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Adobe Shuts Down Browser Testing Service BrowserLab

Posted by timothy on from the buy-laptops-and-racks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Adobe has shut down its BrowserLab service, used by many for testing content across multiple desktop platforms. The company pointed its customers to two alternatives: BrowserStack and Sauce Labs. BrowserLab offered cross-browser testing by producing screenshots of websites from various browsers across Windows and OS X platforms. It was very useful for developers looking to support as many different users as possible."

3 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Singular vs. plural by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's possible for a developer to own a computer, singular, but not computers, plural. In order to test on all browsers, one needs a Mac in addition to what already owns, and one needs copies of Windows with each version of Internet Explorer, because Microsoft isn't good at allowing IE versions to sit side-by-side.

    1. Re:Singular vs. plural by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Informative

      because Microsoft isn't good at allowing IE versions to sit side-by-side.

      And by that you mean you can't do it at all. MS sometimes is nice and supplies VMs with new versions of IE preinstalled, but not always.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  2. Re:12 GB and requires Windows 8 by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Informative

    "These images are specifically designed to run on Microsoft Virtual PC, and may or may not work in other hosting environments." I'd assume that Microsoft Virtual PC is available only for Windows. Users will need to buy a copy of Windows.

    ievms has automatically handled setting these images up under the cross-platform VirtualBox for years. Nevertheless, you were pointed at outdated tools. You should be looking at modern.ie, where Microsoft offer virtual images for multiple virtualisation systems running on Windows, Mac and Linux.

    So in order to test on every browser without having to own multiple computers, one would have to replace one's current computer with a Mac (to be able to run Safari for Mac)

    Doing a decent job of testing for web developers is expensive. Buying a Mac isn't a big deal. second-hand Mac Minis are cheap. It's the mobile devices you need to worry about - and no, something running on your computer is not an adequate substitute.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha