VirtualSafari: a web-based front end to Apple's browser

If you're building a website without a Mac on hand, but need to test how it performs in Apple's Safari web browser, a mere screenshot of how it renders might not be enough. Since a Mac isn't lying around for hands-on testing, what's a web designer to do? Why, install VirtualSafari on your own server, of course. VirtualSafari is a web-based front end to WebKit, the open source rendering engine behind Apple's browser. Setting this up to might not be for the faint of heart (instructions are included in the download), but if you follow through, you'll have the proper testing grounds for making sure your sites are ready for prime time on a Mac - sans the Mac. This could be a handy tool for designers who want or need to consider the Mac constituency, especially since Safari's market share is on the rise, and WebKit powers more popular Mac OS X browsers than just Safari; OmniWeb (random trivia: it beat Netscape by a year with image support) and Shiira also ride the WebKit wave.

VirtualSafari is provided free from Sveinbjorn Thordarson's site, where he (as you might expect) hosts a test copy.

Tags: apple, browser, freeware, open source, OpenSource, safari, server, test, testing, virtual, web, webkit