Wednesday, September 20, 2006
_The Horror!



Oh, dear golly! Nooo! What are you doing?!?!

Relax. It's only a model. Or a virtual machine. Unfortunately, 90% of the world still uses Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, and the web design business requires testing with them.

I was fortunate enough to find that VMware Server 1.0 and its cohorts are now free. A quick install on my Linux server proved easy. Then it was a matter of digging up my old Windows 98 CD (the last version of Windows that I have personally purchased), and remembering that the CD is not bootable. Then it was a matter of finding a Windows 98 boot floppy, and remembering how to install Windows 98. Once that was all done, then I had a working Windows 98 install running in a VMware virutal machine. Next step, find some cash, and get me some more RAM for the server.

My old AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz (yes, they made them that slow) from 6 years ago finally quit. It was a long-lived Linux server (which I don't think ever had a Windows CD within 5m of it), and was due for retirement. So I bought a $129 pre-built PC from local gigantic electronics outlet. Unfortunately, being only $129, it only came with 128MB of PC3200 RAM. So I'll scrounge up some cash and get a couple more sticks.


Comments:

 
um... you can try free services like http://browsershots.org/


 
A store bought computer? Say it ain't so! That's horrible!


 
rob: That would work, except that I have to debug client-side scripting. Doesn't exactly work if I'm just getting screenshots.

emerson: It was way cheaper than getting it in pieces. And I didn't have to pay the Microsoft Tax -- it came with Linspire Linux.


 
What happened to your photo album? I need cake ideas :o)


 
Got any desire to buy some parts from me?

I have a dual processor (P3 1g) with 1g PC133 ram, a 20g SCSI160 drive, 32m video. It's quite fast with a multi-processor linux kernel installed. Let me know.


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