[ale] Incompetent corporate web sites (was: Ubuntu Linux ROCKS!)

[Richard Bronosky]

While I do find the stats at w3schools to be shocking. I am sobered by
the fact that a visit to w3schools implies that you are capable of and
interested in learning something. That quality alone cuts the
probability of using an MSFT browser, for anything other than bug
testing, to nearly zero.

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 6:30 PM, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
> On 2009, Oct, 04, , at 3:47 PM, Asher Vilensky wrote:
>> Very cool story.  And I want to turn our Gateway laptop
>> (Vista) into Ubuntu every day.  My only reservation is
>> that there are still too many [wimp] websites that are
>> built for IE only (my bank, insurance company,
>> health-care provider, etc) - exactly those you need the
>> most.  In order to make electronic deposits at my bank
>> I have to switch from my Macbook to an XP VM (with a
>> big screen, since the graphic is rigid).  Yikes.
>>
>> So, Linux gurus, is there a solution (or a workaround)
>> for such sites?
>>
>> -- Asher
>
> I'm sure other's have already chimed in with the standard
> "set your browser to advertise that it is IE" or "run
> IE under Wine" suggestions while I've been writing this
> reply, but these do nothing to address the core of the
> problem and only serve to perpetuate the technical and
> fiscal incompetence of the corporate services involved.
>
> The only effective solution here is to simply NOT do
> business with companies that are so technically
> incompetent that they refuse to support the open,
> public, international standards for internet services,
> with the point of making it VERY clear WHY you aren't
> doing business with them, and WHY you will actively
> discourage everyone you know from doing business
> with them.
>
> Having a bank restrict connections to their internet
> account access services by requiring customers to use
> an expensive, insecure Mafia$oft brand browser is the
> equivalent of telling the public that they will only
> accept deposits of legal tender that has been personally
> handled and autographed by Steve Balmer. It is a
> patently absurd policy.
>
> The cases of seeing these restrictions from insurance
> providers is even more galling, especially in health
> insurance.
>
> - In the case of auto and home owners insurance, these
> are very often required by law, and thus all financial
> and information exchange systems for these publicly
> licensed and regulated companies should be available
> as unrestricted, open and public services.
>
> - For the [rapidly decreasing numbers of] privileged
> Americans who even have access to a massively overpriced
> corporate rationed health insurance policy, it is almost
> always provided at the discretion of the employer
> without any real or open choice available to the
> individual.  Since these profiteering insurance
> providers and their denial of claims death panels
> stand as a blockade between you and your doctors and
> health care providers, it is literally a matter of
> life and death that all information and financial
> exchange systems involved should be available as
> unrestricted, open and public services.
>
> Lastly, any company who would restrict access to
> their public internet services to the use of expensive,
> proprietary IE web browsers is not only technically
> incompetent, they are fiscally incompetent as well.
> According to W3C statistics, they are excluding and/or
> being a major annoyance to the clear majority of their
> potential public customer base:
>
> <http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp>
>
> Clearly, any company whose web services don't conform
> to industry standards for open public accessibility is
> technically and fiscally incompetent. When those
> companies are providing essential or legally required
> public services, they are being ethically incompetent
> as well.  In all cases, these are companies that no
> one should be doing business with.
>
> I hope you'll share the names of the offenders on your
> "force me to use IE" list so we can all avoid doing
> business with them and can actively publicize their
> incompetence to others.
>
> peace
> aaron
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>



-- 
.!# RichardBronosky #!.