There is an interesting and useful tool available for testing on different systems and is found at Crossbrowsertesting.com. It allows users to test from Mac OS, Windows 98, Win XP, Win Vista and Ubuntu (Linux). This allows users to see what sites looks like on various operating systems – users can use a 5 minute testing plan for free or pay for priority requests (these are not done on a subscription basis; they are done based on how much time you would like to use the service). Users also have full administrative rights to the machines should they need to install anything.

If you only need to see what your site would look like on other operating systems/browsers you can use Browershots.org. It will allow users to get a screen grab of a URL from various browsers. Keep in mind that this does not allow users to actually browse the site or see how it functions when users interact with the site (available with Crossbrowsertesting), but it does provide you an image of what it looks like to users that are on the site using the selected system(s)

Once the screen grabs have taken place (can take several minutes to complete) you can see the screen shots displayed as thumbnails. Users can select the thumbnail and see it in a larger view on a new screen. Users are also provided the option of downloading a zip file of all the images.

Both of these can be useful items when needing to test on platforms you may not have immediate access to.