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Are you tearing your hair out by trying to make your website be cross-browser compatible ? Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome… Multi-compatibility increases significantly the development time!

Moreover, cross-browser is always tricky to test when you haven’t the targeted browser version. And it goes without saying that having multiple versions of one browser on your computer is not so simple.

Fortunately, Spoon is here ! Behind this mysterious name is hidding a virtualization platform that lets you run desktop applications from the cloud. Ah ! Cloud computing ! There has been a lot of buzz around the concept lately, but also some bad press recently (Amazon’s cloud crash). You should be careful to review any privacy policies if your data is hosted by a third party.

With Spoon, you will be able to access many applications without having to worry about installing or updating them. Note that the files saved from applications are stored on your local hard drive then allowing you to keep a good control.

I previously take web browsers for examples, but there are many more applications available on Spoon, the list of software is growing every day. Include web browsers like Chrome, text editors such as OpenOffice, IDE like Eclipse, PDF viewers… There’s even a section dedicated to video games.

To start using Spoon, you must create a free account and install a plug-in (the first and only installation needed). At the moment, Spoon is only compatible with Windows operating system (XP, Vista, 7…).

Extra options are available such as desktop integration, files & folders synchronization. Some other options are not free, but the basic version will usually be enough. I invite you to read the official blog for more information.