Re: [~OT] tax program for linux
Dan Hunt was roused into action on 2003-04-03 20:23 and wrote:
[snip]
On the plus side, the Canadian version of TurboTax, QuickTax, does not
appear to employ the strange things that its US counterpart. My father
installed it on his comp and I could find no trace of the rumored nasty
stuff (moreover, Intuit denies that it exists in the Canadian
version).
Great! My Micro$oft work computer is safe, from the evil nasty stuff. I'm
gonna sleep better tonight boy.
For next year, I would LOVE to find a Canadian tax program or web based
service I could use with Mozilla - and Debian GNU/Linux.
The web based version of QuickTax gave me: YOU NEED "Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4.0 or later on Windows or Netscape 4 or later on Windows or
Macintosh." Would tricking the browser test be morally wrong?
Issues of morality aside, it is possible to trick their browser sniffer,
but you have to replace all the Linux-related stuff in the UA with
Windows-related bunk. I also added a Netscape 7 identifier (this was
with Phoenix, btw). It will then warn you about not having Quicktime,
but it will allow you to go past without spurious multimedia content. I
got as far as the page of filling out info.
There is a second way - bypass the browser sniffer altogether and skip
to the step following the sniffer:
https://2002.quicktaxweb.ca/secure/signin_choice
It doesn't seem to mind
hee hee :)
How would I ask the Canadian Web based Income Tax program providers to
support Mozilla and GNU/Linux?
Well, the good news is that Mozilla/Gecko in a GNU/Linux environment is
"supported" in the sense that it will work. The bad news is that they
have a browser sniffer reduntantly sniffing out against usable browsers.
I'm sending them a comment on the subject. Netscape has a very good
webpage about this sort of thing:
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/browser-detection/
There is also the possibility of filing an evangelism bug on
bugzilla.mozilla.org as well.
--
David P. James
4th Year Economics Student
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario
http://members.rogers.com/dpjames/
I have said clearly that at a moment such as this Canada must,
and must be seen to, speak with one voice. That is the voice
of our Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister.
-Paul Martin, Fmr. Finance Minister & Liberal Leadership Hopeful
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