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User Agent Switcher keeps Ubuntu usable at College

Posted by odat on · 7 comments
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To me this inconsistency is a true sign that computer discrimination and software profiling not only exists but should be a very big concern for all of us. There is no other reason that the Pearson system works with a Linux operating system sporting Firefox except for their Microsoft based computer course which they claim doesn't work with anything but Microsoft which is actually untrue.

The real twist to this story is that MyITLab is a part of the Pearson Education, Inc. which many different college courses use as their online lab of some kind. The Pearson Education systems is also used by my Algebra class under the name CourseCompass which logs me into the exact same system but unlike MyITLab it doesn't care or complain of the operating system or browser.

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Comments (7)

chalbersma ·
I have to change Ident's a bit for my college too. It sux but Opera makes it easy. Although why my college still insits on frames is beyond me...
bigg ·
Unless I missed it, the author does not say which college. Obviously not a good one. If you're taking courses from a computer science department for which Internet Explorer is required, run away as fast as possible. All the tuition you're paying is wasted. Serious tags.
tracyanne ·
From myITlab

Home Diagnostic Tool Kit

The Home Diagnostic Tool Kit will assist students running myitlab at home to ensure their system is set up to run myitlab at optimum performance. The tool performs a series of diagnostic checks on the machine and then provides feedback.

To run the Home Diagnostic Tool, you need to download the homediagnostic.exe file (396 KB) to your hard drive. Follow the steps below to download and run the Home Diagnostic Tool Kit. For more detailed instructions, click here. 1. Access the Home Diagnostic Tool Kit at http://www.myitlab.com/assets/applications/homediagnostic.ex... 2. When prompted, click the Save button. 3. Save the file homediagnostic.exe to a location on your Desktop (or other location on your hard drive). 4. Close Internet Explorer. 5. Locate the file homediagnostic.exe on your Desktop (or other location on your hard drive) and then double-click it. 6. Click Scan Machine to run the diagnostic tool. 7. If Warning appears for any of the checks, click on the word Warning for further help and instructions from Pearson’s support resources. 8. Once you have adjusted settings for any Warnings, scan your machine again. 9. You can save a copy of the diagnostic report to your hard drive by clicking Export Report. 10. Once all checks pass, you are ready to run myitlab!

Yep, needs IE, and I don't have it installed under WINE.
gus3 ·
How does downloading a file translate into "needs IE"?

Sounds more like incompetent documentation writing to me.
tracyanne ·
I ran the homediagnostic.exe under wine. It reports that I pass on a lot of things, but where I don't pass, I have to go to "here" (a link to the website), it attempts to load IE.The Link is embedded in the compiled binary. I suppose one might create a link to Firefox.
Sander_Marechal ·
Tracyanne: if you really want to complete it, try ies4linux: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

tracyanne ·
Yeah Sander I know. I was actually looking to see how much it depends on IE.

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