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Yes the Multi IE works for me. Best little program I have found in years. All versions of IE running on the same computer at the same time. So far no issues or conflicks found. Not sure how it works but it does.

I mainly use Linux, then Windows when I need to and it works quite well.

I have my server set up on the nix box along with Opera, FF and ies4linux to use IE6, then I have IE7 on the Windows box (then of course browsrcamp or something for Safari).

That gives me a nice stable working environment with half-decent browser coverage.

My development platform for the last three years has been a portable mac. This is primarily for two reasons: The unix backend and the polished frontend. It’s really convenient when my test environment is on my macbook and I can take it with me wherever I am (I spend a lot of time on the bus), I would have less assurance that what I code for a Windows environment would also work for a Unix environment code-untested. The frontend seems to have a greater emphasis on stupid-simple interface elements that don’t give me uneeded options or chrome, which as a design minimalist, I appreciate. There are design decisions in OS X that constantly bother me (the dock is horribly inferior to Start Menu + Taskbar), but there’s so much that’s done correctly that I’m able to overlook them.

I have a monster of a windows desktop at home that I use for gaming, rendering, and 3d graphics and not much else. It’s getting a bit long in the tooth, and I’ll be building a new Shuttle PC-based Core 2 Quad machine in a month or two on which I plan to install Vista. I might also try to install OSX86 on it and have a dual-booting hackintosh.

I’ve tried switching to Linux a dozen times since I was first exposed to it in 2001, and have been uncomfortable with it every time. It used to be hardware incompatabilities or window manager bugs or impossibly difficult-to-install software. Ubuntu gets really close to what I want in a desktop OS, but it misses all the critical details that kill the system for me: I can’t play DVDs/MP3s out of the box, and even if I could, the audio players all suck. I have to download/compile/install graphics drivers. There are four configuration panels that all do basically the same thing, but there’s no configuration panels for huge swaths of options that need to be set in order for software to behave correctly. Most irritating is that every time I ran a software update, it would revert my GRUB config file to the installation default and make my system unbootable. A desktop machine, even if it’s a work machine, should be entirely transparent from the moment it’s installed to the day it’s reformatted; The amount of maintenence I had to do on Linux boxes turned me off to using it regularly.

Note: The Microsoft-endorsed method of testing on multiple versions of IE is using the free windows version of VirtualPC with a Windows XP image with IE6 or IE7 installed. I’ve tried running the MultiIE and it always seems to implode on me about a week after installation, but YMMV.

adamp1: Thanks for that Multi-IE link, got it all running this afternoon and works a treat! Its sad to look at the interface for some of the older versions and actually remember them! Things like having the search engine in the side menu and Altavista! 😛

I haven’t quite come up with an “ideal” solution for doing IE6 and IE7 testing on the same computer. We’ve been toying with setups at work for a while - one of the guys almost had IE6 and IE7 running side-by-side, but it turned out to be bad news for the registry and he had to pull it all apart and put it back together again (the registry that is).

You might want to try this Multi IE. I use it to test at the moment. Seems to work OK for me. Lets you install IE3,4,5,6 all at once.

Well it seems so far that no one has owned up to using Vista so far.

I use Microsoft Virtual PC.  MS provides a free image with IE6 loaded.  This way I can have IE7 installed on my XP and run the image when I want to test IE6.  If you want the IE6 image to be able to access localhost correctly, remember to set up httpd.conf on your main install.  You may have to set up etc/hosts on your virtual image as well.

I use both Windows and a Mac now, and have used Linux before but not anymore since for web dev work and it really doesn’t matter which one you use for that.

Personally I don’t see what all the bickering and fanboydom is about. The Mac’s polished style and very nice little details not readily available in any Windows box or laptop (like a magneic adaptor, scrolling with 2 fingers from the trackpad, auto-illumination of keyboard depending on lighting conditions and a bunch of other niceties) make it a pleasure to use, but productivity-wise just that big a deal at all; at least that’s just my impression.

