Believe it or not, Mac snob that I am, I don’t own a copy of Virtual PC. I’ve always done my cross platform testing on an actual PC.

Right now the PC I use for cross platform testing isn’t in my house. This hasn’t been much of an issue in the past, however, things are starting to pick up a little, and I need to be able to test designs more immediately. It’s clearly not practical to pack up and drive ten minutes away to do so. Especially since I’m working very late at night.

The Mac purest in me says the solution to this is to grab a copy of Virtual PC and be done with it. But the realist in me isn’t so sure for a couple reasons.

First: user experience. Does Virtual PC really give an accurate enough representation of a Windows user experience? Can I be confident that cross platform bugs that are squashed in a virtual environment won’t resurface in the actual one? Will using it slow my humble 600MHz iBook down to a deathly crawl?

Second: cost. It seems to me, I could roll into Circuit City and pick up fairly low end PC which would not only accomplish what I need it to, but after rebates and what not, (probably) cost less than a new copy of Virtual PC and (possibly) give a more realistic experience. The drawbacks to that are the strings usually attached to those rebates and the need for desk space for the test machine. Those issues seem minor though, if I’d be able to create better, more accurate, bug-free work.

So what’s really better for cross platform testing, virtual or actual (PC)?