What “Key features” from an educational course could possibly require windows? It’s spying on you.
They just don’t want to support it to save dev time/money
Your operating system Ubuntu, is not supported.
Click here to upgrade to Arch, btw.
Its comical that in the last 25 years Linux has gone from a nerd-only tool to something that a 10 year old can install on an air-fryer and still we deal with this bs
Our website runs on a linux server, can you not use it though
Upgrade
Insults on top of incompetence, huh?
It’s Pearson.
bro, my math and calc professor made us use this for our course despite the fact that our college really wants profs to stop using 3rd party sites like these and just use Brightspace.
It was like $100 CAD too. And it’s a fucking WEBSITE. Why is windows required? Do you need to ring 0 access so I can solve a derivative or something???
Its about data collection under the guise of “security”
That kind of fuckery drove me off a company-sponsored training course.
Their deliberate word choice of “upgrade” to supported operating system is mildly infuriating.
They probably assume you are running something like Windows 7
Uhh
Your operating system, Linux, is not supported…
Right, but that could still be given dynamically by a library as “one of the unsupported ones”, getOSName(). They still might not have hard-coded “Linux is bad”.
I’d like to interject for a moment…
They know which operating system you use based on the user agent, so they know it’s Linux.
The program has the information, but that doesn’t mean the people that wrote the code felt it was worth their time to make the “upgrade” text inclusive to Linux, if they even considered the possibility of Linux.
Which will be “If not Windows 11 or Mac os then report os string”. I don’t think they specifically took the time to research different OS’s and list them.
They’re probably using a third party library to do user agent detection. I doubt anyone ever tested their code on Linux in the first place. They’re probably writing code like “if Windows version >= 10 or macOS version >= 10.14 or Android version > 10 or iOS version > 14” and Linux just happens to fall through because it has none of those versions.
Captain, what should we do? She’s not on the list.
Uhh
Your operating system, Linux, is not supported
This is like the Apple Business website, which only works in Safari, according to them. Used the User-Agent Switcher plugin, and the website/dashboard works just fine on Firefox in Linux.
You heard that OP? That’s how you do it, it’ll still work on Linux.
welp, I use Vivaldi without any user-agent switching and it works fine
I had this problem with Pearson. I got around it by making sure my bowser (librewolf) reported windows as my user agent. This was last semester for an online intro level course, ymmv
Edit: I see your other posts about how its not blocking access… Tbh I don’t remember checking, I just remember checking my browser settings haha. Guess I didn’t have to bother.
Pearson has an effective monopoly on teacher certification tests. I don’t understand why private companies get to make up so many of the rules.
Money makes might makes right
Haiku OS stumbles into the room, gags at the PearsonVue stench, beats a hasty retreat
Bonus points if it’s a Linux course
How tf do you not support an operating system. Like you gotta go out of your way to detect and block the operating system. Like if you put in 0 effort it would probably work but your company really spent money making their product less accessible for no reason.
Because Linux doesn’t have any legitimate programs to enforce the DRM on their files, presumably. Plus their .exes/.dmgs for companion tooling won’t work on Linux, unless you’re the kind of person smart enough to bypas this message.
To be honest, the code generating this message probably just checks if you’re on at least Windows 10 or macOS 14 to make sure their code works, and just echoes back the OS if it’s not supported (Android, iOS). I doubt anyone bothered testing for Linux on their website, let alone care to fix the problem.
I don’t really disagree with you. It’s dumb to go out of your way to block an OS that probably works just fine.
That said, the answer is probably “lawyers” and an attempt to limit liability. People rely on the course materials to work. If they don’t want to out the effort into testing to ensure that their software works on Linux, even if it would probably be fine, they may want to limit the possibility of being sued by someone when it somehow screws up their semester.
So, they out up a soft barrier that says “this may not work right” but let you use it anyway. They have deniability if something goes wrong while the savvy Linux user probably just laughs and changes their user agent.
Essentially, no one is hurt and the lawyers are happy.
The motivation from their side is not wanting to support Linux. There’s a difference between working and supported; support costs them money in terms of every phone call from every person for whom the material doesn’t work correctly, as that means paid trained staff on hand all the time whether you’re having linux issues right now or not. Imagine if one person a year had linux issues, requiring them to hire a full time linux tech with nothing to do but pick up the phone once a year. By putting a roadblock in front that people can get around, it can ‘work’ on that system while they have a leg to stand on to say no to any linux user who wants help they can’t provide.
They’re under a class-action lawsuit currently for using biometric data in a US state where it’s illegal. Just kinda interesting. https://www.bipatestsettlement.com/Home/FAQ
