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One way to get around that is changing the user agent. I’ve never changed the user agent and had a loss of functionality, it always seems like they have a stupid user agent check just to make sure you’re using windows/chrome.
They have a really weird definition of “upgrade”
man i hate those online content that you MUST pay to do homework for the courses. They were over priced and back when i use them, they didnt even grade the homework correctly. E.g. the stupid Mastering series Mastering Physics, Mastering Chemistry and Cengage. I once spent 3 days on a problem because the system didnt like how I wrote the answers. So something like
- coordinate (3x,space herey)
instead of what they want:
- coordinate (3x,y)
pirate the book, they clearly don’t deserve your money
DRM - the bane of good user experience.
GOG nailed it - no DRM, low prices, convenience.
If most book publishers released their texts with new features (e.g. linking references, or adding additional notes to proofs/solutions) they’d get their sales. Instead they just slap DRM on and…
Maybe they should upgrade to support other OSes?
My bank blocks it completely. I can never log in without changing the user agent.
Change banks.
Oh absolutely not. Lmao. Do you know how much work that would need after being with them for 15 years?
It’s easier to spoof user agents.
Some websites do this.
Change the user agent to windows and it works.
Fuxk you piece of shit!
Amazon does this too. After you bought a movie you can’t watch it in full hd on Linux. User agent doesn’t help.
However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works…
The amazon might be due to drm, not OS racism, not that that’s a valid excuse
Drm was not the issue they just refused to run high quality on Linux.
Linux Browsers Support drm too.
“upgrade” no you mean emulate/switch.
I call it the “shame box.”
“Upgrade”
“Operating”
Just like they asked you to upgrade to ie in the 90s a d early 00s.
They can’t even use proper punctuation in their error messages? Is this that AAAA+ software I keep hearing about?
I fail to see any mistake. A comma belongs to either side of the word “Linux” there.
What about the period at the end of the sentence tho?
Titles, headers, and other web elements typically have punctuation standards that differ from the punctuation standards for body text.
Ughgggh. Am I gonna need to get a device I can put propriety garbage on for school?
I should be fine right? A software dev program couldn’t possible force you to use windows right?
I used a Windows VM when I was in college. Even if you are pursuing a computer science degree, yes, some professors assume/expect that everyone will be using Windows. Using a VM also has the added benefit of you being easily able to get rid of all the programs they made you install as well once the semester is over.
Computer science was all Linux at my college. Xubuntu, specifically.
CS for me was on SunOS / Solaris.
Tell us about punchcards again, grandpa! 😉
Just kidding. Solaris came out after I got my undergraduate degree…
Same.
Then I went to work for the company whose code Solaris was derived from. Back in time almost!
Comically, now, my C and Solaris experience is a marketable skill for reliable employment, albeit less fun.
That’s is really cool. There were a lot of Windows fanboys at my college unfortunately.
Unless the school that has the software dev program forces all their teachers to use this stuff…
I have this exact problem when I have to manage Apple devices for work. Nothing that user agent switcher can’t fix.
Pearson is a testing company. They use all sorts of sketchy shit under the guise of anti-cheating. Much of that requires specific plug-ins and stuff that only work in Windows.
Even if you could get it working, but they’ll likely just say you were cheating, and take the $300+ you paid to take that required test.
Pearson using all sorts of extremely invasive and questionable kernel-level access plugins to make sure people don’t open notes to cheat on their test on their computer. People just open their notes on another device. Or, you know, paper.
They use massively privacy-invading measures to ensure that you don’t do that. I don’t know about Pearson specifically, but there are horror stories from the “proctoring” industry about what people have to put up with.
For example: “facial detection, eye tracking, and algorithms that measure “anomalies” in metrics like head movement, mouse clicks, and scrolling rates to flag students exhibiting behavior that differs from the class norm” As is widely known, facial detection doesn’t work as well for dark-skinned people, and eye and head movement of so-called “normal people” is not fair to people who are not cheating, but not “normal”.
And you can’t leave your desk because you might have something out of camera sight to help you cheat. Straightforward right? Not really: “A University of Florida student felt forced to vomit at her desk when the proctor threatened to fail her if she left the screen (Harwell, 2020). She vomited at her desk in front of the stranger.”
Maybe you can get away with hiding notes on another device or paper, but they try hard to make that impossible. They want to you to get up and show them everything in the room before you start your test. They want to see your hands at all times, and even track your eye movements. If your eyes are always darting to a certain area off screen where you might have notes, they might interrupt your test and demand to be shown what you’re looking at. If you look up or off to the side when you’re thinking, they’re going to demand that you show them what you’re looking at too. If you think you can scroll through notes on your phone… maybe. But, they often demand that your hands be visible on-camera at all times.
It’s an arms race, and sometimes people do manage to cheat, but when that happens the proctoring companies just implement more and more outrageous surveillance.
When my wife did her online courses, she actually had to set up a webcam showing her face and hands while she did the tests.
But not the cheat sheet post-it notes she could have put all around her computer screen
They actually made her set it up so it shows her hands, face and screen at the same time.
It was a bitch to even find an angle to set it up, and then she got yelled at every time she leaned back too far.This is some dystopian shit. I never cheated at a test and wouldn’t even want to take a test under those dehumanizing conditions.
Just have her wear some AirPods, and read to her the notes. GG
The only solution for that is to proctor exams in person on their equipment. Miss me with all that nonsense. Makes me glad I’m done with schoolin’ for now…
Oh Pearson definitely does thst as well. But not everyone lives near or has reliable transit to a testing facility. Online testing is essentially a requirement for those people.
Linux will never become relevant on the desktop until its has better spyware support.
All it takes is one class action suit. Wait for it
This is probably just user-agent sniffing, right? I’d say swap it out to one that claims you’re on windows and see if that fixes it. Good luck :)
I do, my usual go to is windows 10 chrome latest
It’s kinda wild that an IT Certification company can’t handle Linux, but I’m sadly not surprised.
