I am always looking for new and easy ways to test websites I have created in all the modern browsers, and recently stumbled across ‘spoon‘.

In a nutshell spoon gives you the ability to run any app virtually, with no complex setup or install.  Simply download and install the spoon plug-in and you’re ready to run a huge selection of open source apps for free including web browsers, media editors, audio players, office suites and the list goes on.

Obviously this appealed to me and certainly seemed like a great way to test my web projects;  with its support for all major versions of IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera it would make my life so much easier and bring a more consistent look to my designs across all platforms.  The great thing is that once you have downloaded and installed the plug-in you are only a few clicks away from running any open source app virtually, and for cross browser testing I have been hard pushed to find anything better.

As well as running free open source apps spoon does offer a premium service where developers are able to run and test their own applications.

However, as with most things there are always a few draw-backs.  spoon doesn’t support Mac; I made some inquiries regarding the development for this and was given the impression it would be quite some time before this was released, late 2011 was the advised date which is a shame for all those Mac based designers out there. Personally I do own a PC laptop, but this certainly doesn’t give me the best experience when viewing any of my sites.  I also found the service to be inconsistently slow for no reason but in its defence it is still far quicker than any of the alternatives such as browser shots.

spoon is certainly a step in the right direction for both app and cross-browser testing; I would just like to see the support for Mac hurried a little.

The European Competition Commission have forced Microsoft to offer alternative web browsers with their operating systems, which will be available from March 2010 in Europe. This will obviously confuse some of the less techy users but it may also achieve something I think we all want – the accelerated demise of Internet Explorer 6!

The new Windows update once installed will give the user a choice of browsers, including Google Chrome, Opera , Safari and best of all Firefox. Those that simply think Internet Explorer is the web may find this confusing and ultimately will select the safe IE option – but hey, at least they upgraded. IE6 has caused us web designers a lot of trouble over the last few years and this force update may just make it truly possible for the first time to stop supporting it completely. The IE7 and 8 updates have helped reduce IE6′s domination but an active choice may just do enough to finally make this out-of-date browser insignificant enough to finally be ignored, ultimately this will educate the masses to the infinitely better options available.

With any luck this will be what most web designer have been waiting for, yes, it may take a while but it’s a massive step in the right direction.