Get A Free Copy of Windows Server 2008 for Browser Testing

I hate Microsoft with a passion. That's why the logo on this post is upside down. They don't deserve the advertisement. I mean, I'm a developer, and I don't like being forced with dirty market tactics to pay for products I don't need or want, and I don't like a company that lied under oath and got away with it while you or I would be facing several years in federal prison doing hard labor for grand perjury.

Microsoft Vista is complete garbage. I have to use it because I have to do browser testing, and that's the only reason why I use it. Everything else I run comes through Ubuntu, even if I have spend an entire weekend fighting with my xorg.conf file on Linux just to get my attached monitor to be the most optimal resolution next to my laptop. I don't like any version of Windows, but of all of them, I could tolerate W2K the most because it didn't periodically call home like XP has been proven to do, and it didn't have an NSA backdoor like XP and Vista have.

So now I have a new laptop, and the very latest Ubuntu on it, and I installed Virtualbox on it. I then needed a Windows OS on it to run IE7 because IES4Linux doesn't quite run IE7 perfectly yet. I looked around in my office and the last Windows license I had was for W2K Server and W2K Pro workstation, and no XP licenses, and the Vista license I had was on my other laptop. So I then had to make a decision, and that was to purchase a copy of Windows Vista or Server 2008. I didn't like either of those decisions, so I went looking for a free route.

And that's when I discovered that M$ has a 240 day version of Windows Server 2008 for you to try. Just visit their site, search on Windows Server 2008, click Trial, and download your ISO file.

I downloaded mine and it works great inside Ubuntu with VirtualBox. This comes with IE7. Then, to test IE6 I use IES4Linux because that works well and the engine, after some testing I did, runs just fine. I then installed Opera in my VirtualBox instance and Safari as well. They say if you test your stuff on Safari for Windows, it will work 100% in Safari for Mac. So that eliminates me having to get a Mac.