I have taken a break from running Linux on my desktop today. I had to, my raid adapter does not like Linux. It likes crashing Linux and making it make weird loud noises. So, I’m regrouping and seeing if there is a different solution to my problem.

My current project is an intranet web development project. The target is IE6. Well, designing web “2.0” applications which target IE6 means you better “test on IE6”:http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html and often.

Microsoft’s “solution”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/11/30/ie6-and-ie7-running-on-a-single-machine.aspx is; run a virtual PC.

But.. my virtual PCs do not do “unity mode”:http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/ws/releasenotes_ws65_beta.html that well yet.

Except for one virtualization solution. Enter “colinux”:http://www.colinux.org/ and “andlinux”:http://www.andlinux.org/ :

IE6 running side by side as a proper native window on Windows Vista. Now, if I can only get cut-and-paste to work.

The basic steps I followed:

• Download andlinux, any version will do.
• Enter the shell and install “wine”:http://www.winehq.org/

apt-get install wine

• Install ie4linux

 
tar -xzvf .... 
./ie4linux --no-gui

We are done. Now we can bask in the glory of “Internet Explorer 6”:http://www.google.com/search?q=i+hate+ie6.