[Ubuntu-be] KBC-for-business and linux, pt2

[Tom Van Braeckel]

> Hey guys,
> 
> A while ago, I asked everyone for some hints/comments/suggestions about the 
> fact that my KBC-online-for-business didn't have support for Linux. A lot of 
> reactions later, I visited my KBC-agent and explained her this is of pretty 
> large importance to me, since I don't have any M$ boxes at all in my company. 
> She said the only thing she could do was prolong my old password-key 
> protected account some more, and file a complaint to the KBC tech staff. So 
> she did.
> 
> Now, this morning actually, I received a phone call from a technical KBC 
> employee, explaining to me that my complaint has been discussed, and he can 
> formally tell me there will be no support for any other OS than MS Windows.
> 
> Wait, there's more. He did have a solution ready for me (since he privately 
> uses Linux too, whow); install VirtualBox/VMware/... and run Windows on your 
> Linux box, use IE, and access your KBC-account like that... 

If you only need IE, you don't need a virtual machine, since you can run
IE with Wine. IEs4Linux (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux ) has an
easy solution to install the necessary software.

> Then, I told him 
> this isn't really a structural solution, since I don't have any MS license, 
> and I don't wanna pay 100+ euro, just to access my KBC-online account 
> (actually, I lied, I do have a license on my laptop, but I don't want to use 
> my laptop for checking my bank-statements, and the license is bound to that 
> machine). I continued asking him why it's so difficult for a company like KBC 
> to hire a couple of Linux-developers, and adapt/adopt their system, so it 
> works on Linux/Mac/Solaris/... too, after all, it's a _business_ account, and 
> I expect it to be more flexible than my personal one. He said: hey, it's not 
> us, blame Isabel, they're the ones that don't support other OS's. Once again, 
> I continued, asking him why other banks succeed where KBC seems to be 
> failing? "Well, because they don't use Isabel, we're the only one that are 
> providing this excellent service". I don't know about other banks, but to me, 
> this seems like a bold statement to make.
> 
> Another solution was to switch back to a regular account, and use their 
> regular login-apparatus instead. Seems like a stupid solution to me too; once 
> again, businesses want their banks to be more flexible.
> 
> Anyway, now I know there's no luck in having Linux-support for my 
> KBC-for-business. I think I'm going to look for another bank, at least for my 
> business account, since this is unacceptable.
> 
> Any suggestions?

I must say I haven't tried running IE in Linux though, since I don't
need it. I would change banks after rubbing this in their face a few
more times :-)


> 
> bram
>