Getting Internet Explorer 8 on the Mac (or any other OS)
While developing Kete, maintaining cross browser compatibility is a concern for us. We need to make sure that the site runs the same on Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, and Safari 4. As anyone who has tried can tell you, testing with Internet Explorer on a non Windows machine is not easy, but there is a way!
The Mozilla developers do an excellent job at making Firefox available on nearly every OS. If it doesn’t exists, someone can compile it. However, for Linux/Mac users we can’t get much else. Unlike Apple, who at least offer Safari 4 on Windows, Microsoft doesn’t support IE 8 on Mac OS X or Linux.
This makes browser testing for web developers trickier, and usually means having to get a windows computer or ask someone with one to test a site for you. However, just because IE isn’t natively available, it doesn’t mean you can’t use your computer for IE testing at all though.
Using a handy virtualization program called VirtualBox, and Microsofts recent Windows 7 release candidate, you can have IE8 on your Mac, or IE8 and S4 on your Linux installation, until June 1st 2010 free of charge.
Note 1: You will need a Mac with atleast 2gig of RAM or more, and 128mb of graphics RAM or more. Any less, and the operating system will be unusably slow. It also isn’t great at testing flash or shockwave based sites. But its perfect for standard XHTML rendering.
Note 2: A program for Windows XP, titled Multiple IE, by TredoSoft, is not currently available for Windows 7. So you still won’t be able to access IE6/IE7 easily just yet. However, sources (cnet, washington post, and more) state that Microsoft will be pushing IE8 as an update for Windows XP/Vista through auto update, rather than an optional update approach they took for IE7 when it was released. So if your site works with IE8, it should hopefully be good for a majority of computers within 3-6 months.
Step 1 - Download VirtualBox
Install VirtualBox (VBox). If there isn’t a version available for your operating system, then you might try one of the alternatives like VMWare, however, the rest of this post details instructions for VBox. Installation requires root priveledges.
Step 2 - Download Windows 7
Get a Microsoft passport (if you have a hotmail account, or use MSN, you already have one). Then select the type of download you want (I’m using the 32bit english version). You’ll be prompted to login to your Microsoft Passport account. Once you’ve done that, copy the product key and save it to your computer, or print it off. You will need it later. Then select ‘Download Now’.
The download is about 2.36GB, and took about 35 minutes on my connection using Folx, a Mac download manager.
Step 3 - Configure VirtualBox for Windows 7
If you haven’t yet, read the VBox documentation. Create a new Virtual Machine (VM), with a new Virtual Hard Disk (VDH), add your Windows 7 ISO file to Vbox, and then configure your new VM to boot from that ISO. Before you start your virtual machine, the configuration should look something like this:
Step 4 - Setup Windows 7
I’m not going to explain step by step because it guides you through the process. Basically, when you load up, select your settings, choose a partition and it’ll install (with a few restarts in between). Fill in some login details afterwards and your in.
Other Steps
Not quite done. You’ll need to install an anti virus. I recommend http://free.avg.com . Update it regularly. Update windows by typing ‘Windows Update’ into the start bar. And install guest additions. Consult VBox documentation for that. Doing do will make the OS faster, allow full screen usage, and allow you mouse to go from the Mac to Windows and back without needing to focus on or the other.
Questions?
If you have any issues/suggestions, post a comment.
