Are you forced to buy windows in order to solve certain tasks on the internet e.g. like certain banktasks and to update garmin gps maps and other

[Robert Heller]

At Sun, 14 Sep 2014 13:46:04 +0000 (UTC) "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> My conclusion is that in order to solve ALL tasks -and to use ALL 
> websites on the internet you are FORCED to always have windows installed 
> or to have an extra computer running windows.

Not me. I have never owned a computer running any version of MS-Windows (and 
never will).  The only non-Linux computer I own is a headless Mac Mini running 
MacOSX 10.7 (Lion) that I use as a build box (it has no keyboard, mouse, or 
monitor -- I connect to it via SSH and VNC (when I need to test a GUI 
program). I have never encountered a situation that was not doable under Linux. 
Of course, there are some things *I* never do at all: I don't do 'Word 
Processing' (I do all of my documentation preparation with LaTeX) or mess 
with spreadsheets.  I don't do PowerPoint presentations (I create slide shows 
with Beamer, a LaTeX package).  I do my bookkeeping with GnuCash.  I use Gimp 
(Photoshop replacement), Kino (a video editor), Audacity (a sound editor), 
MPlayer (a media player), XTrkCad (a model railroad layout CAD program), pcb 
(a PC Board Layout CAD program), xcircuit (an electronic circuit CAD program).

Oh, I don't play video games and generally have little interest in 3D 
animation (and don't need 3D acceleration for my video card).

> 
> Certain websites e.g. some online banking websites and other websites are 
> not to be used by linux only users?

I have had no any major issues using my on-line banking with Firefox under 
CentOS 5 (Linux). (But see below for issues with MS-Windows Server and IIS 
based website, particularly on-line banking.)  And as Linux distros go, CentOS 
5 is 'old', in that most of the packages are older versions.  But everything 
*still* works.

> 
> I would like to hear a proper statement about above from some of the 
> really clever internet experts.
> 
> If above is correct, then all sites with linux installation instructions 
> ALWAYS should inform, so new linux users will know?

*ANY* properly designed website (eg standards compliant) will work with a web
browser running under Linux. In fact, if the website supports Android (eg
non-Apple / non-Microsoft smart phones and tablets), it supports Linux, since
Android and ChromeOS are essentially Linux with a (thin) GUI layer. Any website
that supports iOS (i{Pod,Phone,Pad}) or {Mac}OSX, also supports UNIX (*BSD),
since iOS and {Mac}OSX are BSD with a (thin) GUI layer. At a certain level UNIX
== Linux == *BSD, in that all are Posix O/Ss (unlike MS-Windows, which is not
fully Posix compliant).  Google lowers a site's ranking if it fails to work 
properly on mobile devices -- this *effectively* means Google lowers a site's 
ranking if it fails to work properly on *linux*, but without specifically saying 
so.

Yes, there are a *few* (always broken!) websites that don't work properly on
non-MS-Windows systems. One should *always* complain, file a bug report, write
a negative review, etc. Sooner or later this will either embarrass the owner of
the site or effectively lower the popularity of the site or drive traffic
*away* from the site -- all of which will motivate the owner to fix things (or 
reduce the site to irrelevance).

The only issue *I* have ever had with specifically on-line banking websites is
due to a *known* problem with the MS-Windows tcp/ip stack and/or a 'bug' in
IIS: If the network connection times out, MS-Windows does NOT properly close
the connection, it just leaves it hanging (eg it abandons the connection).
This is only really an issue for me since I am on a dial-up connection, and
network timeouts are common. When this happens, Firefox 'hangs' (well the
thread that made the connection hangs) in a 'wait' state while reading the
abandoned network connection. Often this is a render blocking condition (I
don't get anything displayed). I usually can work around it by telling
firefox to go into 'offline mode' and then back on line (which causes Firefox
to kill off the 'dead' threads and continue).  Once I overcome these slow 
connection issues (or visit the on-line banking websites on my laptop at a 
high-speed WiFi hotspot, things work just fine -- yes, my laptop also runs 
only Linux, also CentOS 5).

> 
> THANKS?
> 
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services