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Australia's 'e-tax' Windows Only
Kinky Bass Junk writes "As the need to submit tax returns is looming, notification emails are sent out to users of the tax office's services. This year, the Australia Tax Office (ATO) is using a web-based tax return system, as well as the traditional paper based systems. The e-tax website has all the details, and the requirements of the software stand out: 'e-tax is not compatible with Linux or Apple Macintosh computers. However, if you have suitable Windows Emulator software installed, you may be able to use e-tax.' Here is a protest email I have set up for those who disagree with this."
for keeping the US economy strong. It's nice to know that when anyone pays a tax in Austrailia, they also pay a tax to Redmond to keep our economy here alive.
The "educated minority"? Gee anyone who uses Windows is uneducated. Great. What a way to get your word out.
Perhaps you should take your "minority" and realize that the government is trying to do its best to serve the "majority". Make more sense to me, likely a better use of taxpayer money. Personally I use OS-9? Can you please support that too?
Considering most people use Windows it makes sense to initially develop a program for Windows. It's a responsible use of tax money. How about the Linux community builds their own open source version? I'm sure it would easily be ported to OS X.
I mean, it would be more disturbing if they only had a version for Be OS, right?
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
The requirements: http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc= /content/32613.htm&page=3&H3
Why in the world do Governments want to be dependent on a foreign company's closed-source proprietary software is beyond me.
I understand the need to get the most common platform but supercomplex software projects like Firefox can manage Mac/Linux/Windows (through QT???) - why can't a government?
It will save them headaches in the long-run, if the code is written to be portable and platform independent.
I get into the same mood when I see a website warning me it's only configured for IE or Active X. What is that BS?
No server programmer in their right mind would trust the client to do validation and use the data it supplies blindly. The server should be validating submitted forms and rejecting those that don't add up; then it doesn't matter what client people use. (For that matter, it's just a *form*; why not use plain HTML forms and work on every browser?) If the security of their tax system depends on their client-side validation, rest assured that there will be modified versions of the software floating around which conveniently omit a few things here and there, whether or not the source is available.
The government doesn't need to write a client for every possible OS, particularly ones that are (for the moment) used by a minority of users. They just need to provide all the information for anyone else to be able to. Releasing the source to their client is one way to do that; another would be a full specification of the protocol. If Australia has a FOIA equivalent, use it to demand the protocol specification.
"My toaster is broken, it can't cook pizza!". GNU/Linux isn't designed to run Windows programs. The fact that one particular program running on it can passably do so using emulation is an interesting novelty that benefits some people while transitioning away from the programs in question. It is a stopgap, not a good long-term solution.
The government's goal is not to convert people to Linux/Mac/OSS, or even to support that minority. Their goal is to cut down on massive amounts of paperwork and make it easier for most people to pay their taxes. The quickest and cheapest way to do that is by releasing a Windows program to pay taxes, duh. Someone even suggested taking this matter to the courts, comparing it to handicapped/women's rights.
"Your honor, I don't want to use Windows because it sucks and MS is evil, and I don't want to use the traditional paper system because I'm an elitist computer-literate citizen. Therefore, the government should be required to release a Mac/Linux version of the tax software." The response would be: Tough luck, use paper. You're lucky to have a computerized system to begin with.
Here are some things to remember:
-William Brendel
the educated minority of the Internet world often choose to use alternative operating systems,
"The sort of thing not to say when protesting 101"
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
All of them.
Cross-platform app development is only painful if you try to do it after the code has been targeted to a single platform. If you aim for portability right from the start, it isn't hard to do.
Because at the moment they provide guarantees and protection when you use the application to submit your taxes.
If they opened the source and allowed non official clients to connect to the service, they could no longer provide those guarantees or protections.
Also, I don't think too many people would be happy trusting their TFN to anything but software provided by the ATO.
Also, the etax software has _never_ been anything but windows only, I don't know why suddenly that's a big problem - or any more of a problem than it was in 1998.
Advanced users are users too!
I've submitted my last two tax returns using e-tax, and havn't had a problem with booting into windows.
Billions of dollars will change hands based on the data entered into e-tax. Extremely strict testing is needed, and supporting multiple platforms would make this all the more difficult.
Given that
a) Non-windows platforms make up only a few percent of the market; and
b) Most non-windows platforms can successfully emulate windows well enough to run e-tax (Although I wouldn't risk the potential for errors)
c) You are still able to use the standard paper based submission, or an accountant (And your probably much better off using an accountant).
I can understand the decision to only support windows.
How can a government ever justify not releasing source code to the public? It's developed with public funds, therefore we own it.
... I'll have to use that argument to get into Area 51 to take a ride in whatever cool aircraft they've got there. :)
Hmm
"Don't point that weapon at me, young man; I'll have you know I pay your salary!"
I know im going to get modded as a Troll for this *sigh*
But seriously, why does anyone care, im for cross platform software as much as anyone. And I can see the relevance of this issue if we were dealing with a common day usage piece of software, but we are talking about a tax system that gets used once a year.
I understand the governments position in the issue, that by providing for windows they are providing for the larger portion of citizens with computers, whether we like it or not.
Im sure with some more time in development the system could be written or ported to other operating systems, but I ask is this really necessary?
In Australia you can easily lodge you tax information on paper in about the same amount of time. And if you wish to use e-tax then it is a matter of dropping into your relative's house for a use of their windows based machine.
I know all of this seems a long winded excuse for not having cross platform support, but for a little used program that because of this choice already supports most of the population is such cross platform support a necessity or are we protecting for comfort.
I hardly think that more tax payers money needs to be spent employing people to port the program, and please don't scream community development because I defiantly wouldn't like my tax information to be lodged using a program ported by the community, no matter the quality. I'm sure that almost 100% of people wishing to use e-tax could find some access to a Windows platform once a year.
What is done, is done. It's not the optimal approach and the point of this post is to seek a better environment for cross platform users, but I simply believe that program aesthetics aside, what we have is all we need; anything more is what we want.
If it's anything like what happened with the official UK lottery site (which banned almost all non-IE *and* non-Windows users from its online games until earlier this year), it'll take about 3 years before the Aussies bother to do another site redesign cycle and suddenly realise what a snafu they originally made.
Of course, they wouldn't need to port the program if they made it truly web-based in the first place.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
It's important because it forces an extra fixed cost (a 'tax' if you will) to everyone who might want to access it.
The driving factor of using an online tax system is that it saves the cost of having to go through an accountant and/or the time required to post a physical letter (let alone actually pick up the tax forms from somewhere, which seems to change every year).
This route is closed to those not already using a platform based on a convicted illegal monopoly (well, in other places, Australia seems to have no such laws, or refuses to enforce them).
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
You aren't allowed access to many government facilities (esp. military) because of the extreme risk of harm to the greater populace, either through access to dangerous resources (a tank) or information (that could be harmful to millions).
Seeing the source code to an application that serves a tax-filing purpose makes sense because there is, or at least should be, no inherent risk in releasing it. Hacking the protocols would be pointless because the client program, if hacked, could not achieve more access to the service than someone could do using a homebrew client program.
Unless, of course, the government has released software on the client or server side which is inherently not secure, in which case they shouldn't be using this anyway (which is probably the case).