate windows for the sole purpose of supporting IE with my webapps. It would be too expensive to do it legitimately, so my solution is not for everyone.

I used to buy Windows licenses, even multiple use family packs. And I would install them in Parallels on my Mac for testing IE. That works, until your Windows keys start to expire. I guess I installed them too many times. Now my keys no longer work.

So now I pirate copies of Windows that I have paid for, because it's too much hassle to work with the legitimate versions.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#23

I used to be interested in this type of service, but then I got an SSD. With an SSD it takes about 5 seconds to boot windows through parallels, and now cross browser testing is no longer a chore. I am willing to admit that I pirate windows for the sole purpose of supporting IE with my webapps. It would be too expensive to do it legitimately, so my solution is not for everyone.

I think MS provides VM images of Windows for testing IE.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#24
post #13

This looks cool, but I'm not sure about the long-term value. Looking at their browser list, I could test all Firefox, Opera, and Chrome versions, one version of IE, and the Windows versions of Safari on one Windows 7 box. I could add to that three VMs for older versions of IE, and a Mac (maybe with a VM) for Mac Safari versions. If the main Win7 machine is also a VM, I could do this all on the Mac. So, that's a total…

Installing and configuring VMs up to the point where you can do good testing with them is a painful and tedious work. Why waste the time of expensive professionals on something if you can fix the problem for $70-$150 a month? $70 bucks a month is only real money if you're a broke startup. Otherwise it's peanuts.

And don't forget the maintenance you have to do on those machines. You're testing is 5 minutes under way and BAM Windows updates wants your attention for a reboot.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#25
post #2

Is this somehow related to browserling/stackvm? Afaik the idea is the same but browserstack looks much more polished and mature. Ok i just discovered that browserstack needs java so it seems they are using a different sw stack

Browserstack needs Java only for creating local tunnel via web interface. For the rest it uses Flash!

Ah ok i'm sorry i misread that.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#26
This looks interesting - we've been pretty happy with crossbrowsertesting.com until now, which is also worth a look.

Here's what I'd love next - we'd write a bunch of QUnit javascript tests, put them behind a private url on our staging server, and then be able to run those tests from the command-line on multiple browsers (through BrowserStack, say), and spit back the output in a form that Jenkins understands. I'd certainly pay $20/month for that, and maybe more if it was great.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#27

This looks interesting - we've been pretty happy with crossbrowsertesting.com until now, which is also worth a look. Here's what I'd love next - we'd write a bunch of QUnit javascript tests, put them behind a private url on our staging server, and then be able to run those tests from the command-line on multiple browsers (through BrowserStack, say), and spit back the output in a form that Jenkins understands. I'd cer…

We are partnering with Jquery Swarm to run Jquery unit tests! ... so this will happen very soon.

Re: BrowserStack is out of beta: super-easy multi-browser testing

#29
post #23

I used to be interested in this type of service, but then I got an SSD. With an SSD it takes about 5 seconds to boot windows through parallels, and now cross browser testing is no longer a chore. I am willing to admit that I pirate windows for the sole purpose of supporting IE with my webapps. It would be too expensive to do it legitimately, so my solution is not for everyone.

I think MS provides VM images of Windows for testing IE.

here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11575
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