501derful.org
As I wrap up this 7 part series on how the ACS can benefit from moving away from an IE based mentality, I want to examine the current state of affairs when it comes to our own Web sites and how they handle other browsers. Here is a quick rundown:
BrandWizard : Works great with FireFox, all aspects look and work great
Paymentnet : You can code items, but can’t run monthly statements. It seems to crash when building PDF’s
FIC Website: Looks fine, but springboard sumbit does not work in FireFox
Online ACS CME: Looks nice but Multimedia CME is Windows Media based so it would not load audio
Schoohealth.info: Looks and works great. No problems
Content Mgmt System for Cancer.org: Only loads in IE. Would not work at all in other browsers
Kintera: Used for RFL Online and MSABC. Only works in IE. Would not even load
The Link: Our nationwide Intranet looks nice and seems to work great. Only problems are with the Java based Calendar functions
Siebel: Only works in IE. Will not load in other browsers
Feel free to try other sites I may have missed. As far as I can tell cancer.org and acscsn.org both work fine as does our National Workplace Wellness page FightCancer.org. Let me know what results you all get! Here’s to a future where we don’t have to rely on IE any more!
How could we ever switch until Siebel works with some alternate browser?
dc
Lotus Notes webmail doesn’t work with Firefox. btw, I’ve switched to Firefox on all our home computers. Long ago, I replaced Outlook Exdpress with Incredimail.
David – I’ve really enjoyed your postings on browsers. This is the catch-22 of free enterprise. Great options, but when a large amount of money is involved, folks use any method to maintain market share. In this case, Microsoft has key proprietary capabilities in I.E. that people choose to use when writing web software particularly because of how widespread I.E.’s usage is. Also, because Microsoft products are so heavily used in general, it’s products are the products of choice for hackers and those looking to have the largest impact from security loopholes.
I read the CERTs regarding I.E. from the department of homeland security, and almost every one has a patch from Microsoft, with only one suggesting you may want to utilize an alternative browser for untrusted sites. Mind you, that’s not a great thing to hear if you’re Bill Gates, but I heard he’s getting a half billion dollar tax break a year from the same administration that put out the CERT.
As far as ACS goes, as your testing indicates, there are a lot of companies’ products that we use which require I.E. to work properly. Unfortunately, with Microsoft’s huge market share, it will take a huge concerted effort in the whole industry to truly change the reliance on Microsoft. I suspect it will take several huge or one monumental crisis where their software is at fault to truly make a shift. Or, if the government ever does deem Microsoft a monopoly and breaks them up, we could end up with better competition. Look at AT&T.
All this said, I’ve downloaded 2 of the alternative browsers and really like some of the new features – the tabs and integrated search are great. (Though reliance on Google for all your searching isn’t that much different than relying on Microsoft for your browsing…) But from a user standpoint, until all the sites I regularly use function equally well or better in another browser, I’m not likely to flip between browsers in the interim.
Thanks Tom! I hope to see you in here and posting more often. Feel free to pass these articles up the food chain all the way to Vic A. I would love to hear his take on all this..