Berta says "no", I'm sure, but it sounds like a spark of an idea. How else am I to test some of this web stuff? Browsercam seems like a good idea, but it costs money. Presumably it would cost less than a whole Mac, but would it be fast and available enough?
And where does one get a junker Mac for cheap? It wouldn't be my main PC, so it's just going to sit dormant on the shelf until I need it. It should probably share a KVM switch with my PC.
Or maybe I could use some kind of Virtual Mac software. Does that exist? Does it work well? All I need to do is test Safari, you see...
I agree, it sounds like you need a mac mini, they're only £399 ($499), which is better than getting an iBook, they cost nearly a grand US...and to add a little mac envy, which is always good...mac os x, I soo want an apple mac!
It sounds like you need a Mac mini. ^_-
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
There is a Mac emulator out there...PearPC is the main one. My take on it in a nutshell: good for cross platform testing, but you will want to put it on a pretty fast x86 machine to get a 200MHz equivilent G4. It may also take that machine up to 3 days to install! I am saving and planning a Mac system personally, iMac or Mini to start with.
I have a Performa 6200 that's gathering dust. It just might work...(macosxhints discussion, lowendmac.com info) Say the word, and it and its external CD-ROM might just have a more loving home. It served me well for years, and now I'm neglecting it like the bad MacMomma I am. ;)
Once you go Mac, you never go back. haha Seriously, I got a Mini to try it out, and have since bought an iBook, I loved it so much! Try PearPC, I have some good info on that, or go to lowendmac.com.
"It wouldn’t be my main PC, so it’s just going to sit dormant on the shelf until I need it."
That's what I said to myself too, but like all they switchers say, there really is no looking back!
I'd suggest either a mac mini, or look out on ebay for a second hand iBook.
Although the sites that capture page screenshots in different OSes are nice for testing designs, it's not as helpful for testing script workings.
So, here's what I did...
I downloaded PearPC, obtained Mac OS X, and installed the whole thing and was done in two hours. The only thing that's not working yet is the network, which has to do with OpenVPN's network adapter/bridge thing not working right, but I may yet solve this problem. The Mac that I'm running in a Window on Windows XP runs pretty much flawlessly, and at a very decent speed. I would say that it's faster than the P-200 that I used to download all of the parts for this project (which I subsequently moved to my Athlon 64 3200+ for use), and I can still use my PC software while I'm goofing around with Safari.
So, now I don't need a Mac, and yet I have enough of a Mac that I can get done what I need. Nice, eh?
Try Dan Vine's iCapture - a free check of your sites in Safari: http://www.danvine.com/icapture/