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Over the years, I've taught more than a handful of public workshops. Often, I'm teaching beginner sessions, and the learners are using laptops provided by work. The usual setup is a Windows environment locked down tighter than an airport security screening process. Fortunately, there is a public web site which allows anyone to evaluate Drupal projects online – free.

Simplytest.me is a web site created and maintained by Patrick Drotleff. The site allows individuals to create a sandbox with a Drupal installation which lasts 30 minutes (a counter appears in the bottom corner of the window for your convenience). As part of the installation process you may choose a specific version of Drupal, additional modules, and even specific patches to apply to your temporary Drupal installation.

The process is incredibly simple.

Step 1. Navigate to http://simplytest.me/

Step 2. In the text field, enter the name of the project you wish to test. Assuming you want to test Drupal core, you would simply type “Drupal”. A list of projects will appear: select “Drupal core”.

Step 3. Select the version of Drupal you would like to test. Most versions of Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 are available for testing.

Step 4. You may, optionally, specify additional modules, themes, or patches that you would like to test.

Step 5. Once you've selected the projects and patches you'd like to install, proceed with the installation by clicking “Launch sandbox”.

The relevant projects will be downloaded and your environment will be initialized.