Jul132006The Ultimate Web Development Machine
Designing Web sites can be a real drag. If you’re using CSS and any of the current techniques for building CSS layouts, you know that what looks good in Firefox doesn’t always look good (at least immediately) in Internet Explorer. Building and testing Web sites that work consistently across browser and operating systems is always a chore. And the best testing setup includes both Mac and Windows, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. This usually means having a couple of computers you can switch between for testing Web designs. A waste of office space, money and time.
Fortunately, for me, I just got a new Mac Book Pro laptop. Its Intel chip is a real boon to Web designers, since it actually lets you run Windows on your Mac and test a Web site using Internet Explorer. Apple’s BootCamp software makes it easy to install Windows on the Mac, but it requires that you reboot each time you want to switch between OS X and Windows—kind of a pain.
But with a couple pieces of software it’s very easy to not only have OS X and Windows running side-by-side, but to easily switch between the two with a simple keyboard shortcut. Parallels Desktop lets you run Windows, and VirtueDesktops makes it easy to switch between the two operating systems. With Parallels you can even have multiple versions of Windows running side-by-side—the perfect way to test both Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7.
I’ve written an article on the topic for an upcoming issue of Macworld magazine. It’s scheduled for the November issue (meaning it’ll be on the newstands early October.) In the meantime, check out the video of this setup in action.
