On Fri, 2007-01-26 at 10:10 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote: > On Fri, 2007-01-26 at 09:21 -0500, Joe Klemmer wrote: > > On Sun, 21 Jan 2007, Aaron Konstam wrote: > > > > > Let us forget about news sites for a minute. firefox will not allow you > > > to check the balance on your credit card by going to: www.citicards.com > > > > > > These things really have to be dealt with if Linux is to be a viable > > > alternative to Windows. > > > > Now this one is completely off base. The video issue was > > partially relative in that things might work better if FC came with all > > the proprietary codecs installed but if firefox doesn't work with > > citicards.com then it is 100% a problem with the site and nothing at all > > to do with firefox, fedora, linux or anything at all related to them. > This belated comment id not completely true. Of course part of the > problem is with the web site. But since firefox loads the web site in > Windows part of the problem is with firefox on Linux. Hi, Aaron, This is one view. However, Windows plays fast and loose with standards. This means that software that is not written to the standards will not load on browsers that adhere to the standards. One effect is that writing and testing software for Windows means that you have to go to Redmond and verify your software across many platforms. Another effect is that the Virtual Machine for Java that Microsoft used originally loosend Java Security, and left holes for intrusive software, as well as incompatibilities with existing standards driven by Sun. The effect that we see is that things that work on Windows break when run in a secure and standards compliant interface, thus Linux versions of Firefox may fail to run sites written on Windows that violate standards or just ignore conventions based on the standards (a programmer fault). Regards, Les H
