Testing made easier in Internet Explorer

Biggest announcement for me and most people I know is:<p>'VMs for Mac and Linux coming soon.*'<p>On this page: <a href="http://www.modern.ie/virtualization-tools" rel="nofollow">http://www.modern.ie/virtualization-tools</a><p>Ie, no more screwing around with IEVMS and conversion scripts etc when trying to get a working copy of IE.<p>Alas latency makes Browserstack unusable for a lot of people.

Wow, Microsoft clearly gained a couple of points back for me.<p>First, beautifully designed page.<p>Second, partnering with a cool company rather than staying Microsoft-only-product.<p>Third, Agreeing that old browsers are a pain to deal with and providing solutions for devs.<p>Fourth, Agreeing that there are other OS!

They offer a 3 month trial of BrowserStack (who also have a free trial, but presumably its less than 3 months?) but it requires Facebook login.<p>When I tweeted to @ie to ask why this is the case, @browserstack replied saying "Just a way to manage sign-ups especially duplicate".<p>How is it possible that companies like Microsoft and Browserstack, both of whom have existing "signup" functionality, and one of whom already operates an "online profile" system, require Facebook for a trial like this?

&#62; VMs for Mac and Linux coming soon.<p>So you don't have to bother visiting that page.

Soooo no new tools released. Just a marketing Web Site for IE10. I was so excited for a great application to test with.

It's almost as if microsoft has a 5 year lag on processing developer complaints.

Unless something has changed. Don't these VMs expire ... and require a redownload / setup after a few months? Nothing to see here.

OK, maybe someone can explain. Have I been doing it wrong?<p>I have minimal Windows VMs built on VMWare to test with everything from ie6 to ie9 and a Windows 8 VM to test ie10. Same for Windows Safari and Firefox. With VMWare's workstation software you, effectively, get one browser per tab (well, one vm per tab) and testing is dead simple.<p>This wasn't so hard to setup at all. I can even remote-desktop into the machine hosting the VM's and test from another machine. The only cost were the Windows licenses, but we use Windows already, so that wasn't too bad.<p>Why would one want to pay to use these services, particularly when, if I understand it correctly, they offer static images of each browser as opposed to a real-time interaction?

As a designer, I can't really use this. It misses some of the minor design details that I can see in a real IE8 browser. It's like looking at your jpegs at 40% compression in Photoshop.

Just took a look at this in my lunch break, sent it to the QA team and we love it!<p>Expecting it to get passed to the boss to check if it will be a purchase soon.

Could someone please edit the title? It seems a bit on the overly redundant side, with the domain two times (three with HN's mention). Thanks.

I connected my facebook, put in the URL for my site and hit "Test"... and it took me to another registration page. Awesome.

Personally I like the IETester: <a href="http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage" rel="nofollow">http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage</a><p>Unfortunately, it runs just under Windows.

And now we learn the true reason MS ignored W3C all those years: To make money. Step 1: get people to use obsolete software. Step 2: license support.

Let's not forget Mogotest.com<p>I've used both Browserstack and Mogotest on and off the past few years and I have to admit its invaluable.

Never thought I'd say this but thank you Microsoft.

Nope. Nice try, but doesn't work.