Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE • Hacker News Board

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#121

Post by SyneRyder » Fri, Nov 16, 2012, 10:38 AM UTC

SiVal wrote: post #118

crazygringo wrote: post #34

These have been around for years. I put together a guide for personal use a while ago, for how to get them running under VirtualBox on OSX. Should be a similar process under Linux. I don't have a blog or anything, so I'll include them here, hoping they'll be helpful to people here, sorry about the length (I last did this a few months ago, so it should be pretty up-to-date). - Extract the RAR files. On OSX use UnRarX:…

Thank you for this. What I wish I could find was a way to buy a low-cost version of Windows to run in VirtualBox on a Mac, not for testing IE, but just to be able to use Windows occasionally. I'm not sure why MS wants to make buying Windows without a PC so expensive. I suppose they feel that locking us into PC hardware (that won't run MacOS, thanks to Apple's lock-in policies) is the best way to lock us into Windows.…

Have you seen the pricing on Windows 8? It's $48 here in Australia (roughly the same in USD) and I believe there's a $40 download-only version too. It sounds like that would suit your needs?

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#122

Post by jayflux » Fri, Nov 16, 2012, 1:15 PM UTC

jlebrech wrote: post #83

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know about them. They aren't actually the browsers in question, though. It's IE9/10 engine with some stuff disabled.

the sad truth is; anything below ie7 should be dropped. Unless you are developing for a corporation that won't move away from ie6 and then you should only test on ie6.

Realistically it should be below ie8. IE7 is old and should be dropped.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#123

Post by acdha » Fri, Nov 16, 2012, 7:40 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #111

acdha wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: the compatibility modes aren't the same as the real browser - they try but some features, especially things like CSS or DOM handling of errors, non-standard properties, etc. will not be consistent enough to avoid testing in the real thing. When IE8 was out, setting IE7 compatibility mode using an HTTP header worked for 99% of a huge internal business app but I had to monkey-patch around a third-party library beca…

did you let them redistribute it?

I'd already posted it publicly, so I didn't even try to charge them.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#124

Post by SiVal » Sat, Nov 17, 2012, 1:30 PM UTC

SyneRyder wrote: post #121

SiVal wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this. What I wish I could find was a way to buy a low-cost version of Windows to run in VirtualBox on a Mac, not for testing IE, but just to be able to use Windows occasionally. I'm not sure why MS wants to make buying Windows without a PC so expensive. I suppose they feel that locking us into PC hardware (that won't run MacOS, thanks to Apple's lock-in policies) is the best way to lock us into Windows.…

Have you seen the pricing on Windows 8? It's $48 here in Australia (roughly the same in USD) and I believe there's a $40 download-only version too. It sounds like that would suit your needs?

It's my understanding that that's an upgrade price, not a new installation. They're doing it, because so many Windows users are saying they'll keep using Windows 7, an actual computer OS, rather than upgrading to the new "post-PC" Windows 8.

You could be right, and I could be wrong, though....