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Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material

⁨1235⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨okr765@lemmy.okr765.com⁩ to ⁨mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.okr765.com/pictrs/image/ebb2d3a9-fbb1-43cf-8b5f-ba1af3ef38c4.png

source

Comments

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  • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “upgrade”

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    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Upgrayedd. With two “d”'s.

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      • someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        A shareholder’s love is very different from that of a FOSS.

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      • StarMerchant938@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        “You are an unfit mother, your children have been placed in the custody of ’ CARLS JR.'”

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    • saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Aw, manggg. But I just upgraded to Linux last week’s. Shoot…

      Back to being treated like an idiot, force fed bloat, having no control over my own PC, and taking four steps to get everything done but often ending up down a rabbit hole of 19 step troubleshooting just to say, “Fuck it! Fine! I’ll accept the new feature” then being toured on the new feature after it crashes first then won’t let you login, but finally you do and THEN you’ve got your file open but forget what for by then, all the while it’s notifying you of updates constantly but you won’t run them because noticed it’s contains the AMD driver which is the old one so Adrenaline will stop working but that also means Windows somehow undid the group policy fucking around you had to do has somehow been undone and they say Linux is hard.while.Windows thinks I’m the fucking idiot and- RAAARRRGH!!!

      snaps back

      Huh, sorry. I get flashbacks still. The doctors say with the right therapy, I’ll be better in a year.

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      • ArchAengelus@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I felt this revulsion in my bones. :shudder:

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    • neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Haven’t you heard? Pearson’s requires at least Linux 2.

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      • joyjoy@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Let me just check something on my terminal.

        $ uname -sr
Linux 6.14.4-arch1-1

        I’m suspicious.

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      • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That came out in 1996.

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    • joyjoy@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This means they forgot platforms other than Windows exists. It’s likely they’re checking for currently supported systems and anything older is insecure, so blocked for your security.

      Likely something like this pseudocode

      function isPlatformVersionSupported(useragent) {
    // Windows XP is NT 5.1
    // Windows Vista is NT 6.0
    // Windows 7 is NT 6.1
    // Windows 8 is NT 6.2
    // Windows 8.1 is NT 6.3
    // Windows 10 and 11 is NT 10.0
    if (useragent.name == "Windows" && useragent.version.match(/Windows NT (6\.3|10)/)) {
        return true
    }

    // TODO: insert supported macos versions here

    return false
}
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    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I always hate this when it’s used to target Firefox.

      “upgrade to chrome”

      Like… What the fuck?

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      • AtariDump@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Just use a user agent switcher.

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    • Vespair@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The actual audacity

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  • Eggyhead@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Their deliberate word choice of “upgrade” to supported operating system is mildly infuriating.

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    • possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      They probably assume you are running something like Windows 7

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      • voodooattack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Uhh

        Your operating system, Linux, is not supported…

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      • AngryPancake@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        They know which operating system you use based on the user agent, so they know it’s Linux.

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    • noxypaws@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      we have wildly different definitions for “mildly”!

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  • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ll just change my browser agent then; you’re a fucking website, you don’t need to know which OS I’m using.

    It’s amazing how many “unsupported” web apps work perfectly fine once you change the UA. It’s often a completely arbitrary limitation so that they can hire less qualified support staff.

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    • janus2@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      and so they can use browser vulnerabilities features to collect more data on you

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      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Nope we don’t want to hire anyone who knows anything about Linux, no one uses Linux

        “Linux is unsupported”, that’ll work

        Everyone: uses a UA switcher

        “See? No one uses Linux, 100% of users are on Windows or MacOS”

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    • Irelephant@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A small publisher’s ebook platform recently started blocking firefox for me, did a bit of digging and found that if pages aren’t requested with the right headers (which work in chrome and msedge) it will respond with a 302, suggesting you go to another page which takes a few minutes and then times out.

      This is probably to stop scraping, and could be because I started testing some scraping scripts on it.

      Anyway, this hasn’t even stopped me scraping, I just copied the headers and use those in my script.

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      • Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I use this extension by a Firefox dev

        addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/…/chrome-mask/

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  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Upgrade

    Insults on top of incompetence, huh?

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    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s Pearson.

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  • Disorder6069@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I ran into this before too, I believe I got around it with a User Agent changer… that or a windows 10 VM with 2 cores and 2GB of RAM that ran only Firefox

    I think it’s just because people that use Linux are generally more technologically inclined and are more likely to try and get around their crappy DRM

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    • okr765@lemmy.okr765.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, I can still access it just fine, but the word “Upgrade” didn’t make me very happy…

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      • Disorder6069@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Very true, I too would consider Microsoft’s spyware a massive downgrade

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  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The most infuriating part is that they call it an “upgrade”

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    • scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah I go from an OS that I know how to use up and down to an ad riddled bloated piece of garbage. Thanks!

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  • Tattorack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Upgrading” to a supported operating system… “Upgrading”.

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    • flightyhobler@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, that was also what got into my nerves.

