Web standards are important

Unless you like the idea of a small number of corporations controlling how you use your computer, web standards should be important to you.

I got this warning page when I accessed YCP's on-line courseware system today:

Using Mozilla Firefox on Linux evidently doesn't count as a "supported" browser.

[The website of the company that makes the courseware system, SunGard Higher Education, is full of lots of pop-up menus, flash animations, Javascript, stuff that doesn't quite render properly in my non-Windows browser, has a layout too wide to fit in my preferred browser window dimensions, etc. From looking at their HTML source, at least they're doing their page layout using CSS. Gotta give 'em props for that. But not the most usable page I've seen.]

Come on, guys. Firefox works just as well under Linux (and other OSes) as it does under Windows. Put some effort on making your stuff work everywhere. The web is the new desktop and it runs on non-Microsoft platforms too.

I think a theme is emerging for my blog: software problems that annoy me.