“upgrade”
Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material
Submitted 2 days ago by okr765@lemmy.okr765.com to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.okr765.com/pictrs/image/ebb2d3a9-fbb1-43cf-8b5f-ba1af3ef38c4.png
Comments
frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Upgrayedd. With two “d”'s.
someguy3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
A shareholder’s love is very different from that of a FOSS.
StarMerchant938@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“You are an unfit mother, your children have been placed in the custody of ’ CARLS JR.'”
saltesc@lemmy.world 2 days 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.
ArchAengelus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
I felt this revulsion in my bones. :shudder:
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Haven’t you heard? Pearson’s requires at least Linux 2.
joyjoy@lemm.ee 2 days ago
Let me just check something on my terminal.
$ uname -sr Linux 6.14.4-arch1-1
I’m suspicious.
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That came out in 1996.
joyjoy@lemm.ee 2 days 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 }
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I always hate this when it’s used to target Firefox.
“upgrade to chrome”
Like… What the fuck?
AtariDump@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Just use a user agent switcher.
Vespair@lemm.ee 1 day ago
The actual audacity
hazypenguin@feddit.nl 23 hours ago
“Upgrade”
LOL
JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 1 day 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.
janus2@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
and so they can use browser
vulnerabilitiesfeatures to collect more data on youlagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 1 day 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”
Irelephant@lemm.ee 1 day 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.
Evotech@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I use this extension by a Firefox dev
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 day 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.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Upgrade
Insults on top of incompetence, huh?
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s Pearson.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Upgrading” to a supported operating system… “Upgrading”.
flightyhobler@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, that was also what got into my nerves.
thorhop@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
“Upgrade”? Every other option is a downgrade. Sue them for false advertisement.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day 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.
cute_noker@feddit.dk 1 day 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
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 day ago
I had that problem. I changed my ua to Edge on Windows, and the message went away. Everything worked.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
Holy shit, why even implement the message then? There is no good answer.
Brandonazz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Netflix does the same thing with “supported browsers.” It doesn’t matter if it’s actually supported, just whether it’s one of the two or three it allows because it can do analytics or whatever with them.
Echolynx@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Huh, would that work for remote proctors?
Phoenixbouncing@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No because that requires installing a rootkit on your machine as part of their anti-cheat system.
FryHyde@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Very loose interpretation of the word “upgrade” they’re employing here…
lambipapp@lemmy.world 1 day 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
jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 day 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.
FEIN@lemmy.world 23 hours 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”
DaddleDew@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The most infuriating part is that they call it an “upgrade”
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 days 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!
moseschrute@lemmy.ml 2 days 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.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 2 days ago
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.
fnrir@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Vorticity@lemmy.world 2 days 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.
tankfox@midwest.social 2 days 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.
Disorder6069@sh.itjust.works 2 days 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
okr765@lemmy.okr765.com 2 days ago
Yeah, I can still access it just fine, but the word “Upgrade” didn’t make me very happy…
Disorder6069@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Very true, I too would consider Microsoft’s spyware a massive downgrade
Deepus@lemm.ee 1 day ago
NO! YOU FUCKING UPGRADE!
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The funny thing is that their server is probably running on Linux.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day ago
they aren’t all. vast majority is Windows Server and IBM.
MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Windows has a laughable market share when it comes to webservers.
AugustWest@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Lol what? Linux servers are much higher in market share.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Guess what most IBM big irons are running nowadays?
_cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
That is both laughably wrong, and immediately verifiable as false. As far as server marketshare goes, Linux leads the pack with 62.7%.
padook@feddit.nl 2 days 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
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 day ago
What “Key features” from an educational course could possibly require windows? It’s spying on you.
kiagam@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They just don’t want to support it to save dev time/money
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh yes, the very expensive Dev time cost of zero, because it is a fucking website.
tankplanker@lemmy.world 1 day 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.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 day 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.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
TPM2.0 DRM crap?
ronflex@lemmy.world 2 days 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
fennec@lemm.ee 2 days ago
Our website runs on a linux server, can you not use it though
idriss@lemm.ee 1 day ago
There s a place where you can name and shame in a permanent searchable record: wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Main_Page
Be the change you want. We can it.
echolalia@lemmy.ml 2 days 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
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 day ago
upgrade to a supported operating system
What are the options? Let me guess, Micro$oft Windows or Windows
vxx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Apple and Microsoft
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How bad can it be?
It was made by Bil Gates, I keep hearing he’s a genuine ‘philanthropist’.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 days 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.
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 2 days ago
Money makes might makes right
Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Th*tcher
beerclue@lemmy.world 2 days 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.
Naz@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
You heard that OP? That’s how you do it, it’ll still work on Linux.
qwestjest78@lemmy.ca 2 days 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
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 days ago
Most tech street smart non-techie.
VitabytesDev@feddit.nl 23 hours ago
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
what could they possibly be doing that requires an os?
Eggyhead@lemmings.world 2 days ago
Their deliberate word choice of “upgrade” to supported operating system is mildly infuriating.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
They probably assume you are running something like Windows 7
voodooattack@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Uhh
AngryPancake@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
They know which operating system you use based on the user agent, so they know it’s Linux.
noxypaws@pawb.social 1 day ago
we have wildly different definitions for “mildly”!