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View Full Version : College hates Linux



matthekc
September 12th, 2008, 04:23 AM
I need to vent!!! :mad:

My college courses come with neat online software at places like

www.coursecompass.com

http://owl.course.com

Course compass only supports IE through I can't figure out why and owl's java applets misbehave on linux and my virtualized windows 2000.

My english teacher want to use the new works cited feature in office 2007

I need the office database program.

The college wifi uses a Novell client system which doesn't support linux or from what I heard Vista either.

It looks like I'm back to dual booting soon with the fun of Vista and office 2007 the only upswing will be the student discount.

littletinman
September 12th, 2008, 04:29 AM
Dude, I feel your pain. I had a class over the summer about office 2007. Got by with using the demo version, but It was a pain to have to use windows that entire semester. Uggh, windows is so practical.

fmartinez
September 12th, 2008, 04:29 AM
hmm. That's funny I was able to navigate through both websites without any problems. I have flash blocked on my browser. That may help you out. Oh and took the Owl test and passed all questions LOL...... but let it out... it's always good express you opions!!!

Kingsley
September 12th, 2008, 04:29 AM
CourseCompass only works in Windows (IE) because of their proprietary MathXL web app. I don't see why they couldn't just use Adobe Flash though.

Kingsley
September 12th, 2008, 04:33 AM
Dude, I feel your pain. I had a class over the summer about office 2007. Got by with using the demo version, but It was a pain to have to use windows that entire semester. Uggh, windows is so practical.
I'm having to use Excel 2007 once a week for a Chemistry class I'm taking this semester. Windows is a PITA, but at least this is a great opportunity for me to figure out Office 2007. I couldn't do half the things I'm doing now on Excel with the open source alternatives.

matthekc
September 12th, 2008, 04:39 AM
The only thing that has irked me lately that is even remotely an open source developers fault is trying to get grammar check in open office. I went to the tools followed the link searched for grammar checker and downloaded it but when I tried to install it said open office 3.0 only. :confused:

I'm sure there is way to do it but I took the lazy way out I went to school and found my grammar errors there.

SilverDragon
September 12th, 2008, 04:44 AM
Owl's Java applets don't work on my laptop either.

I get "Your browser does not support SWING" and then it displays "YOU
CANNOT SEE A JAVA APPLET HERE"

I think I'm just going to have to use a library computer to get that work done.

broken tibula
September 12th, 2008, 05:02 AM
We use this weird online system thing, and my teacher makes us watch these videos through it--you have to stream WMP 11. Talk about a mess. I can't get it to do it at all. And then he sends us docs in .docx format (which, thankfully, I finally for OpenOffice to work with). Ugh. I hate it. I've resigned myself to switching back to my Windows partition every time I want to work on that class.

GAH! I HATE IT!

noremac
September 12th, 2008, 05:32 AM
I had to use MyAccountingLab for a year, which was Windows only as well. Certainly was lame.

atoc
September 12th, 2008, 05:40 AM
I feel sorry for you guys.
My college is a little more "with it"..
From the student help website, describing supported systems:

* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6/7
* Firefox 1.5+
* Mozilla 1.7+
* SeaMonkey
* Safari 2+
* Opera 8.5+

The following operating systems are supported.

* Microsoft Windows XP (It is recommended to install Microsoft XP Service Pack 2)
* Microsoft Windows Vista
* Linux 2.x (emphasis mine)
* Apple Mac OS X 10.4 (All Service Packs and Updates must be installed, Safari and Firefox only, Java Embedding Plugin for Mac OS X from javaplugin.sourceforge.net must be installed to enable Firefox Java support)

It is stated elsewhere that compatible variants may work (like flock, camino, etc), but support can't/won't be provided.

powerpleb
September 12th, 2008, 07:12 AM
My Uni's website actually recommends users not to use IE7 due to security flaws (apparently).

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:tAot0HRL-fEJ:www.latrobe.edu.au/ict/news/microsoft_internet_explorer_7+latrobe+internet+exp lorer&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au&client=firefox-a

Admittedly this page is quite old. I've no idea if the security issues have been resolved yet or not.

SZF2001
September 12th, 2008, 08:21 AM
My college uses MSCHAPSv2 and it sucks to get going with NetworkManager. nm-applet is better off than a manual config, but it's still a little tougher and would really alienate a newer person. Since nm-applet can detect TKIP and stuff I'd hope it would be able to detect the Phase2 Type.

But if you can enter all that info then you are good to go.

billgoldberg
September 12th, 2008, 09:52 AM
I tried those websites and both seem to be working fine.

Unless I'm missing something.

ronnielsen1
September 12th, 2008, 11:29 AM
I tried those websites and both seem to be working fine.

Unless I'm missing something.
me too. Seems to work fine

matthekc
September 12th, 2008, 01:23 PM
Well technically the websites work great. When you get to the actual web apps mathxl on course compass states it only works with IE. Owl doesn't discriminate it just fails to work right on entering code fragments into it's java app for that.

venator260
September 12th, 2008, 05:02 PM
Last fall (so this may not be true now) I used My Math Lab with ies4Linux. I just went through the install process of their application with that program and when I tried to do homework through the system, it worked.

