--- Kwan Lowe <kwan@digitalhermit.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 16:03, Kenneth W Hansen wrote:
> [snip]
> > First problem: The core part of our business is run
> > over the web on a SQL server. I'm not real well versed
> > with web pages and such, so I can't be real specific.
> > However, after trying some things on my own, and
> > finally talking with the individual who set it up, the
> > whole thing is designed to be run with IE6.I've tried
> > Mozilla and Opera, and can't get the pages to load
> > correctly. I've not yet tried to use Wine, but will
> > see if I can figure it out this weekend, and get IE to
> > run on Mandrake.
>
>
> > Here's my question: Are there any legalities or
> > licensing restrictions put in place by MS that will
> > cause problems if we were to use IE6 on a Linux box
> > commercially?
>
> There's at least one commercial company (codeweavers) that allows IE6
> to
> run on non-M$ platforms. They haven't been sued yet, AFAIK. I
> searched
> around on the Microsoft site but they don't seem to display the
> license
> unless you do the installation.
>
> > Also, are there any other Linux-compatible browsers
> > that may provide more "IE6-like" functionally? I don't
> > know if this is a Java function, or what. Sorry I
> > can't be more specific. As I said, this is a little
> > outside of my area of expertise.
> >
>
> Netscape, Opera, Konqueror all seem to work fine with
> standards-compliant html. Finding out if it's java related is of
> importance. Java will work fine with Netscape and Mozilla from my
> personal experience. Opera and Konqueror almost certainly support it.
>
>
> The next question: What is wrong with the pages that you're trying to
> load? Do you see any errors (missing graphics, javascript warnings)?
>
> Is it just a rendering problem (text not aligned correctly)? In this
> case, you can try changing the "user agent" string to something else
> such as "Internet Explorer" for that particular domain. It's possible
> that the server is serving up a different page for non-IE browsers.
>
> If you're having problems with forms you can try verifying your
> cookie
> acceptance and javascript policy.
>
> Now for a rant: My recommendation would be to fix the broken server
> that's pushing out non-compliant pages if at all possible. This will
> make your deployment much more flexible and prevent lock-in to that
> particular version of IE. It will almost certainly save money in the
> future. HTML should be browser-agnostic.
Halle-damn-lujah.
In most cases the problem is thus:
At design-time a company may be quite 'agnostic' as it relates to
developing a proper web application, (one of the biggest misconceptions
is that a web application needs to be bloated to be functional -
webstandards.org will suffice for grok). As the timeline for release
progresses, a multitude of interface 'features' are requested that
don't fit well with the existing whiteboard and napkin drawings (ahemm.
throw in a few shoddy UML drawings). Now, imo this is where the
problems begin that yield your current conundrum. Since the browser
landscape has been long since off-balance, (thanks so much Mark
Andreessen - hope you got a nice house on the beach - you sell out), in
IE's favor - the lazy project manager will allow his or her project to
implement these new feature requests using CSS or Javascript that is
either a) never tested on a browser other that IE until the last
moment, (an afterthought since all the developers use IE), or b)
specific to IE since developing for all browser-types seems silly since
you are only displacing 3% of your typical users. It's usually at this
point that the lazy project manager begins to convince himself and the
people in marketing that the likelihood of a mozilla / linux user is so
nill that it is not even on the 'radar screen'.
The sad thing, (well beyond the fact that I allow myself to get so
pissed over this issue), is that it results in a cycle effect that
further promotes IE on the desktop since no can use said application
without it.
blah.
-matt
>
>
>
>
> > Thanks
> > Ken
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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>
>
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