Mildly Infuriating

if it's in a browser fake ur user agent

"Our spyware is not able to accommodate your platform."

The horror stories I've read about what you give the software access to do (assuming there's truth to them; I've never run it myself).

Edit: I'm realizing now your screenshot is probably for a web course.

"upgrade"

Their deliberate word choice of “upgrade” to supported operating system is mildly infuriating.

I’ll just change my web browser’s user agent then; you’re a fucking website, you don’t need to know which OS I’m using.

It’s amazing how many “unsupported” web apps work perfectly fine once you change the UA. It’s often a completely arbitrary limitation so that they can hire less qualified support staff.

Upgrade

Insults on top of incompetence, huh?

I ran into this before too, I believe I got around it with a User Agent changer… that or a windows 10 VM with 2 cores and 2GB of RAM that ran only Firefox… or you may be able to just press remind me later and suffer little/no consequences

I think it’s just because people that use Linux are generally more technologically inclined and are more likely to try and get around their crappy DRM

The most infuriating part is that they call it an "upgrade"

"Upgrading" to a supported operating system.... "Upgrading".

How tf do you not support an operating system. Like you gotta go out of your way to detect and block the operating system. Like if you put in 0 effort it would probably work but your company really spent money making their product less accessible for no reason.

They're under a class-action lawsuit currently for using biometric data in a US state where it's illegal. Just kinda interesting. https://www.bipatestsettlement.com/Home/FAQ

I had this problem over 10 years ago. change your user-agent, problem solved.

they do it because they are regulations for educational software that must be met, like specific access requirements in order to be used in accredited courses.

it's not anything specifically against Linux, it's that they can't test and validate those access requirements for anything outside Windows due to organizational limitations.

source: I worked for colleges early in my career that used Pearson then worked for a vendor that managed infrastructure and project management for Pearson. they aren't unique, their competition is just as fucked as they are. most still use waterfall because upper mgmt is old and refuses to adapt.

"Upgrade"? Every other option is a downgrade. Sue them for false advertisement.

I had a course where the teacher basically said you would have a hard time passing if you did not have a windows laptop because it was the only OS that worked well with their program.

The program was Excel workbooks

Very loose interpretation of the word "upgrade" they're employing here..

Its comical that in the last 25 years Linux has gone from a nerd-only tool to something that a 10 year old can install on an air-fryer and still we deal with this bs

I had this problem with Pearson. I got around it by making sure my bowser (librewolf) reported windows as my user agent. This was last semester for an online intro level course, ymmv

Edit: I see your other posts about how its not blocking access... Tbh I don't remember checking, I just remember checking my browser settings haha. Guess I didn't have to bother.

I had that problem. I changed my ua to Edge on Windows, and the message went away. Everything worked.

What "Key features" from an educational course could possibly require windows? It's spying on you.

Pearson has an effective monopoly on teacher certification tests. I don’t understand why private companies get to make up so many of the rules.

Our website runs on a linux server, can you not use it though

Damn! If only we had some sort of technology that was OS independent and served as a way to view content and run code written for it without having to recompile for every platform.

I am of course talking about web browsers. Which I'm betting this screenshot is from.

"Upgrade"

LOL

This is like the Apple Business website, which only works in Safari, according to them. Used the User-Agent Switcher plugin, and the website/dashboard works just fine on Firefox in Linux.

The funny thing is that their server is probably running on Linux.

what could they possibly be doing that requires an os?

"Upgrade?" "UPGRADE?!" Oh no they didn't.

Seriously, though, there may well be ways around this without switching your OS. If it's browser-based, the first thing I'd try is a user-agent switcher.

Though, actually, does that "remind me later" option work? It does look kindof grayed out, but it couldn't hurt to try a click.

I had that too, closed the popup and never ran into anything even mildly broken during the entire course. Aside from the popup they don't seem to be actively sabotaging Linux users, and it's a website, so it's gonna work pretty much identically on any OS as long as you're using a common browser.

That said, they should definitely phrase the message more like "Your OS isn't supported, so don't expect help from us if something Linux-specific breaks our page" than "You need to get a different OS."