Mac Setup to Test Applications in Every Possible Browser?

Question

What is the simplest/most-streamlined setup for testing apps in all of todays browsers?

• Safari 2, 3, 4 (and versions in between)
• Firefox 1, 2, 3 (and sub versions)
• IE 6, 7, 8, 9
• Opera 8, 9, 10
• Chrome

Is there some sort of program like the Ruby Version Manager (RVM) that allows you to install browsers at different versions and then just lists all the ones you have installed like this:

• Internet Explorer 6
• Internet Explorer 7
• Safari 3.2
• Safari 4.4 ...

And you can just click it from there and it opens. Something like that would be very helpful.

The main things I would like to streamline in my browser-compatibility workflow are:

1. Installing all the browsers I can think of and every version that's been known to cause problems.
2. Being able to easily find them and open them.
3. Being able to test Internet Explorer on a Mac without running Windows (Parallels or VMWare).

Also, is there an Internet Explorer application for the mac so I don't have to use Parallels or VMWare Fusion (which are pretty heavy for running on a laptop while developing at the same time, running tests, etc).

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you're just wanting to see how the pages look (I expect you want more fully featured testing than this but I figured I'd provide what I know) then I suggest checking out browsershots.

Apart from that, I know Adobe BrowserLab (link) is pretty fully featured to do what you're talking about. I've never used it, but have planned to sit down one weekend and try it out.

Answer 2

There’s not a way to have multiple Safari version on one Mac, especially not if you want to simulate real-world conditions. For that you’ll have to have multiple Macs or use VirtualBox to emulate Mac OS X.