Saturday, January 09, 2010

Linux + VirtualBox with Windows – [my] ideal combination for web development

Currently, for the development purposes I use Ubuntu 9.10 and most web applications developed need be tested on IEs 6,7,8. The problem is that I need different versions of IEs to test my xhtml/css/JavaScript. Altough, my PC is a dual boot (Ubuntu and XP) I don't want constantly dual boot between Windows and Linux, as this is quite distracting and annoying. The solution that works best for me is to have Internet Explorer Collection installed in Windows XP that runs (in Seamless Mode) on VirtualBox. Thanks to this, I can do all the coding and testing without the need to leave Ubuntu.


 

8 comments:

  1. You must be really stupid to use the slowest Firefox for web development. That is Linux runs Firefox, Thunderbird, Komodo editor and open office the slowest. All of the above application run much faster on windows. By the way Ubuntu runs just fine in VirtualBox on windows, except that it customarily blows up with every upgrade but in VirtualBox, unlike with "real" installations, you can remedy that in a click by using prior snapshot.

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  2. @Vi
    Thank you for you opinion. The reason I use Linux, or Ubuntu is that I prefer it over Windows. I need windows only for IEs and I don't mind that Firefox works slower on Linux. If my PC can handle VirtulBox it can also handle Firefox.

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  3. Also do not forget the tere are difenet versions of firefox in use out there(2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 3.6). And yes they all behave diferently. How long will it take to install all of the above mentioned versions of FF on your shmoobuntu? Compare that with windows.
    How long will it take to instal the latest beta Gimp 2.7 and then revert back to the stable release 2.6?
    Of course that can be done on Linux but by then I am already finished with my project on windows.
    I do not care about windows or linus I just want the best platform for running my applications and my chosen versions of them. Unfortunately Linux doesnt come even close to be usable in this respect.

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  4. @W
    Please do not take it personally. I am just bitter over Linux (like some are over their ex wife or girlfriend) which promised sooooooooo much via gazillions of sloppy writeups similar to your post all over the interwebs but delivered so disappointingly little while consuming so much of me. Even now from time to time I turn back to that bitch just to find out again and again that nothing has changed since the last time and that some things got even worse.

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  5. @Vi
    It's good that you prefer Windows over Linux. For me Linux + VirtualBox with Windows is an ideal configuration. I don't need Gimp 2.7,and if I needed it, I could always install it on WinXP inside VirtualBox. Linux gives me very comfortable place for setting my development lampp server, phpunit, subversion, and other stuff that I use for web development.

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  6. @Vi
    "gazillions of sloppy writeups similar to your post all over the interwebs but delivered so disappointingly " - so don't read them, vote them down, and write better ones. If you already do this, good for you and probably for the Internet.

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  7. Vi said:
    >Also do not forget the tere are difenet versions of firefox in use out there(2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 3.6).
    >And yes they all behave diferently. How long will it take to install all of the above mentioned
    >versions of FF on your shmoobuntu? Compare that with windows.

    You don't even have to install them on GNU/linux, just download, extract and run.

    >How long will it take to instal the latest beta Gimp 2.7 and then revert back to the stable release 2.6?

    The insallation of the beta may take a little bit longer, since you have to compile it, but you can install them next to each other, so reverting would take 0s.

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  8. @Vi

    I couldn't even find a Windows installer for Gimp betas. So I don't think the install would be any faster for one OS or another.

    Regarding speed, there's also swiftfox and chromium that are easily installable on Linux.

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