Installing IE on Ubuntu Linux

This post is primarily for web designers and developers. I develop web sites and one issue I’ve been struggling with is a simple way to view cross-browser compatibility. In general, this means making sure a web site looks and behaves the same on a majority of the most common web browsers.

My issue was this… Working in Ubuntu, I could view a site in:

Firefox: sudo apt-get install firefox-3.0 (Warning: this is a Beta version!).
Opera: http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/02/03/installing-opera-on-ubuntu/
Safari: http://www.myscienceisbetter.info/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=safari&IncludeBlogs=1

But not in IE. I really question why it’s not freely available like the others? While I am aware that (in my opinion) IE is a real pain in the butt to design for (because they don’t follow the standards!), I still needed to see this in Ubuntu. I hate the idea of always having to power up an older Windows box, just to see the site in IE. So… there’s a nice solution for us Ubuntu Linux users:

Enter IEs4Linux!

It allows for the installation of IE 5, 5.5 and 6 on our Linux based systems. It’s a simple script that uses wine to enable IE. Also, it’s light weight in that “The IEs installations are smaller than usual because they include only the necessary files to have a good test browser (there is no Outlook, Media Player etc).” I’ve tried it and it works great! http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

As a side note, this might make some people (new users?)  more comfortable in Ubuntu? Myself, I prefer Firefox!