I just read an interesting article about Windows 7 - it will include a virtual machine to run windows XP for backwards compatibility.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...

The article points out that this has the drawback of extra maintenance.

I'd have to agree with this - it's one of the big downsides of using virtual machines for testing -  with three virtual Windows' I find myslef constantly having to run updates.

As well as following standards such as those laid down by www.w3.org I always try and test websites I develop across a range of browsers. Despite improvements in compatibility in recent years, browsers do still vary in implementation and even relatively minor browsers are still used by large numbers of people.

However all this testing can be hard to keep on top of and sometimes I just have to push out what seems like a small code change with only limited testing.

I decided to upgrade  VirtualBox because the newer versions have much better support for networks that allow virtual computer to be visible on the real network.

But after upgrade I encountered the error

"HostInterface': The attribute 'name' is required but missing."

It seems others have had similar issues

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=58720&sid=f3759d4d938c30120...

I resolved this by deleting this entry:

One of the trial of web development is ensuring that your site works across a range of browsers.

Standards compliance is an important part of this - but testing cannot be avoided.

I work on Ubuntu, and use VirtualBox together with a licensed copy of Windows XP to test in a Windows environment, which also allows me to at least test the Windows version of Safari.

Unfortunately Microsoft's decision to tie Internet Explorer closely with the operating system means that it isn't possible to install IE6 alongside IE7.