Apple - How can I use multiple browser versions at one time?

Firefox

Firefoxes is a shell scripts that will install all major versions of Firefox on OS X, and set up separate profiles so you can use them simultaneously. Currently it installs:

  • Firefox 2.0.0.20
  • Firefox 3.0.19
  • Firefox 3.5.9
  • Firefox 3.6.28
  • Firefox 4.0.1
  • Firefox 5.0.1
  • Firefox 6.0.1
  • Firefox 7.0.1
  • Firefox 8.0.1
  • Firefox 9.0.1
  • Firefox 10.0.2
  • Firefox 11.0
  • Firefox Beta
  • Firefox Aurora
  • Firefox Nightly
  • Firefox UX Nightly

You can set it up so it only installs the specific versions you want.

Optionally, the script can install Firebug for each version of Firefox too.

It will also set icons that contain the version number:

Safari

For Safari, check out Multi-Safari.

Chrome/Chromium

For Chrome/Chromium, install any version you want, change the app name from Chromium.app to e.g. Chromium 19.app for clarity, then disable auto-updates for that version.

Opera

Download old Opera versions here: ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/mac/

IE

Get VirtualBox and then run this ievms script. It will automatically download legal Windows images for testing purposes and set up virtual machines for every IE version you need.


MultiFirefox supports what you need, and seems to have good reviews. A drawback with it is that it doesn't support keeping multiple versions open simultaneously.


Internet Explorer

Of course there is Internet Explorer for Mac (PPC) but it's not very useful because it's based on different rendering engine (Tasman). It will run on OSX versions with Rosetta support. It can be downloaded from Internet Archive.

Some Windows Internet Explorer versions do work in wine (winetricks helps a lot):

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Safari

There is multi-safari project. There are 1.x - 4.x versions and they may work or not depending on your OSX version (look at compatibility grid on his site).

Firefox

I've found, that it's enough just to rename .app and then run it with different Firefox profiles.

  • download all required version
  • copy .apk`s in temporary place an rename them so you can distinguish one version from another
  • put all renamed version to /Applications folder
  • run needed firefox with -ProfileManager option and make a profile for each firefox (just in case)

Tags:

Safari

Firefox

Google Chrome

Web Browser

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