On Tuesday 02 November 2004 00:00, Carroll Grigsby wrote: > Tom: > The usual reason is that there are many websites which use the browser id > string to determine if you are using IE or not; if you aren't, you are > denied access. There are also others which restrict access to either IE or > Netscape. Now, if you are 100 per cent linux, you are left with three > choices: Lie to them, go somewhere else, or install Windows. Well, it turns > out that the first choice is often quite effective because many other > browsers can access many of those sites with no problems at all. Now -- > who's the bigger liar here? Me, or the MS guy who convinced the website > admin that he would have all sorts of problems if he allowed non-MS > browsers to access his website? Banks, in particular, are among the worst > offenders in this regard (but there are lots of other sites guilty of the > same stupidity).
To be fair, not all sites deny non-IE access out of spite or because they suspect problems so much as they do so for support reasons. For instance, a bank that offers to download bank statements directly from the browser to integrate with Quicken is likely to refuse to operate with other than IE because IE is integrated with Quicken and Quicken is Windows Only. They may just not want to go through the support nightmare of trying to explain to Mom and Pop why they can't get the stuff to work seamlessly on their non-IE browser. Not that they shouldn't be supporting their clients, however, support issues do tend to be less costly with a braindead (reinstall, reboot, reimage) support model OS. They should support alternates, but the reality is that they are under the same cost pressures as everyone else. You tend to support the biggest installed base and neglect the lesser installed base. Economics. Hopefully that will change. -- Bryan Phinney
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