Proprietary Barriers to Education

"My awesome significant other is working towards a college degree almost entirely online. Her college's interface is Web-based, and it is a never-ending source of trouble. Their online courses backend is eCollege. eCollege is a big ole Windows shop, but I had a pleasant conversation with them about compatibility issues, and they say they that they work hard to support both Mac OS X and Windows, and that any standards-compliant Web browser should work. My SO does her work on Kubuntu Linux using Firefox and has no problems with it.

"But this pleasant scheme is tarnished by the college's policy of requiring that all homework be done in Microsoft document formats. Sigh..."

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