Re: [libreoffice-users] There goes Open-Source in the White House

On 08/07/2011 04:16 AM, Stan Goodman wrote:
> On 08/07/2011 06:05 AM, soumalya ray wrote:
> > not only US govt;even indian govt organisations forces users to use MS
> > product.though obviously US is a much bigger cat.
> > for example,during my post-graduate entrance exam form filling up,the 
> > site (
> > www.aiimsexams.org) told me that only IE is allowed,nothing else.
> > so i used the useragent changer add-on in firefox and completed the
> > form!!!!!!!!!!!!
> > my question is simple-when firefox able to fill up the form with the
> > add-on,why are they forcing us to use IE?????i mailed them but nobody
> > replied.
>
> It could have been much worse. The designer of the form could just as 
> well have used MS-specific coding that would have made it impossible 
> to use any browser other than IE, thus insuring that only Windows 
> users could be accepted into the post-graduate program while Linus 
> users (members of a lower caste) would be excluded. Count your blessings.
>
> The reason nobody replied to you is that they think you are a crank or 
> madman.
My question is why would a designer use MS-specific coding?

I remember being told that people should never design a site that 
requires the user to use one browser over another.  You must test out 
your site to make sure it runs on several browsers to make it 
readable/usable to everyone.

That designer must have used software that creates IE specific code 
results.  They still exist, but I sure would not use one.  If he/she 
wrote the form in a specific scripting language, like Javascript, Perl, 
PHP, etc., then there should be no reason to create an IE specific 
coding for the form site.

Firefox has a large market share, 10-15%.  Then there is Mac users.  
There is about 10%, as I have read, of college users using the Mac.  IE 
only would stop those users from filling out that form, along with the 
Linux users.  This is a problem and the designer should have not caused it.

Yes there is an IE simulator add-on for Firefox, but how many people 
know about it?  I forgot about it till it was brought up.

I wonder if the designer was a MS fan and did not want any non-MS person 
to have an easy time filling out this required form?


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