Internet Explorer 7 on Linux

An anonymous reader writes to mention WebExpose is running a quick guide to get Internet Explorer 7.0 running on Linux. From the article: "Microsoft conditional comments do work, unlike the standalone version of IE on Windows, so you will be able to develop and test webpages across almost all major browsers (IE 5-7, Firefox, Opera) on one Linux box! Also note that we will avoid Microsoft's Genuine Advantage download validation checks, so pure-Linux users will be able to finish the process without having to find a genuine Windows machine to download the IE7 setup file (the check is avoided legitimately, by the way)."

Re:Can I ask an obvious question without being fla

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

What is so compelling about IE7 that I'd want to go through any effort at all? I'm using Firefox 2.0something, it meets my needs. If I were to jump through hoops to install this on my linux box, what would that get for me?

Assuming you, like half of the people here, end up doing some Web development at some point, you get the ability to test those pages in IE7, which has about 50% of the market right now. Being able to do that without having to buy a copy of Windows is a pretty big deal to a lot of people.

Re:Can I ask an obvious question without being fla

[compro01]

1. web testing to make sure your pages work in IE (this is questionable as the article mentions different behavior"

2. accessing idiotically designed websites that require Internet explorer to access (with no good reason why they need it. i know of a few that work perfectly fine if you trick them into thinking it is IE, but otherwise they won't let you in.)

Re:Alpa PNG in other IEs?

[creimer]

It's a known bug with IE5/6 that they don't display PNG images correctly. I'd found the info on this page [positioniseverything.net] to be useful in regards to CSS hacks. You might need to use conditional comments to point to a non-PNG image. Gotta love Microsoft standards compliance.

Re:Alpa PNG in other IEs?

[tehwebguy]

He realizes this, he is saying that the workarounds that generally DO work in IE don't seem to when run under WINE:

the filter-based workarounds

to trick IE5.5 and IE6 into displaying alpha-transparent PNG images correctly just doesn't work/strong

Re:Alpa PNG in other IEs?

[Kelson]

There are ways to force IE 5.5 and IE 6 to display a PNG through another image library which does handle alpha transparency correctly. The one I usually use is PNG Behavior [eae.net], because it's unobtrusive -- the only change it requires is assigning a class to alpha PNGs and adding one proprietary CSS rule.

Basically, it replaces the image with a blank one, then loads a filter which displays the actual image in the background. Since the filter can display alpha transparency, you get an alpha-blended image. This works on native installations of IE 5.5 and IE6. On WINE, though, the filter doesn't work, so all it succeeds in is replacing the image with a blank.

(Oddly, I found the same thing happening to the stand-alone copies of IE on my Windows box when I upgraded from the IE7 release candidate to the final version. It prompted me to finally set up VirtualPC.)

Web DEVELOPMENT

[Derivin]

'so you will be able to develop and test webpages across almost all major browsers (IE 5-7, Firefox, Opera) on one Linux box!'

I want to write a web page and test it on all the browsers.
Currently you cant have IE7 and an earlier IE on the same windows machine.
Here we have 1 machine with all browsers.
Your other options are having multiple machines or not testing.

Better check the EULA first guys.

[fluffy99]

For those who have not read the IE7 EULA:

PLEASE NOTE: Microsoft Corporation (or based on where you live, one of its affiliates) licenses this supplement to you. You may use a copy of this supplement with each validly licensed copy of Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 software (the "software"). You may not use the supplement if you do not have a license for the software. The license terms for the software apply to your use of this supplement.

So you need to have a licensed copy of WXP or W2K3. Looks a little vaque whether you have to be running under the validly licensed OS, though.

Re:1 word from a professional web software develop

[binford2k]

http://browsershots.org/ [browsershots.org]

slow, but free. browsercam is $1000/year.

Re:Much faster way

[ChameleonDave]

As the author of ies4linux pointed out in the comment section of the linked site, there's a much faster way to get IE7 to work on Linux:

./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

Are you sure?

I've just entered the following:

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-latest.tar.gz [tatanka.com.br]
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux -beta-install-ie7

And it failed.

Update: it seems that you need two hyphens before the "beta". It is also necessary to download the special beta version of ies4linux, which is not linked to from the main ies4linux page.

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4 linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz [tatanka.com.br]
tar zxvf ies4linux-2.5beta3.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-2.5beta3
./ies4linux --beta-install-ie7

That should work, but I'm getting "An error occured when trying to cabextract some files."

Re:Can I ask an obvious question without being fla

[djh101010]

Can I have some of what you're drinking because it is obviously pretty damned strong.

Um, Starbucks "whatever flavor is free" in the machine at work.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual... that's just a few of the big-name banks and if you think for a minute that a handful of people asking when they're going to support Firefox is going to cause them to change their sites then you're out of your mind.

You missed my point. In _my_ experience, a call and some polite questioning got me to the right guy. He was aware of the problem, we discussed a few things, and he fixed his site. Direct personal experience, you see, nothing imaginary about it.

I work with all three banks on a daily basis developing direct intergrations in to my company's systems. These companies take 4 - 6 months to add a single new feature to any of their systems.

That may be, I believe, you, I've worked with Wells, Fifth Third, Chase, the other Chase, the other other Chase, and so on. But I'm not saying all banks will change when they're doing something stupid, I'm saying it's worth _trying_, and if they won't, they don't meet your needs so switch. Is one phone call from one guy likely to change a big bank? No, but in the case of the one I deal with, my call was at the right time, to the right person, and the outcome I wanted was released. In their case they were simply checking user-agent strings and blocking based on that. The thinking was "well, old versions of IE don't support the proper encryption." Which is true. So we talked about SSLCipherSuite settings, and the techie explained to the decision makers that doing it by crypto level made more sense than guessing at a system's crypto standard based on a browser's own identification of what it is. So if you get the right person, who knows what you're talking about and can make decisions and changes, go for it. If you can't, and they won't talk to you, (shrug) banking is a commodity product, plenty of others out there.