Browsershots Browser Compatibility Tool

For many projects I end up developing and testing my web applications on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. This strategy, though sufficient for testing common scenarios, does not take into account multiple operating systems, browser versions or additional browser vendors. Any of these factors might introduce compatibility issues. It would be very costly, boring and ultimately unrealistic to manually test against all of these possible variations.

This is where Browsershots enters the picture. This open source service (created by Johann C. Rocholl) generates screen shots of your web application running under your choice of over 40 web browsers that span 4 platforms.

I'm very pleased to have such a tool available for automating the leg work that goes into browser testing, especially for the less likely scenarios.

New Software Galore

It's amazing just how many new iterations of well-known server and browser software has been released in the last few months:

Apache 2.2
Php 5.1.x
MySql 5.0
Ruby On Rails 1.0
.NET 2.0
SQL Server 2005
Firefox 1.5

It will likely take a bit of time (and kicking the tires) before these technologies are considered ready for mass consumption by the server admins. All the same, they continue to signify a steady march forward for internet growth and development...