Browser Tester for OS X & Classic

I work in an all-PC environment and am interested in purchasing an Apple machine to view how Mac browsers render our designs in IE and Safari.

Not considering the latest CPU's released by Apple, are there certain machines that would be better suited for this task than others? FOr example, I don't want to invest in a G3 if they are problematic with handling both OS X and Classic environments.

I'm interested in using the machine to test:
- IE browser in OS X
- Safari browser in OS X
- legacy browsers in Classic mode

It will not have any Adobe products or development software loaded on it. So it doesn't need to be a beefy machine.

I appreciate any feedback to help finetune my search for a machine that would fit my needs.

Kind regards,
KEN

Sure, you want to get a machine that reflects average Mac users. You don't want to get a G5, because G5 user base is very small percentage of Mac user base. I bet a lot of people still use G3, my guess would be at least 30% of all Mac users. The majority of users would own a G4, whether it's PowerMac, PowerBook, or iMac. Budget permitting, you might want to get a G3 and a G4. Probably not a bad idea as rainbow G3 iMac goes for $200 or so these days.

Thanks for the response, Molten Lava.

I'm not so much interested in the machine reflecting the normal Mac user. It's more an issue of the machine being able to handle running both Classic and OS X platforms without any performance issues (i.e. constant crashing, etc.)

If the general consensus is that, for example a G3 iMac can't handle the OS X system, I know not to invest my money in that as a possible testing station.

thx...

What exactly is the purpose of this test? I thought you wanted to see if your designs are rendered correctly on Mac. If you test in a configuration that no one or very few people use and it passes the test, what does it tell you? Nothing much. That's why I was suggesting a platform that reflects most Mac users. A common mistake in testing especially in performance testing is to ignore old hardware. There is a class of application, namely games, that demand the best and the latest hardware. They'll scoff at hardware older than 6 months as being obsolete. But most people out there do not have the latest hardware!!

Regarding hardware requirement for OS X, my gut feeling is that you need at least 500MHz processor, whether it's G3 or G4, in order to run OS X without too much performance problems. G3 and G4 are basically the same. The main difference is AltiVec or Velocity Engine included with G4. The performance is similar at the same clock rate.

You should also test mozilla and firefox... you don't need anything fancy... a blue and white G3 should do fine, but make sure that you get the latest OS X.3(legaly or illegaly [if you know what i mean )

Thanks ANARKHY,

Exactly what I was looking to confirm...my man!! Yes I always test in Moziilla (Firefox is actually mozilla) but my understanding is they don't make they only make that for PC, not MAC. I could be wrong.

Thanks again, now it's off to blow some money on another machine!

Actually, the G4 in your specs would be quite enough too for your test.

Browser for Mac (AFAIK):
OS X:
IE, Safari, Mozilla, Firefox, Camino

OS 9:
IE, Netscape, Mozilla (1.2)