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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."
Why doesn't the Australian government provide the source code to the public? I'm sure that there would be plenty of programmers willing to port the program to other platforms.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem that this sig is too small to contain.
Mexican Goverment has many web tools that must be used by tax payers , sadly this tools require M$ IExplorer to be used. The funny part is that many of this tools are written in java, and they work in part in other browsers/architechtures ... but I guess they never took the time/effort to check them to work correctly but in ie.
"We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." -- Linus
We have exactly the same problem in Poland. The social security "insurance" (read: tax) (ZUS) can be paid only through a Windows program, named Platnik.
The company who wrote Platnik (Prokom Software) has a set of agreement with Microsoft, and any legal attempts are met with a campaign of delaying any action or dismissing it, usually for procedural reasons.
You can read the details (in Polish) on the pages of Janosik, an attempt to reverse engineer Platnik and create an alternative.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
"self-confessed geeks"
Hmm, no sooner way to get your email deleted then starting it with this.
You might as well send an email to them saying your are a "self-confessed knit-o-holic", and that you want them to start sending out tax forms that can be embroidered.
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
If people don't take a stand towards such lazy developers, they will only continue to make single-platform software.
Considering there are plenty of viable solutions for cross-platform development available, I don't think there is any excuse for making single-platform software anymore.
The only possible exceptions would be for applications which require unusually fast processing, and for games.
I'm happy to say that in my country (Brazil), the software for tax returns is, since this year, written in Java, and it works like a charm on Linux, BSD or whatever operating system that has a JVM.
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog