FEMA assistance web site IE only

[invaliduser88]

I hope none of you guys need to register online with FEMA for assistance who are using Firefox or are not using Windows.

FEMA's assistance web site is IE only.:nono2:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=KSR31FIC05L5OQSNDBOCK HSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=170701321

[zmark]

Actually, it's IE6 only, which is worse. Even Windows 95/98 boxes would be locked out if they haven't been upgraded to IE6.

While this story may seem like nitpicking or an anti-microsoft rant, this is really critical in an emergency situation where you don't have the luxury of choosing what computer or OS you get to use. But hey, FEMA has screwed up everything else, why not this too :(

[Mark Holtz]

IE6 is Win98 or later, but so is Netscape 6+ and Firefox. IE7 will be XP or later-no Win2K support. Win95 support and development has been discontinued by Microsoft for years already, and the company I work for doesn't support Win95 systems as of the end of last year for various reasons.

The decision to design the website around Windows and Internet Explorer 6 has some very sound reasons, including the fact that Windows-based systems are the predominate OS, and 90% use Internet Explorer. I also believe that it is a extremely flawed premise. You design the website around the coding standard, not around the browser, and the browser is supposed to follow the standard. (Guess which one doesn't). Heck, there are programs and websites that you can use to check to see if your website is standards compliant.

Another thing to consider: You can download a Live CD distro of Knopix or Ubuntu (see the Live CD list (http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php)), and if you have a live Network connection, you can have a workstation running just off memory and a CD-ROM drive-no hard drive required. With a little tweaking, you can even use a dial-up connection. But, those are Linux distros, and no IE exists for them.