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by chrismorgan 1592 days ago
> There are ways to do it effectively, of course, but no simple or pleasant ones.

What are they? I was mulling this over a few days ago, as there are occasional things I want to check on Safari or iOS Safari (also on macOS in general occasionally, but that’s far secondary), and so I looked into macOS VMs (expensive, because Apple’s software EULA requires any such provision to have a minimum of 24 hours), second hand late 2014 Mac Minis (the oldest that run the latest version of macOS), more special-purpose browser VM arrangements like SauceLabs which used to be not terribly expensive, that kind of thing.

I use Firefox primarily, and I’d like to be able to test things on Safari like I can with Chromium, but as far as I can tell, there is no free or inexpensive alternative: the alternatives are things like US$25 for a day or possibly month of an inferior experience (and try to make head or tails of the utterly deceptive pricing at https://checkout.macincloud.com/), or buying at least AU$450 (more typically AU$600) of second hand physical hardware (Mac Mini Late 2014, iPhone 6s, if you want to go with the oldest and cheapest, regardless of how much longer they may be supported; and that’s skipping an iPad; if you wanted to go with the cheapest new products, AU$1,778).

Look, if I cared about Internet Explorer still I could even download a VM from Microsoft specifically for the purpose of testing in IE! I wish Apple would likewise give me macOS and iOS VMs for Safari testing.

2 comments

I've heard some web developers use GNOME Web, which uses WebKit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Web

It's not 100% the same, but it's close.

We decided to throw a 2017 Macbook Air in the on top of the developer servers and make it accessible by VNC (through the built-in Screen Share option). Its not ideal, but it is COVID proof (remote working).
… but it looks like they go for somewhere in the vicinity of AU$650 on eBay. A Mac Mini is cheaper.

I’m happy to spend plenty of money on a computer that I will use extensively, but I’m not enamoured of the idea of spending hundreds of dollars for something I use only very occasionally.