Test IE6 on Mac OS X

Question

I like to be able to fully test compatibility of my web pages on Mac OS X. I have installed Parallels desktop. It works fine, but it uses a lot a of resources...

So I would like to be able to test everything inside OS X. In fact I am looking for Explorer 6 for the Mac.

Any suggestions around?

Answer 1

IE 6 was never written for the Mac.

You might try VMWare Fusion instead of Parallels; you might have better results with resource usage.

The other solution, as other posters will indicate, is to run IE on OS X via Wine. However, IE 6 on Wine is nothing like guaranteed to be the same as running it on Windows via a VM (VMWare or Parallels). The Wine Apps DB lists IE 6 at the Bronze level (lowest level) of compatibility for Wine. This may not be how you want to validate your application on the IE platform.

Answer 2

Another option is to use a tool like BrowserShots (browsershots.org). I find it to be superb for basic compatibility testing. You don't need to install anything on your machine, and you can get on with something else while you wait for your screenshots to download.

Downside is you can't use it for full web application testing, but from your original question, I don't think you need this.