Is Vista still pants and should I use XP to test PC browsers?

[mr_nabo]

Hi,

I'm about to either invest in Vista (probably cheapest edition) or XP so that I can use Parallels on my Mac to test my sites in IE6+, FF 2+ etc. on a PC.

Question is, should I go with Vista or XP or would it be worth just getting an old PC with it already installed from ebay?

Been wondering about the best way to test cross-browsers on a Mac is for a while...Any ideas?

Cheers

[bill]

Vista has never been that problematic on any of my systems. However if you're just running it in a virtual machine and only for browser testing, then I don't think it would really matter which OS you get.

Vista generally requires a bit more beefy hardware than XP.

[mr_nabo]

I'm running a Macbook Pro (2Ghz, 2gig RAM) which I use for making fairly cpu-intensive music as well, so hopefully it will be enough!

Thanks for getting back to me - just came across IE4OSX which I'm going to check out now, seems like a good alternative for Mac users (can't post the link as it's against TOS, but search for IE4OSX in Google and it should appear)

Cheers

[bill]

A virtual machine normally only takes a fraction of the machine's total resources in my experience. You wouldn't allocate it all. However, in your case that should be sufficient. You won't need the resources to run Vista's Aero graphics (which would require a large percentage of your resources.)