[d] enclosed in brackets chaotic perfectionist for hire

In working on a couple of web design projects, I've needed to test out what the site looks like on various browsers, on different operating systems, all with different versions. Designers would have a much easier time if browsers worked more like TVs - you don't see a different looking show on a Sony than a Panasonic TV.

Unfortunately, some of the older browsers *cough-IE-cough* were really bad about rendering pages, and people coded for them because they were the most popular. In these cases it's old and outdated code that looks bad on modern browsers, but is in there to help the people who haven't upgraded since Windows 95 and IE3. blech.

Fortunately, there are ways to test these designs out, even if you aren't on Windows, or a Mac, or Linux. On the last project I did, The design looked great on Firefox, IE7, Opera, and Seamonkey. What I didn't know at the time was that it looked atrocious on IE6. I'm working on a new site for someone (more details soon), and finally got the theme together. He went to look at it while he was home and it came out... wrong. Again, I didn't know what it looked like, and couldn't fix it as is.

When it happened the first time, I half-looked for a way to check browser compatibility. At the time, I didn't find something to use, and stopped looking once I had fixed the issue. This time, I needed something... and I (re)found Browsershots.org. Yes, they've (he's?) been around for a while, and many people use them, but I hadn't realized how useful it is.

Now I know that the pngfix for IE 5.5-6 is what's breaking it in those two browsers, and I can work on fixing them. I'll post some screen shots soon, but in the meantime, go visit the site and check it out.

Here's what I have running in VMware now:

• FreeBSD 6.2
• Xubuntu 7.04
• Mint 3.1
• SAM linux
• Haiku (formerly BeOS)
• Astaro Security Gateway 7.0004

In the case of the last one, it's not really an OS, but it runs as a VMware appliance, and you can get to the Web control panel through your main OS browser. Check it out in any case

There are two others I started looking at today:

• Elive Gem; and
• Vector Linux

I'll eventually narrow it down to one or two, but I feel like I can get a better feel for these distros if I have a chance to play with them.

Sean suggested that I have a problem with this OS list like I do with CMS "testing" (which never seems to be done). Yeah, well... I can stop whenever I want. heh.

While I'm at work, I'm using Windows on my two systems, with Windows servers. Although they do what they need to (for the most part), I like Linux (and Unix).

I have a desktop running Xubuntu Edgy that bridges the two networks, but I can't really play with it when I'm not in the office. Technically, I could VPN into work and connect to it through SSH/PuTTY, but it's not the same.

There were a couple of options. I could:

1. Install Xubuntu freshly over Windows (after backing all the data up first, of course)
2. Do the dual-boot thing (no thank you)
3. Install VMware Server and install whatever OS I want

In case you didn't read the title, I went with option three (thanks to Sean for suggesting it, by the way). The VMware install was pretty straightforward and easy to do, and I was up and running in no time.

As of right now, I have Xubuntu 7.04 (Feisty), FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE, and SAM linux (Ubuntu-based). I'm trying to get Mint Linux, but I'm having a hard time downloading the .iso for it (although I have a CD, I don't have a way to get it onto my system)...

Anyone else using VMware? Where do you use it, and what do you have on it?