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  • moseschrute@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • fnrir@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      User agent

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    • Vorticity@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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      • tankfox@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        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.

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  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I had this problem over 10 years ago. change your user-agent, problem solved.

    they do it because they are regulations for educational software that must be met, like specific access requirements in order to be used in accredited courses.

    it’s not anything specifically against Linux, it’s that they can’t test and validate those access requirements for anything outside Windows due to organizational limitations.

    source: I worked for colleges early in my career that used Pearson then worked for a vendor that managed infrastructure and project management for Pearson. they aren’t unique, their competition is just as fucked as they are. most still use waterfall because upper mgmt is old and refuses to adapt.

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    • cute_noker@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      My bank does this too. I also just change the user agent to switch and it works with no issues.

      At this point it just seems silly that they even want to go out of their way to Prohibit Linux users

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  • ronflex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They’re under a class-action lawsuit currently for using biometric data in a US state where it’s illegal. Just kinda interesting. www.bipatestsettlement.com/Home/FAQ

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  • thorhop@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Upgrade”? Every other option is a downgrade. Sue them for false advertisement.

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  • FryHyde@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Very loose interpretation of the word “upgrade” they’re employing here…

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    • lambipapp@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I assume it is a generic message, let’s say youd run windows 7. Then this message would sound more reasonable.

      But I agree, this is crazy if it is running in a browser

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  • padook@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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  • qwestjest78@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I had a course where the teacher beasically said you would have a hard time passing if you did not have a windows laptop because it was the only OS what worked well with their program.

    The program was Excel sheets

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    • LodeMike@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Most tech street smart non-techie.

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    • possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      College is a joke

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  • 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I had that problem. I changed my ua to Edge on Windows, and the message went away. Everything worked.

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    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Holy shit, why even implement the message then? There is no good answer.

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    • Echolynx@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Huh, would that work for remote proctors?

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      • Phoenixbouncing@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        No because that requires installing a rootkit on your machine as part of their anti-cheat system.

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  • lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What “Key features” from an educational course could possibly require windows? It’s spying on you.

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    • kiagam@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      They just don’t want to support it to save dev time/money

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      • dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Oh yes, the very expensive Dev time cost of zero, because it is a fucking website.

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    • tankplanker@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Does it have online exams? Pearsons shitty anti cheat stuff they use for proctoring is windows and mac only.

      Having seen how much people cheat including using someone else using screensharing to proxy the exam for you I cannot blame them for wanting to do this, but I do blame them for not wanting to support Linux properly.

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      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        If they’re going to have online exams they need to just accept that cheating is going to happen. There’s a million ways to do that in an environment you control. Make the exams open book but make it harder to account for the fact that the students have access to reference materials.

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    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      TPM2.0 DRM crap?

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  • echolalia@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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  • hazypenguin@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Upgrade”

    LOL

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  • fennec@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Our website runs on a linux server, can you not use it though

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  • andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Money makes might makes right

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    • Charlxmagne@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Th*tcher

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  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The funny thing is that their server is probably running on Linux.

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    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      they aren’t all. vast majority is Windows Server and IBM.

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      • MehBlah@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Windows has a laughable market share when it comes to webservers.

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      • AugustWest@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Lol what? Linux servers are much higher in market share.

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      • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Guess what most IBM big irons are running nowadays?

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      • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That is both laughably wrong, and immediately verifiable as false. As far as server marketshare goes, Linux leads the pack with 62.7%.

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  • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Damn! If only we had some sort of technology that was OS independent and served as a way to view content and run code written for it without having to recompile for every platform.

    I am of course talking about web browsers. Which I’m betting this screenshot is from.

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  • beerclue@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • Naz@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You heard that OP? That’s how you do it, it’ll still work on Linux.

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  • cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    what could they possibly be doing that requires an os?

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    • herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Widewine? Maybe they have some content that requires L1, which still doesn’t work on Linux because of totally legitimate technical reasons that are absolutely not at all utter horseshit.

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  • TootSweet@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Upgrade?” “UPGRADE?!” Oh no they didn’t.

    Seriously, though, there may well be ways around this without switching your OS. If it’s browser-based, the first thing I’d try is a user-agent switcher.

    Though, actually, does that “remind me later” option work? It does look kindof grayed out, but it couldn’t hurt to try a click.

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  • jerkface@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Use Librewolf or a plugin that masks your user agent for privacy purposes; hides your OS so you can’t be fingerprinted so easily.

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  • Abnorc@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Your operating system Ubuntu, is not supported.

    Click here to upgrade to Arch, btw.

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  • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    upgrade to a supported operating system

    What are the options? Let me guess, Micro$oft Windows or Windows

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  • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That kind of fuckery drove me off a company-sponsored training course.

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  • FEIN@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For the record, my friend (he uses arch btw) has used Pearson before and I dont believe it actually affected him, so to me the message means “it could work for you but we won’t support Linux if something screws up on your end because we’re lazy developers”

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