Web developers have a duty to ensure their shiny new web site or application works on a variety of browsers. At the absolute minimum, that means Chrome/Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Ideally, Safari and a few mobile iOS and Android browsers would complete the job. Testing is not easy. It's laborious and our efforts are thwarted by the availability of browsers on our OS of choice. Windows/Linux users cannot install Safari and Mac/Linux users cannot install Internet Explorer. Services such as BrowserStack can help but are only suitable for basic testing because it's difficult to use developer tools. The most viable option is to use another PC or install the OS/browser in a virtual machine environment such as VirtualBox, VMware or Hyper-V. To their credit, Microsoft provide a range of VM images at modern.ie but the downloads can be several Gigabytes in size because they include the whole OS stack. They also expire after several months. It's not conducive to quick and dirty testing and, somewhat understandably, many developers don't bother. Fortunately, Microsoft has created a faster, slicker option. RemoteIE allows you run the latest version of Internet Explorer from the cloud on Windows, Mac, iOS or Android without having to install or manage a virtual machine. The free service is currently in beta but it works and is technically stunning!
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by Craig Buckler via SitePoint
