8 ms·

Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

144 points by swombat 16y ago

swombat 16y ago
I am running IE6, 7 and 8 in parallel on the same windows install. Properly, without IETester and its glitches. As a web developer, this is a pretty awesome find. Basically, it means that instead of needing to run 3 VirtualBoxes (4, soon), one for each version of IE, I can now run just one, thus saving me a gig of RAM and a lot of performance.
- tamersalama 16y ago
  Just be careful. I've used to test against their IE6 and few things (CSS related) weren't working. Had to use MS own virtual IE6 for a more proper rendering. Awesome service.
  - AjJi 16y ago
    I don't remember having such issues with spoon, it is more common in IETester though. Do you have some examples?
    - tamersalama 16y ago
      Overlays/z-index. Might be able to dig it up.
- odyniec 16y ago
  There's also MultipleIEs (http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE) -- I have it installed on a VirtualBox to run IE6 beside IE8. I mostly use it to test jQuery/JavaScript code and it suffices.
pclark 16y ago
does it work on mac?
- mgw 16y ago
  No. At least not on my builds of Chrome and FF.
- proee 16y ago
  Can I use Spoon on my Mac? Not yet! But we hope to bring Spoon to other platforms soon -- stay tuned! Note you can run Spoon on Mac using a Windows emulation product such as Parallels or VMware Fusion. http://www.spoon.net/Help/ http://www.spoon.net/Help/
sosuke 16y ago
I want to know how much Spoon Studio costs so I click the buy button and it wants me to register and login? I clicked around a little more but I couldn't find the cost. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my Mac either, on my Windows machine though it was really cool to see IE6 pop up!
- swombat 16y ago
  I heard someone say $2,395 (http://twitter.com/fowlduck/status/25408002640 http://twitter.com/fowlduck/status/25408002640) but I haven't verified that myself, so not sure... The plugin is free, however.
- z92 16y ago
  Checked it myself now. it's $2395 / user.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    At that price virtual machines sound like a steal. You could even buy a bunch of special purpose netbooks.
    - swombat 16y ago
      You don't have to pay to use this thing - only to develop for it.
- nonane 16y ago
  http://spoon.net/Developers/Studio-Pricing.aspx http://spoon.net/Developers/Studio-Pricing.aspx
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
AjJi 16y ago
I've been using it for a long time now (for IE6/7) and it is pretty good I must say, a great alternative to IETester.
timmorgan 16y ago
"The Spoon kernel is a lightweight implementation of core operating system APIs, including the filesystem, registry, process, and threading subsystems, completely implemented within the user-mode space, allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges." Two thoughts: 1. Wow, I cannot imagine how much work it would be to fake all the necessary Windows APIs for this to work. 2. IT managers everywhere should be afraid. Very afraid.
- rythie 16y ago
  It look Wine almost 15 years to get to the 1.0 release.
  - arethuza 16y ago
    Although to be fair to Wine they have had to build the entire stack - as far as I can see this only runs on Windows. Presumably emulating the Windows APIs on Windows is a lot easier than emulating them on a completely different underlying platform. Still - it's pretty cool.
    - Hoff 16y ago
      It's easier, and a pass-through model is not entirely new. DEC's fx!32 emulator was running Windows x86 code on Windows Alpha way back in 1996. And yes, fx!32 passed calls through to native Windows code, too.
      - arethuza 16y ago
        I remember having a PC emulator on a OSF/1 Alpha about 94 or so (SoftWindows?) - was perfectly usable.
- fname 16y ago
  allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges Isn't this what Google was looking to do with their Chrome Frame for IE? Sounds like an acquisition may be in order.
lpgauth 16y ago
Sorry, Spoon isn't available on your browser yet! Please try again from a different machine or browser. What is supported?
- CyrilMazur 16y ago
  At least not Chrome, Firefox, Safari nor Opera (tested on Mac)
- swombat 16y ago
  Windows only. But it means you only need one windows machine as opposed to multiple VMs.
ck2 16y ago