It’s hard not to want using Windows (even if most people won’t admit it) with all the products out there that may yet take a long time to transition to the Mac as a native app. Still, there’s BootCamp and Parallels (which I adore), so if you really have to choose between the three, for dev work go for windows. For aesthetics and pampering yourself get a Mac. In the end, it’s a matter of taste and what you’re really after.

i think ill be the first one here to chime in and say im running vista. im running vista on my laptop and i really havnt found much wrong with it. it is a resource hog but if you have 2gb of ram and a decent processor you should be fine with anything your doing with development. i used a little tool called vistamanager and it really is a nice tool. it allows you to customize and set a variety of options that you would find all over the system in one program and allows you to clean your registry, files, etc.

i have always had getting a macbook pro in the back of my mind just because ive only used OSX a couple of times and i didnt mind it. i just cant see spending 2000 on a laptop that i can make on dell for around 1100. if i ever do find some money or find a macbook for cheap i just may try it. even though it wont run my zune software….  :(

I haven’t quite come up with an “ideal” solution for doing IE6 and IE7 testing on the same computer. We’ve been toying with setups at work for a while - one of the guys almost had IE6 and IE7 running side-by-side, but it turned out to be bad news for the registry and he had to pull it all apart and put it back together again (the registry that is).

Download the firefox plugin IETab which for me always seems to be the same as IE6 and then install IE7.

Yeah, we’ve tried that… It’s problematic and not 100% reliable (it doesn’t render things exactly the same way as IE).

I have this problem right now. I love OSX. But I can’t stand the hardware (sorry guys, it’s just too pricy for what you get.) I prefer to build my own system so I know exactly what’s in it. That means I can use either Windows or Linux. Linux isn’t right now me, tried it couldn’t get the hand of it. Although, I do support Ubuntu.

I really wish Apple would open up and allow anyone to install OSX on any hardware. It is possible because there are people running osx on non apple hardware. I was one of them.

As for vista.. Sure it looks nice, but it’s a royal pain in the ass.

@dawnerd - I don’t think you will see Apple open up their software to other hardware for a very long time let alone at all (certainly not while Steve Jobs is CEO anyway). Why? Well, one of their core philosophies is “If you want to build great software, you should build your own hardware”; the very reason they’re able to do things that other vendors only dream of is because they have complete control over a system from end to end. If they add a feature that requires some tricky drivers or the ability to tap into the hardware they can do it, because they don’t need to rely on third parties to make the changes. Nor do they have to be too concerned with legacy systems.

@Beren

i 100% agree with you!

Well, I took the advice of the IE team and installed Virtual PC with an XP SP2 + IE6 VM and crikey is it fast! I had previously tried doing the same thing with VMWare and it would crawl along at an unusable pace, but I guess the Virtual PC system ties in a lot better with the Windows API’s or something cause it’s made me quite the happy camper.

I’m all about VIM, i could be using vim in win/linux/mac, but I use mac since it provides the most useful tools and the most pleasing user experience. I can’t work w/o CSSedit/Transmit either. TBH I don’t see how people can do dev work in windows…i just can’t.

I’m using Windows, OS X and Linux.

I’m migrating my Php, MySQL, Apache sites over to my Mac. I got tired of waiting for Linux to really address desktop functionality so that they could compete with Windows. As it’s been said many times already OS X is BSD based so it’s very much like Linux as a backend with a very useable front end.

Yes Mac hardware is expensive, but as Apple are supporting a much smaller set of hardware it’s easier for them to ensure that the software is stable. I have had both Panther and Tiger and my Macs haven’t crashed once. Software installation and de-installation is so much less troublesome with OS X than with Windows.

If you’re trying to make money out of writing web software, the extra cost of the Apple hardware is well worth the stability and flexibility of OS X especially on Intel.

When I work on a Windows box, I miss all the Unix / Linux tools that are just part of the OS that make programming easier, when I’m on Linux I miss the usability of the GUI that Windows has, I’ve now found that I can get both by using OS X.

Unfortunately with the cost of a Mac being so high, it’s difficult for people to try a Mac and find out for themselves if they like it or not. I think most Macheads have tried Windows purely because that’s what they get exposed to at School or Work. If you live near an Apple store go in and play with one. The Apple store in Regent street London is like a big Internet cafe, most of the people trying out the hardware there are using it to check their Emails, browse the Net and catch up on IM for free.

That’s the other thing at an Apple store, you can get free training, just turn up and sit through one of the free sessions, you have free access to the Net via WiFi sitting in a comfortable chair while someone gives you a free tutorial. Check out http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/ to get an idea of the sessions. If only Microsoft would open a store giving similar free courses !!

You have to find what works for you, I’ve tried quite a few, from CP/M, DR-DOS, MS-DOS, Gem, Windows from Ver 1.0 all the way through, any number of Unix variants, Aix, Solaris, SCO, Linux - most of them and OS X, they all have strengths and weaknesses. My personal recommendation for a Web developer would be to try a Mac running OS X and Parallels.