Polygon
September 13th, 2008, 12:25 AM
My college uses MSCHAPSv2 and it sucks to get going with NetworkManager. nm-applet is better off than a manual config, but it's still a little tougher and would really alienate a newer person. Since nm-applet can detect TKIP and stuff I'd hope it would be able to detect the Phase2 Type.

But if you can enter all that info then you are good to go.

my college does as well. networkmanager 0.7 DID support this, but some bug is making it crash with those kinds of networks at the moment, but once its released it should support it

my college uses Desire2Learn and quia (quia.books.com) and luckily both work flawlessly in linux, although they claim not to support it

serpentine_bull
September 13th, 2008, 01:15 AM
College may or may not hate linux, but microsoft gives away their crappy software to aspiring system admins and such (so as to get them stuck only knowing how to operate MS products). I'm currently enrolled in a "introduction to networking" course at my local community college (cost ~$120) and through their "MicroSoft Developers Network" (MSDN), Microsoft is offering me:

Vista business
XP pro
Access '07 and '03
Visual Studio
SQL server
Windows server
and many more...
for free. (MSRP > $120)

Maybe you could sign up for an intro to networking course, download some of that stuff, drop the course and get a refund. I know MS office is available through there, just not for community colleges. All the same... I feel like attaching donotwant.jpg to this post.

matthekc
March 16th, 2009, 04:31 PM
My math lab on course compass works pretty good with opera as long as pop ups are allowed.

Blackboard has an upload issue but there is a workaround. http://www.shsu.edu/~ucs_www/webdev/blackboard/blog/2008/07/blackboard-and-firefox-3-assignment.html

I don't have Owl this semester but maybe someone could try Opera on it.

Open office has a language tool plugin to check grammar its in dev. so it needs work.

Lets work on making College Linux compatible.

FLMKane
March 16th, 2009, 04:53 PM
Please excuse me if I'm going off topic but what does Office 2007 have that Open Office does'nt? It's just that I've never used it.

Mehall
March 16th, 2009, 04:58 PM
College may or may not hate linux, but microsoft gives away their crappy software to aspiring system admins and such (so as to get them stuck only knowing how to operate MS products). I'm currently enrolled in a "introduction to networking" course at my local community college (cost ~$120) and through their "MicroSoft Developers Network" (MSDN), Microsoft is offering me:

Vista business
XP pro
Access '07 and '03
Visual Studio
SQL server
Windows server
and many more...
for free. (MSRP > $120)

Maybe you could sign up for an intro to networking course, download some of that stuff, drop the course and get a refund. I know MS office is available through there, just not for community colleges. All the same... I feel like attaching donotwant.jpg to this post.

Ahhh yes, the MSDNAA. I get that too.

I want Server 08 to appear on the list already!!

And I'm annoyed they didn't put W7 Beta onto it like they did with the regular MSDN

Giant Speck
March 16th, 2009, 05:46 PM
I'm a bit confused about the title.

Lack of support = hate?

Kingsley
March 16th, 2009, 06:11 PM
Please excuse me if I'm going off topic but what does Office 2007 have that Open Office does'nt? It's just that I've never used it.
One thing is the ability to carry out linear data analysis.

matthekc
March 16th, 2009, 08:04 PM
@ giant speck
Depends on the instructor and the requirements but it can feel like hate sometimes. Your assignment for no appearent reason must be in docx format... sometimes I almost feel like they work for Microsoft.

matthekc
March 16th, 2009, 08:10 PM
@ FLMKane
Docx would be the biggest and most diffucult to get around feature difference. Words grammar check is half decent, the bibliography tools are amazing, themes don't suck and I have a class that requires them.
Those are the first things I notice that word has over writer.

Giant Speck
March 16th, 2009, 09:38 PM
@ giant speck
Depends on the instructor and the requirements but it can feel like hate sometimes. Your assignment for no appearent reason must be in docx format... sometimes I almost feel like they work for Microsoft.

No offense, but it isn't the instructor's job to worry about file compatibility. By restricting assignments to one or two formats allows them to spend less time trying to open the file and more time actually checking and grading the assignment.

By being restrictive, they aren't showing hate for Linux. They're trying to make their job easier.

matthekc
March 17th, 2009, 01:53 AM
I wanted to get people to look at this so we could air college issues and solutions. College issues and solutions would be the better title but I was mad at the time and it would probably get less views. At any rate I'm reducing the hate by introducing solutions.

MikeTheC
March 17th, 2009, 02:06 AM
My college (Edison State) is also fairly non-Windows-friendly.

Sorry to hear about your troubles and vexation...

Mehall
March 17th, 2009, 02:19 AM
Given that my department at my uni contributed a good bit to Kubuntu, I think you can see why the department itself has two windows and three Kubuntu labs :P

The uni as a whole isn't too bad when it comes to Linux support, though they do use Exchange Server for mail.

dmizer
March 17th, 2009, 02:57 AM
... I can't figure out why and owl's java applets misbehave on linux and my virtualized windows 2000.
Can't help you with Win2000, but for Ubuntu, I suggest using the non-free Sun Java plugin instead of the free plugin. It behaves much more nicely: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java

shazbut
March 17th, 2009, 03:08 AM
@ giant speck
Depends on the instructor and the requirements but it can feel like hate sometimes. Your assignment for no appearent reason must be in docx format... sometimes I almost feel like they work for Microsoft.

Easy to fix that problem. Just rename your regular file.doc to file.docx. Problem solved ;)