Isn't this the same group that years ago had downloadable virtualized copies of all the major browsers? Ah, yup, it used to be http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/ http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/ http://google.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:xenocode.com%2Fbrowsers http://google.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:xenocode.com%2F... They had firefox virtualized in 2007 http://web.archive.org/web/20070810063157/http://www.xenocode.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070810063157/http://www.xenocod... I'm curious if they are technically allowed to distribute IE though. I still have the old versions saved that did not need any of their "library" installed which leads me to believe that this new approach is just a control mechanism to make you visit their site. It's a shame their IE9 doesn't work on XP though, that would be a real coup.
- bherms 16y ago
  I remember using the xenocode sandbox... It was incredibly useful for web development.
  - ck2 16y ago
    Apparently they found a better business model with this, or so I assume.
kyenneti 16y ago
I have been using this for doing the browser compatibility testing. I use it on my windows machine. Its simple and works great..It worked better that IE tester. The only problem I noticed so far was, my anti virus( AVG) treats this as a virus and pops multiple messages.
borisk 16y ago
Similar to http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/ http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/
kenjackson 16y ago
How is this different than VMWare, Microsofts, and Citrix exisiting application virtualization products?
- 83457 16y ago
  it runs on the client?
- wtracy 16y ago
  It runs in a browser (sort of) and apparently it doesn't require having a full OS running virtualized.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    Maybe the browser is the difference, although I'm not sure how you run most apps in a browser. VMWare, MS, and Citrix all have app virtualization technology which will virtualize a single application, not requiring the full OS to be virtualized.
audionerd 16y ago
It's frustrating to be told your browser is unsupported, and not be given a list of the browsers that are. http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx
- swombat 16y ago
  It's a poor error message. What they really mean is your platform isn't supported. Windows browsers all seem to work.
  - pqs 16y ago
    Thanks, I'm using linux.
  - metachris 16y ago
    Too bad it works neither on Linux nor OSX. Would be nice to see the info about unsupported browsers earlier. I would love to try it!
    - aberkowitz 16y ago
      I tried to run it in WINE, but it did not work. It would be great if somebody implemented the required features for it to run.
- agotterer 16y ago
  Tried the newest versions of chrome and firefox. Both failed. I left the site. I assume this only works on IE (which I dont have on my mac).
  - tsycho 16y ago
    Worked perfectly on Chrome for me. PS> I am on Windows XP.
euroclydon 16y ago
It would be interesting to run IIS Express on spoon.
RobLach 16y ago
If these guys have been around since 2007 they should really consider putting a bit more effort into marketing.
evandavid 16y ago
I've been using spoon.net on and off for cross-browser testing for about 2 years. It's a decent product, but remarkably unstable. It's very common by the middle of the day that you I be able to launch an app from within Spoon, and if I look in the task manager, there is around 8 spoon.net processes locked up and using 100 odd megs of ram each. YMMV, but I've had this on many separate installs. To be honest, this situation has gotten bad enough that most of the time I just run separate machines with different IE versions and access them via RDP. When it works, however, it is very impressive.
- evandavid 16y ago
  "that you I be able to" = "that I won't be able to". I have no idea how that came out so wrong.
qeorge 16y ago
I use these frequently for browser testing. They are a godsend.
snprbob86 16y ago
Microsoft acquired Softricity a few years ago who had a product, SoftGrid, that did this. Kinda sad that it now only appears in a footnote on this page: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx
Renaud 16y ago
The issue I have with these app virtualisation technologies is that they all seem to work on the same pricing model: expensive user licenses are required, which pretty much dictates how I -as the developer- should sell and price the applications I distribute. It's cool technology that could be very useful in solving all sorts of deployment issues, but it's way too expensive. Having to track, pay and manage these royalties/user licenses offsets -at my lowly ISV level- any benefit these products may offer.
mohan 16y ago
fcsdfsdf
mohan 16y ago
weqweq

144 points by swombat 16y ago

I am running IE6, 7 and 8 in parallel on the same windows install. Properly, without IETester and its glitches. As a web developer, this is a pretty awesome find. Basically, it means that instead of needing to run 3 VirtualBoxes (4, soon), one for each version of IE, I can now run just one, thus saving me a gig of RAM and a lot of performance.

tamersalama 16y ago
Just be careful. I've used to test against their IE6 and few things (CSS related) weren't working. Had to use MS own virtual IE6 for a more proper rendering. Awesome service.
- AjJi 16y ago
  I don't remember having such issues with spoon, it is more common in IETester though. Do you have some examples?
  - tamersalama 16y ago
    Overlays/z-index. Might be able to dig it up.
odyniec 16y ago
There's also MultipleIEs (http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE) -- I have it installed on a VirtualBox to run IE6 beside IE8. I mostly use it to test jQuery/JavaScript code and it suffices.

pclark 16y ago

does it work on mac?

mgw 16y ago
No. At least not on my builds of Chrome and FF.
proee 16y ago
Can I use Spoon on my Mac? Not yet! But we hope to bring Spoon to other platforms soon -- stay tuned! Note you can run Spoon on Mac using a Windows emulation product such as Parallels or VMware Fusion. http://www.spoon.net/Help/ http://www.spoon.net/Help/

sosuke 16y ago

I want to know how much Spoon Studio costs so I click the buy button and it wants me to register and login? I clicked around a little more but I couldn't find the cost. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my Mac either, on my Windows machine though it was really cool to see IE6 pop up!

swombat 16y ago
I heard someone say $2,395 (http://twitter.com/fowlduck/status/25408002640 http://twitter.com/fowlduck/status/25408002640) but I haven't verified that myself, so not sure... The plugin is free, however.
z92 16y ago
Checked it myself now. it's $2395 / user.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  At that price virtual machines sound like a steal. You could even buy a bunch of special purpose netbooks.
  - swombat 16y ago
    You don't have to pay to use this thing - only to develop for it.
nonane 16y ago
http://spoon.net/Developers/Studio-Pricing.aspx http://spoon.net/Developers/Studio-Pricing.aspx
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

AjJi 16y ago

I've been using it for a long time now (for IE6/7) and it is pretty good I must say, a great alternative to IETester.

timmorgan 16y ago

"The Spoon kernel is a lightweight implementation of core operating system APIs, including the filesystem, registry, process, and threading subsystems, completely implemented within the user-mode space, allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges." Two thoughts: 1. Wow, I cannot imagine how much work it would be to fake all the necessary Windows APIs for this to work. 2. IT managers everywhere should be afraid. Very afraid.

rythie 16y ago
It look Wine almost 15 years to get to the 1.0 release.
- arethuza 16y ago
  Although to be fair to Wine they have had to build the entire stack - as far as I can see this only runs on Windows. Presumably emulating the Windows APIs on Windows is a lot easier than emulating them on a completely different underlying platform. Still - it's pretty cool.
  - Hoff 16y ago
    It's easier, and a pass-through model is not entirely new. DEC's fx!32 emulator was running Windows x86 code on Windows Alpha way back in 1996. And yes, fx!32 passed calls through to native Windows code, too.
    - arethuza 16y ago
      I remember having a PC emulator on a OSF/1 Alpha about 94 or so (SoftWindows?) - was perfectly usable.
fname 16y ago
allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges Isn't this what Google was looking to do with their Chrome Frame for IE? Sounds like an acquisition may be in order.

lpgauth 16y ago

Sorry, Spoon isn't available on your browser yet! Please try again from a different machine or browser. What is supported?

CyrilMazur 16y ago
At least not Chrome, Firefox, Safari nor Opera (tested on Mac)
swombat 16y ago
Windows only. But it means you only need one windows machine as opposed to multiple VMs.

ck2 16y ago

Isn't this the same group that years ago had downloadable virtualized copies of all the major browsers? Ah, yup, it used to be http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/ http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/ http://google.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:xenocode.com%2Fbrowsers http://google.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:xenocode.com%2F... They had firefox virtualized in 2007 http://web.archive.org/web/20070810063157/http://www.xenocode.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070810063157/http://www.xenocod... I'm curious if they are technically allowed to distribute IE though. I still have the old versions saved that did not need any of their "library" installed which leads me to believe that this new approach is just a control mechanism to make you visit their site. It's a shame their IE9 doesn't work on XP though, that would be a real coup.

bherms 16y ago
I remember using the xenocode sandbox... It was incredibly useful for web development.
- ck2 16y ago
  Apparently they found a better business model with this, or so I assume.

kyenneti 16y ago

I have been using this for doing the browser compatibility testing. I use it on my windows machine. Its simple and works great..It worked better that IE tester. The only problem I noticed so far was, my anti virus( AVG) treats this as a virus and pops multiple messages.

borisk 16y ago

Similar to http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/ http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/

kenjackson 16y ago

How is this different than VMWare, Microsofts, and Citrix exisiting application virtualization products?

83457 16y ago
it runs on the client?
wtracy 16y ago
It runs in a browser (sort of) and apparently it doesn't require having a full OS running virtualized.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Maybe the browser is the difference, although I'm not sure how you run most apps in a browser. VMWare, MS, and Citrix all have app virtualization technology which will virtualize a single application, not requiring the full OS to be virtualized.

audionerd 16y ago

It's frustrating to be told your browser is unsupported, and not be given a list of the browsers that are. http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx

swombat 16y ago
It's a poor error message. What they really mean is your platform isn't supported. Windows browsers all seem to work.
- pqs 16y ago
  Thanks, I'm using linux.
- metachris 16y ago
  Too bad it works neither on Linux nor OSX. Would be nice to see the info about unsupported browsers earlier. I would love to try it!
  - aberkowitz 16y ago
    I tried to run it in WINE, but it did not work. It would be great if somebody implemented the required features for it to run.
agotterer 16y ago
Tried the newest versions of chrome and firefox. Both failed. I left the site. I assume this only works on IE (which I dont have on my mac).
- tsycho 16y ago
  Worked perfectly on Chrome for me. PS> I am on Windows XP.

euroclydon 16y ago

It would be interesting to run IIS Express on spoon.

RobLach 16y ago

If these guys have been around since 2007 they should really consider putting a bit more effort into marketing.

evandavid 16y ago

I've been using spoon.net on and off for cross-browser testing for about 2 years. It's a decent product, but remarkably unstable. It's very common by the middle of the day that you I be able to launch an app from within Spoon, and if I look in the task manager, there is around 8 spoon.net processes locked up and using 100 odd megs of ram each. YMMV, but I've had this on many separate installs. To be honest, this situation has gotten bad enough that most of the time I just run separate machines with different IE versions and access them via RDP. When it works, however, it is very impressive.

evandavid 16y ago
"that you I be able to" = "that I won't be able to". I have no idea how that came out so wrong.

qeorge 16y ago

I use these frequently for browser testing. They are a godsend.

snprbob86 16y ago

Microsoft acquired Softricity a few years ago who had a product, SoftGrid, that did this. Kinda sad that it now only appears in a footnote on this page: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx

Renaud 16y ago

The issue I have with these app virtualisation technologies is that they all seem to work on the same pricing model: expensive user licenses are required, which pretty much dictates how I -as the developer- should sell and price the applications I distribute. It's cool technology that could be very useful in solving all sorts of deployment issues, but it's way too expensive. Having to track, pay and manage these royalties/user licenses offsets -at my lowly ISV level- any benefit these products may offer.

mohan 16y ago

fcsdfsdf

mohan 16y ago

weqweq